StrongerBible

binyan

בִּנְיָן

HebrewH1146building, wall, ...

Appears 7 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Ezk 40:5Ezk 41:12 (2×)Ezk 41:15Ezk 42:1Ezk 42:5Ezk 42:10
Word studybin-YAHNnoun

What binyan means

a built structure: something raised by construction, seen as a solid measurable object rather than as a home or a defense

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

Every appearance of this word sits inside Ezekiel's long guided tour of the future temple in chapters 40 to 42, where a man carrying a measuring reed walks the prophet through the complex and calls out dimensions. The word is the plain term for a thing that has been built. It says nothing about who lives there, what it is used for, or how it is decorated. It points at the construction itself, the part you can lay a measuring reed against.

That plainness lets one noun cover two things English usually keeps apart. In Ezekiel 40:5 it names the solid body of the outer wall, measured one reed thick and one reed high, so most English Bibles simply say "wall" at that point. From Ezekiel 41:12 onward it names a large building standing west of the temple, and the guide keeps pointing back to that building to fix where the reader is standing while the side rooms are being measured.

Hebrew had more specific words on hand. A house (בַּיִת) is named for the household inside it, and a city wall (חוֹמָה) is named for what it keeps out. This noun is deliberately blanker than either, which is why the same vision can apply it to a wall's mass in one chapter and to a whole building in the next. Earlier in the same vision Ezekiel reaches for a close relative of it (מִבְנֶה) to describe the city-like shape he sees from the mountaintop.

Nuances

1aa building standing on its own, named and measured as a separate structure
TranslatabilityDirect
Ezk 41:12 (2×)Ezk 41:13Ezk 41:15Ezk 42:1Ezk 42:5Ezk 42:10
1bthe solid built mass of a wall, measured for its thickness and its height
Ezk 40:5

What scholars say about binyan

The lexica are unanimous on the sense: BDB, HALOT and DCH all gloss בִּנְיָן as "structure, building", a noun formed from the root בנה "to build", with the Aramaic cognate at Ezra 5:4 and the feminine בִּנְיָה at Ezek 41:13. Debate attaches not to the lexeme but to the architecture it designates. In Ezek 40:5 the noun is normally taken to resume the חוֹמָה of the same verse, yielding the modern rendering "wall"; the KJV's "building" reflects the older construal. The בִּנְיָן of Ezek 41:12, 15, standing west of the temple beyond the גִּזְרָה, is left unexplained by the text, and the major commentaries (Zimmerli, Hermeneia; Block, NICOT) canvass proposals running from a storehouse or service block to a screening structure shielding the rear of the sanctuary, while noting that the vision itself assigns it no function. The feminine בִּנְיָה of 41:13 is widely treated as a byform or a scribal variant of the masculine form used in the flanking verses, since all three verses measure the same structure. Ezek 42:5 is textually cramped and the versions diverge, though the noun there is generally referred to the tiered chamber block under description.

Sources

  • HALOT, s.v. בִּנְיָןlexicon
  • BDB, s.v. בִּנְיָןlexicon
  • DCH, s.v. בִּנְיָןlexicon
  • Walther Zimmerli, Ezekiel 2 (Hermeneia; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1983), on Ezekiel 40-42commentary
  • Daniel I. Block, The Book of Ezekiel: Chapters 25-48 (NICOT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998)commentary
  • TDOT, s.v. בָּנָהtheological-dictionary

All attested forms of בִּנְיָן

m s absolute

בִּנְיָן

Ezk 40:5, Ezk 41:12, Ezk 41:12, Ezk 41:15, Ezk 42:1, Ezk 42:5, Ezk 42:10