Exodus 27:13

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

The breadth of the court on the east side eastward shall be fifty cubits.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

1 first appearance in the Hebrew Bible
Septuagint runs longer here — compare

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מִזְרָ֖חָה

mizrâch

H4217

“east · toward”

Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute + Suffix, Demonstrative

Appears 74× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears here

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H2224

TWOT: 580c

place of sunrise, east - sunrise, east (with 'sun') - the east (without 'sun') - to or toward the place of sunrise - to the east, eastward

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

7: words
7: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

First appearance in Scripture

This word makes its first canonical appearance in the Hebrew Bible here:

מִזְרָ֖חָה east H4217

Grammatical profile

6 nouns
1 adjective

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 14 words from the Hebrew and 21 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — the Septuagint runs noticeably longer here. See the side-by-side →

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

Here the Septuagint runs noticeably longer than the Hebrew — LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) 21 words vs World English Bible 14. A rough length comparison of the two English translations, not a word-level alignment — read both below.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Exodus 27:13 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וְרֹ֣חַב הֶֽחָצֵ֗ר לִפְאַ֛ת קֵ֥דְמָה מִזְרָ֖חָה חֲמִשִּׁ֥ים אַמָּֽה

The breadth of the court on the east side eastward shall be fifty cubits.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Exodus 27:13 Septuagint · lemma form

καί εὖρος ὁ αὐλή ὁ πρός νότος ἱστίον πεντήκοντα πῆχυς στῦλος αὐτός δέκα καί ὁ βάσις αὐτός δέκα

And in the breadth of the tabernacle toward the south, curtains of fifty cubits; their pillars ten, and their sockets ten.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וּפוּתְיָא דְדַרְתָּא לְרוּחַ קִדוּמָא מַדִינְחָא חַמְשִׁין אַמִין:

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וּפוּתְיָא דְדַרְתָּא לְרוּחַ קִידוּמָא מַדִּינְחָא חַמְשִׁין אַמִּין

And for the breadth of the eastern side eastward fifty cubits;

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Exodus 27:13 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

Meaning, curtains of fifty cubits.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(13) On the east side eastward.—Rather, in front, towards the east. Both the tabernacle and the Temple faced to the east, which was regarded as “the front of the world” by the Orientals generally. The belief was probably connected with the sun’s rising, towards which men in early times looked anxiously. It was, however, a belief quite separate from sun-worship.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

13. on the east side eastward] Heb. on the front [i.e. on the east: see on Joe_2:20] towards the (sun-)rising: cf. on Exo_26:18.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And the breadth of the court on the east side eastward,.... Which was the entrance into it:

shall be fifty cubits; the east end and west end were of the same measure.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The Pulpit Commentary

The breadth of the court on the east side eastward. Rather, "in front toward the east." The Rabbinical tradition was that Adam found himself on his creation fronting towards the east, and had consequently the south on his right, the north on his left, and the west behind him. Hence, they said, the four cardinal points received the names of kedem, "in front" (the east); yamin, "the right hand" (the south); "akhor, "behind" (the west); and shemol, "the left hand" (the north). For this use of all four words, see Job_23:8, Job_23:9.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

לפאת קדמה מזרחה ON THE EAST SIDE EASTWARDS — The last two words are the same as פני המזרח. The word הדם is synonymous with פנים, the face (the front side of any thing), and אחור is the same term as אֲחוֹרַיִם, the buttocks, the back-side. The East is therefore called קדם because it is the front part of the world; correspondingly, the West is called אחור, the back part of the world just as you speak of (Deuteronomy 11:24) הים האחרון the Hinder Sea, which the Targum renders by “the Western Sea.”

חמשים אמה FIFTY CUBITS — These fifty cubits were not all filled in with curtaining, because the entrance was there; there were only fifteen cubits of curtaining at the side of the entrance in the one direction, similarly on the other side thereof. Thus there was left the width of the open space at the entrance consisting of 20 cubits between (between the two lengths of curtaining to the right and left of the entrance). This is what is meant by: (v. 16) “and for the gate of the enclosure a veil of twenty cubits” — a veil serving as a screen for the entrance, twenty cubits long, equal to the breadth of the entrance.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Exodus, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 7 words (7 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is mizrâch (“east”). The Greek Septuagint runs longer here. A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “east” (mizrâch) shape what this verse is saying?
This is the first place “east” appears in Scripture (first appears here). What does its debut here establish?
The Septuagint runs longer here than the Hebrew. What might account for the difference?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
Compare how Geneva Bible (1599) and Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

1 word makes its first canonical appearance in Scripture here.
These translations choose different wording for 7 words in this verse.
7 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 7 words in this verse.