Hebrew word · H1146

בִּנְיָן

binyan

building

A building or structure. It is a late Hebrew word, found almost only in Ezekiel 40–42 (plus a related form in Ezra's Aramaic).

Appears 7 times in 6 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

structure, building

Aramaic equivalent: bin.yan (בִּנְיָן "building" H1147)

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Ezekiel 42:10

Range of meaning

A building or structure. It is a late Hebrew word, found almost only in Ezekiel 40–42 (plus a related form in Ezra's Aramaic).

Against the English

"The building" in all versions. That is accurate, but without context readers may assume it means the temple itself.

Used elsewhere in the period

Ezekiel 40:5; 41:12, 13, 15; 42:1, 5, 10. Biblical Aramaic binyan appears in Ezra 5:4. It is very common in later Hebrew.

Where it appears

Ezekiel · 7

  1. Ezekiel 40:5 הַבִּנְיָן֙ the structure

    And I saw a wall surrounding the temple area. Now the length of the measuring rod in the man’s hand was six long cubits (each measuring a cubit and a handbreadth), and he measured the wall to be one rod thick and one rod high.

  2. Ezekiel 41:12 וְהַבִּנְיָ֡ן הַבִּנְיָ֛ן and the structure, the structure

    Now the building that faced the temple courtyard on the west was seventy cubits wide, and the wall of the building was five cubits thick all around, with a length of ninety cubits.

  3. Ezekiel 41:15 הַ֠בִּנְיָן the structure

    Next he measured the length of the building facing the temple courtyard at the rear of the temple, including its galleries on each side; it was a hundred cubits. The outer sanctuary, the inner sanctuary, and the porticoes facing the court,

  4. Ezekiel 42:1 הַבִּנְיָ֖ן the structure

    Then the man led me out northward into the outer court, and he brought me to the group of chambers opposite the temple courtyard and the outer wall on the north side.

  5. Ezekiel 42:5 בִּנְיָֽן׃ [the] structure

    Now the upper chambers were smaller because the galleries took more space from the chambers on the lower and middle floors of the building.

  6. Ezekiel 42:10 הַבִּנְיָ֖ן the structure

    On the south side along the length of the wall of the outer court were chambers adjoining the courtyard and opposite the building,

    Here: Specifically the large structure (70 by 90 cubits) at the west end of the complex, behind the sanctuary (41:12). The text never says what it is for.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.