Hebrew word · H4011
מִבְנֶה
kemivneh-
structure
"Building, structure, construction", from banah, "to build". It occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible, so its exact shade cannot be checked against other uses. Its form, a noun made from a verb with the prefix mi-, suggests "the built thing" or "the way it is built".
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
structure, building
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 40:2
- Range of meaning
"Building, structure, construction", from banah, "to build". It occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible, so its exact shade cannot be checked against other uses. Its form, a noun made from a verb with the prefix mi-, suggests "the built thing" or "the way it is built".
- Against the English
KJV, YLT and WEB have "frame". BSB and ESV have "structure". NIV has "buildings". "Frame" in 1611 meant a fabric, a built construction. Today it suggests a bare skeleton or scaffolding.
- How it drifted
Older English used "frame" for any constructed thing ("the frame of the world"). Modern English has narrowed it to an outline or skeleton. KJV readers may picture an unfinished framework, which the Hebrew does not suggest.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The Septuagint translates it οἰκοδομή, "building", and the Vulgate aedificium, "building". There are no other biblical occurrences.
Where it appears
Ezekiel · 1
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Ezekiel 40:2 כְּמִבְנֵה־ like [the] structure of
In visions of God He took me to the land of Israel and set me on a very high mountain, on whose southern slope was a structure that resembled a city.
Here: "Something like a built structure". The word appears only here in the Bible and comes from the verb "to build". The "like" is Ezekiel's habitual way of hedging: he describes what something looked like and does not claim to name exactly what it was.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.