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OET (OET-LV) And he_measured the wall of_it, of_a_hundred forty four cubits, a_measure of_human_origin that is also of_the_messenger.
OET (OET-RV) He also measured the wall to be 70m using normal measurements.[fn]
21:17 It’s not stated if that’s the height or the thickness of the city wall.
Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / ellipsis
ἐμέτρησεν τὸ τεῖχος αὐτῆς, ἑκατὸν τεσσεράκοντα τεσσάρων πηχῶν
˱he˲_measured the wall ˱of˲_it ˱of˲_/a/_hundred forty four cubits
John is leaving out some of the words that in many languages a sentence would need in order to be complete. You can supply these words from the context if that would be clearer in your language. Alternate translation: [he measured her wall and found it to be 144 cubits]
Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit
ἑκατὸν τεσσεράκοντα τεσσάρων πηχῶν
˱of˲_/a/_hundred forty four cubits
This could be the measurement: (1) of the height of the wall. Alternate translation: [144 cubits high] (2) of the thickness of the wall. Alternate translation: [144 cubits thick]
Note 3 topic: translate-bdistance
ἑκατὸν τεσσεράκοντα τεσσάρων πηχῶν
˱of˲_/a/_hundred forty four cubits
A cubit was the measurement of the distance from a person’s elbow to his longest fingertip, typically about half a meter or about 18 inches. If it would be helpful in your language, you could give the equivalent in modern measurements. However, you might also wish to retain the ancient measurement, since there may be some symbolic significance to the number 144. Alternate translation: [about 70 meters] or [about 200 feet]
Note 4 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit
μέτρον ἀνθρώπου ὅ ἐστιν ἀγγέλου
/a/_measure ˱of˲_human_origin that is_‹also› ˱of˲_/the/_angel
Since cubits were the distance from an elbow to a fingertip, John needs to specify from what size person the angel determined this measurement. This could mean: (1) that the angel appeared to John in human form and so the distance from his elbow to his fingertip was the same as that of a human. It may be helpful to begin a new sentence here. Alternate translation: [The angel appeared in human form, and so he used an ordinary human cubit to measure] (2) that the angel may have been a giant compared with humans, but the angel still used a human-sized cubit. Alternate translation: [The angel used the cubit measure that people ordinarily use]
21:17 In the ancient world, walls were important not only to the defense and boundary of a city, but also to its status. That these walls are 216 feet thick (Greek 144 cubits) indicates the strength of God’s redeemed people. The measurement of 144 cubits again uses a multiple of 12 to represent God’s people. A cubit was the length of a man’s forearm, with a standard length of about 18 inches.
OET (OET-LV) And he_measured the wall of_it, of_a_hundred forty four cubits, a_measure of_human_origin that is also of_the_messenger.
OET (OET-RV) He also measured the wall to be 70m using normal measurements.[fn]
21:17 It’s not stated if that’s the height or the thickness of the city wall.
Note: The OET-RV is still only a first draft, and so far only a few words have been (mostly automatically) matched to the Hebrew or Greek words that they’re translated from.
Acknowledgements: The SR Greek text, lemmas, morphology, and VLT gloss are all thanks to the SR-GNT.