'Broad' in the Bible

So Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers which the Levites who were burned had offered, and they were hammered out [into broad sheets] as a plating for the [bronze] altar [of burnt offering],

When you enter, you will come to people [feeling] safe and secure with a spacious land [widely extended on all sides]; for God has given it into your hands—a place where there is no lack of anything that is on the earth.”

Next to them Uzziel the son of Harhaiah, one of the goldsmiths, made repairs. Next to him Hananiah, one of the perfumers, made repairs, and they restored Jerusalem as far as the Broad Wall.

Then all the people gathered together as one man at the open square in front of the Water Gate; and they asked Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses which the Lord had given to Israel.

Then he read from it, in front of the open square which was in front of the Water Gate, from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and women, those who could understand; and all the people listened carefully to the Book of the Law.

The second choir went to the left; I followed with half of the people on the wall, above the Tower of the Furnaces, to the Broad Wall,

“When I went out to the gate of the city,When I took my seat [as a city father] in the square,

“Then indeed, He enticed you from the mouth of distress and confinement,Into a broad place where there is no constraint or distress;And that which was set on your table was full of fatness (rich food).

And You have not given me into the hand of the enemy;You have set my feet in a broad place.

You made men (charioteers) ride over our heads [in defeat];We went through fire and through water,Yet You brought us out into a [broad] place of abundance [to be refreshed].

I have seen that all [human] perfection has its limits [no matter how grand and perfect and noble];Your commandment is exceedingly broad and extends without limits [into eternity].

“I said ‘So I must arise now and go out into the city;Into the streets and into the squares [places I do not know]I must seek him whom my soul loves.’I sought him but I did not find him.

In their streets they have wrapped themselves with sackcloth;On their [flat] housetops and in their open squaresEveryone is wailing, dissolved in tears.

The land mourns and dries out,Lebanon is shamed and [its lush foliage] withers;Sharon is like a desert plain,And Bashan and [Mount] Carmel shake off their leaves.

But there the mighty and magnificent Lord will be for usA place of broad rivers and streams,Where no oar-driven boat will go,And on which no mighty and stately ship will pass.

“Roam back and forth through the streets of Jerusalem,And look now and take note.And look in her open squaresTo see if you can find a man [as Abraham sought in Sodom],One who is just, who [has integrity and moral courage and] seeks truth (faithfulness);Then I will pardon Jerusalem—[for the sake of one uncompromisingly righteous person].

“The wise men are shamed,They are dismayed and caught.Behold, they have [manipulated and] rejected the [truth in the] word of the Lord,And what kind of wisdom and insight do they have?

Thus says the Lord of hosts,“The broad wall of Babylon will be completely overthrown and the foundations razedAnd her high gates will be set on fire;The peoples will labor in vain,And the nations become exhausted [only] for fire [that will destroy their work].”

Then he went to the gate which faced the east and went up its [seven] steps and measured the threshold of the gate, one rod in width; and the other threshold [of the gate inside the thick wall] was one rod in width.

The guardroom was one rod long and one rod wide, and [the space] between the guardrooms was five cubits. And the threshold of the gate by the porch (portico) of the gate facing inward was one rod.

Moreover, there were four tables of hewn stone (ashlar) for the burnt offering, a cubit and a half long, a cubit and a half wide, and one cubit high, on which they lay the instruments with which they slaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice.

He measured the courtyard, a hundred cubits long and a hundred cubits wide, a perfect square; and the altar was in front of the temple.

Then he (the angel) brought me to the nave (outer sanctuary) and measured the side pillars; six cubits wide on each side was the width of the side pillar.

The building that was in front of the separate area on the side toward the west was seventy cubits wide; and the wall of the building was five cubits thick all around, and its length was ninety cubits.

Now the altar hearth shall be twelve cubits long by twelve wide, square in its four sides.

The ledge shall be fourteen cubits long by fourteen wide on its four sides, and the border around it shall be half a cubit; and its base shall be a cubit all around, and its steps shall face the east.”

In the four corners of the courtyard there were enclosed courtyards, forty cubits long and thirty wide; these four in the corners were the same size.

Therefore, thus says the Lord God of hosts, the Lord,“There is wailing in all the public plazas,And in all the streets they say, ‘Alas! Alas!’And they call the farmers to mourning [for those who have died]And professional mourners to wailing.

“It shall come about in that day,” says the Lord God,“That I shall cause the sun to go down at noon,And I shall darken the earth in broad daylight.

The chariots race madly in the streets;They rush wildly in the broad plazas.Their appearance is like torches;They rush in various directions like forked lightning.

There is a sound of the shepherds’ wail,For their splendor (grazing land) is ruined;There is a sound of the young lions’ roar,For the pride of the Jordan is ruined.

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad and easy to travel is the path that leads the way to destruction and eternal loss, and there are many who enter through it.

When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue; and many who listened to Him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things [this knowledge and spiritual insight]? What is this wisdom [this confident understanding of the Scripture] that has been given to Him, and such miracles as these performed by His hands?

And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and men.

And they swarmed up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints (God’s people) and the beloved city [Jerusalem]; but fire came down from heaven and consumed them.