MEASURE, To
MEASURE, To
To Measure and to DIVIDE, are the same; and both signify, to go about to take possession, after the division. Hence a lot, or division, or inheritance, are all one; because the Israelites got possession of the promised land by division, measure, and lot. And to divide the spoil, is to get a great booty or victory; because division of the spoils is a consequence of the other. See Numb 24:17; 33:54; Jos 1:16; Jos 13:6; Isa 9:3; Isa 53:12.
To mete out is the same. Thus Psa 55:6; “I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth,”-signifies an entire possession after a victory, which God had promised to David. So in Isa 18:2 “A nation that is meted out, and trodden down,” is a nation overcome by its enemies, and quite subdued; so that its possessions are divided and possessed by the conquerors. So when in Jos 24:3; God saith, “I have divided unto you by lot those nations that remain.” What is this but to say, that God bath put them in possession of their lands? So in Zec 2:2, to measure Jerusalem, is to take again possession of it, to rebuild it; or at least to repair that and rebuild the temple. See also Amo 7:17.
The same notion is also in the heathen authors. Thus in Horace,f1 immetata jugera, lands unmeasured, signify, not possessed by any propriety to them, but commo whence the fruits of such lands are called by theppoet liber, free for any one to take.
To measure signifies also to take an exact account of the thing measured. When something is left unmeasured, it involves the idea of separation.
F1 Hor. Lib. iii. Od. 24. ver. 12. See also Virg. Georg. Lib. i. ver, 126, 127.