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16 And[kai] the city[polis] lieth[keimai] foursquare,[tetragonos] and[kai] the length[mekos][autos] is[esti] as large[tosoutos] as[hosos][kai] the breadth:[platos] and[kai] he measured[metreo] the city[polis] with the
reed[kalamos],[epi] twelve[dodeka] thousand[chilias] furlongs.[stadion] The
length[mekos] and[kai] the breadth[platos] and[kai] the height[hupsos] of it[autos] are[esti] equal.[isos] KJV-Interlinear
16 And the
city is laid out as a square, and its length is as great as the width; and he
measured the city with the rod, fifteen hundred miles; its length and width and
height are equal. NASB
The measurements of the city are cubed shaped. The angel is, even back in John's time, able to measure the city with complete accuracy. Note that the city is equal in its three dimensions. The passage does not state that the walls are as high as the city is tall.
The measurements are perfect, uniform, and the city is complete.
Most cities in human history are formed along the beaches, or rivers, or follow various geographical features. They are not uniform in any way. Likewise, all cities of human history are of varying sizes. No one can know the final population of any given city. People move into the city and people move out. People are born into the city and people die. So, city planning is always ongoing. We generally discover the difficulties of city planning when we get stuck in traffic. The roads are never wide enough to accommodate the high traffic times of the day.
The measurements of the new and final Jerusalem are set. Its population is known by God and has been known since eternity past. The city will never need to grow, and it will never be reduced.
And one more thing regarding the city. It is huge. Gravity does not seem to be a factor in its descent from heaven, and it certainly does not upset the environment of the world with its presence. Of course we do not know what the new earth is going to look like.
The measurement of the city is equal in all three dimensions. The measurement for furlong comes from the races around stadiums, of which a foot race is generally 600 feet or 660 feet in length. A furlong is 660 feet, or 220 yards, or about 233 meters, and there are 8 furlongs in one mile. Since the measurements of the city are 12,000 furlongs, then that equates to 1500 miles.
Multiply the 1500 miles cubed, and you will end up with 3 billion 375 million cubic miles of area within the city. And if you want to get into some really big numbers, that works out to 54.5 trillion cubic acres. This is more than enough room for every believer that will be in heaven. And this is only one city. The new heaven and earth and universe are infinite in size.
You can play the math game in many ways, assuming only one level of residency, or many levels of residency within the city. In any calculation, the city is huge and it will easily provide homes, or better still, very nice mansions on large estates, for a very large population.
Remember too that this is just the city. There will still be a very big countryside region, namely the universe, outside of the city. Note that the gates allow entry into, and out from the city. So folks will be coming and going for all of eternity.
If superimposed on the USA, it would occupy all of the space between Canada and the Gulf Of Mexico, and from Colorado to the Atlantic coast. And remember that it would extend 1500 miles high. Most satellites circle the earth at a distance of only 200 miles high. So this city is huge.
