What Does 1 Kings 6:34 Mean?
And the two doors were of fir tree; the two leaves of the one door were folding, and the two leaves of the other door were folding.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And the two doors were of fir tree: the two leaves of the one door were folding, and the two leaves of the other door were folding.THE KEY
The word “folding” carries the sense of rolling: the sanctuary’s entrance opens through movement at its boundary, not by breaking it.
THE MEANING
A sacred threshold is made with leaves that turn, so passage depends on a boundary capable of movement. The image speaks now wherever a closed entrance seems fixed: its design may still allow it to open.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A closed boundary is not necessarily a sealed one; here, the entrance is designed with leaves that turn to make a way through.
THE ROOT
גְּלִילִים
gelilim
GROWS FROM
גָּלַל
To roll or roll around; by extension, to turn.
The word rendered “folding” is גְּלִילִים (gelilim), from גָּלַל (galal), “to roll.” The same root describes a stone rolled away from a well and a way “committed” by rolling it onto the LORD, so the entrance’s leaves evoke a threshold made passable through movement.
ALSO GROWS
wegalalu: To roll away.
וְגָלֲלוּ
In Genesis 29:3, this form describes rolling the stone from the well’s mouth; like these door leaves, a barrier moves to uncover an opening.
gol: To roll or place upon; rendered “commit” in Psalm 37:5.
גּוֹל
The verse’s “Commit thy way” uses this root, connecting the doors’ turning movement with the image of placing one’s way onto the LORD.
THE PATTERN
An entrance becomes passable when what covers it is moved aside.
And all the flocks were gathered there, and they rolled the stone from the mouth of the well, and gave the sheep drink, and turned the stone back upon the mouth of the well in its place.Roll your way upon the LORD, and lean your weight on him, and he will do it.I am the door. Through me, if anyone enters, he shall be delivered, and shall go in and out, and shall find pasture.THE THREAD
And all the flocks were gathered there, and they rolled the stone from the mouth of the well, and gave the sheep drink, and turned the stone back upon the mouth of the well in its place.The same root, גָּלַל (galal), “to roll,” describes the stone being moved from the well’s mouth. Here, as there, an opening becomes usable when its covering moves; the shared root lets “folding” carry the sense of a threshold made to turn.
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