What Does 1 Kings 6:6 Mean?
The lowest chamber was five forearms broad, and the middle was six forearms broad, and the third was seven forearms broad; for outside in the wall of the house he made ledges that jut out round about, so that the beams would not grip the walls of the house.
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
The nethermost chamber was five cubits broad, and the middle was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad: for without in the wall of the house he made narrowed rests round about, that the beams should not be fastened in the walls of the house.THE KEY
The house gains room by reducing its outer edge, and the resulting ledges support beams without breaching its walls.
THE MEANING
You are shown a design in which wider chambers come from the outer wall stepping back level by level. The beams rest on those ledges instead of being fastened into the house’s walls. Expansion and protection hold together: more room appears while the inner wall remains intact.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the assumption that expansion must come by driving support into the core: the chambers widen as the outer wall steps back, and the beams rest without fastening into the house’s walls.
THE ROOT
מִגְרָעוֹת
migraʿot
GROWS FROM
גרע
Diminish, reduce; in a passive form, be held back.
“narrowed rests” in this verse is migraʿot. מִגְרָעוֹת (migraʿot) names the wall’s measured reductions, which leave ledges for the beams to rest on. The same root appears in words for diminishing and being held back: here, reducing the wall’s outer mass creates support while leaving its inner wall unpierced.
ALSO GROWS
tigraʿu: Diminish, subtract.
תִגְרְעוּ
This form shares the root’s consonants in Deuteronomy 4:2; there, subtraction is named plainly, while here the same root names reductions that shape the wall’s ledges.
nigraʿ: Be held back, be diminished.
נִגְרַע
Numbers 9:7 uses the same consonants for being kept back; in this verse, reduction takes physical form as a recessed support.
THE PATTERN
A dwelling expands sustainably when its boundaries are reshaped and its supports remain in place.
And then he built side chambers against all the house, five forearms high; and they rested on the house with timber of cedar.Widen the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your dwellings stretch out. Do not hold back; lengthen your cords, and grip your pegs.In whom the whole building, joined at the joints, grows into a set-apart temple in the Lord.THE THREAD
You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor shave anything away from it, that you may guard the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.מִגְרָעוֹת (migraʿot, narrowed rests) and תִגְרְעוּ (tigraʿu, diminish) share the root גרע (gāraʿ, reduce). The root’s sense depends on what is reduced: here the wall is stepped back to create support, while this verse speaks of diminishing instruction.
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