What Does 1 Kings 7:23 Mean?
And he made a poured sea, ten forearms from the one lip to the other. It was round all about, and its height was five forearms, and a measuring cord of thirty forearms went around it.
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 he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other: it was round all about, and his height was five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about.THE KEY
The measuring line makes a complete circuit, so the basin’s boundary is measured as a whole, not inferred from its span alone.
THE MEANING
The round basin is described through three measures: ten cubits across, five cubits high, and thirty cubits around. Its circuit is three times its brim-to-brim span, giving its perimeter a measure alongside its breadth. The line follows the whole edge.
THE ROOT
יָסֹב
yasov
GROWS FROM
סבב
sabab
to turn around, circle, surround
“went around” in this verse is yasov. The verb translated “compass” comes from the root סבב (sabab), meaning to turn around or surround. The line traces a full circuit around the basin, measuring its boundary rather than only a straight span.
ALSO GROWS
saviv: around; surrounding
סָבִיב
This branch names the space all the way around, echoing the line’s path along the basin’s entire perimeter.
sovev: turning around; encircling
סוֹבֵב
This branch makes the surrounding action continuous, like the line that circles the vessel.
THE PATTERN
The same circle that traces an object’s boundary can describe a route around it or a shelter that surrounds it.
The name of the first is Pishon, which encircles the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.But God led the people around, by the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea, and the children of Israel went up in fives out of the land of Egypt.As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the LORD is round about his people, from now to the ages.THE THREAD
As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the LORD is round about his people, from now to the ages.Psalm 125:2 uses the same Hebrew word family, סָבִיב (saviv, “around”), as the line that circles the basin. There, surrounding describes mountains around Jerusalem and the LORD around his people: the same root moves from a measured perimeter to an enclosing presence.
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