What Does 1 Kings 7:34 Mean?
And there were four shoulders at the four corners of one stand, and the shoulders were of the very stand itself.
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 there were four undersetters to the four corners of one base: and the undersetters were of the very base itself.THE KEY
The base’s supports are not attached afterward; the verse calls them its own shoulders.
THE MEANING
Each corner’s shoulder belongs to the base itself. Stability comes from the shape of the structure, with its supports formed as part of what they hold up.
THE ROOT
כְּתֵפוֹת
ketefot
GROWS FROM
כ־ת־ף
K-T-P
Shoulder; also a side or flank.
The word translated “undersetters” literally means “shoulders.” The verse gives the base a body-like bearing structure, then says those shoulders belong to the base itself.
ALSO GROWS
ketef: Shoulder, the part that bears a load.
כָּתֵף
This is the singular form behind “undersetters”: the base’s supports are pictured as shoulders that carry weight.
ketef: Side or flank.
כָּתֵף
The same word can describe a side or edge, fitting supports set at the base’s four corners.
הַמְּכֹנָה
ha-mekhonah
GROWS FROM
כּוּן
K-W-N
To be firm or established; to set in place.
“stand” in this verse is ha-mekhonah. The word for “base” grows from a root of being set firm and established. Alongside the base’s own shoulders, it presents stability as something built into the structure’s form.
ALSO GROWS
kun: To establish, prepare, or set firm.
כּוּן
This verbal form names the action behind the base’s established place.
makon: A fixed place or dwelling.
מָכוֹן
This related noun carries the sense of a place made firm, extending the base’s meaning beyond a mere platform.
nakhon: Firm, established, or prepared.
נָכוֹן
This related form shows how the same root describes something made ready to stand.
THE PATTERN
A structure stands when its stability is built into its foundation and its supporting edges.
The stone the builders push away becomes the head of the corner.Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion a stone, a tested stone, a weighty cornerstone, a foundation set firm. The one who leans his weight will not hurry.Having been built upon the foundation of the sent ones and the prophets, the Anointed One, Jesus, himself being the head of the corner.THE THREAD
And it shall come to pass in the hindmost days, that the mountain of the LORD's house shall be set firm at the head of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills, and all nations shall flow toward it.“Base,” מְכוֹנָה (mekhonah, a stand or base), and “shall be established,” נָכוֹן (nakhon, firm or established), share the root כּוּן (K-W-N), to be firm or set in place. The connection carries the verse’s small image of a steady base into the image of a dwelling made firm.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us