What Does 1 Kings 7:43 Mean?
And the ten stands, and ten basins on the stands.
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 ten bases, and ten lavers on the bases;THE KEY
Cleansing is never free-floating here: every laver rests on a base prepared to hold it.
THE MEANING
Each vessel stands on a prepared support, making the structure beneath the washing visible. The image presents cleansing as something held within an ordered design.
THE ROOT
מְכֹנוֹת
mekhonot
GROWS FROM
כון
kun
To be firm or established; to set something in place.
“stands” in this verse is mekhonot. מְכֹנוֹת (mekhonot, bases) grows from כון (kun, to be established). The word carries more than the idea of a support: it brings in the idea of making a place ready to hold what rests upon it.
ALSO GROWS
kun: To be firm, established, or made ready.
כּוּן
The base is connected to the act of establishing: each laver has a place prepared beneath it.
makon: An established place, foundation, or dwelling.
מָכוֹן
This branch shows how the root can name not only a support, but a place made firm enough to serve as a dwelling.
mekhonah: A stand or base.
מְכוֹנָה
This is the singular form behind the verse’s bases, keeping the vessel and its support in the same word family.
THE PATTERN
Cleansing is made present through water held ready in a designated vessel.
You shall also make a basin of bronze, and its stand also of bronze, for washing; and you shall set it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and you shall set waters in it.He made also ten basins, and set five on the right hand, and five on the left, to wash in them; such things as they offered for the rising offering they washed in them; but the sea was for the priests to wash in.Then he poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel he was girded with.THE THREAD
Alignment and judgment are the footing of your throne; faithful love and truth go before your face.The word translated “habitation” is מָכוֹן (makon, established place), from the same root כון (kun, to be established) as מְכֹנוֹת (mekhonot, bases). The verse’s base belongs to the same word family as a place made firm enough to be a dwelling.
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