What Does 1 Kings 7:9 Mean?
All these were of heavy stones, according to the measures of hewn stones, sawed with saws, both within and without, even from the foundation to the coping, and so on the outside toward the great court.
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
All these were of costly stones, according to the measures of hewed stones, sawed with saws, within and without, even from the foundation unto the coping, and so on the outside toward the great court.THE KEY
The stones are costly all the way through: one measured craft runs from hidden foundation to outer edge.
THE MEANING
The structure carries one measure from its foundation to its upper edge, inside and outside, even into the great court. Its care reaches the hidden support as well as the visible face; no part sits outside the same work.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The visible finish is all that matters; the unseen support lies outside the measure.
THE ROOT
מַסָּד
massad
GROWS FROM
יסד
To set, establish, or lay a foundation.
The word for foundation carries the sense of something being set in place and established. Here, that establishing stretches through the whole structure, from its base to its upper edge.
ALSO GROWS
yasad: To establish or lay a foundation.
יָסַד
The root verb shows the foundation as an act of setting something firmly in place.
yesod: A foundation or basic support.
יְסוֹד
This branch names the underlying support that the verse includes in the same carefully measured work.
מִדּוֹת
middot
GROWS FROM
מדד
To measure.
The measures are more than a specification for individual stones: they bind the parts into one continuous construction. The verse repeats this measured quality inside, outside, and from foundation to coping.
ALSO GROWS
madad: To measure.
מָדַד
The verb names the act behind the measured stones.
middah: A measure, dimension, or extent.
מִדָּה
This branch shows how measure gives each stone its place within the larger structure.
יְקָרוֹת
yeqarot
GROWS FROM
יקר
To be precious, valuable, or highly honored.
“heavy” in this verse is yeqarot. The word rendered costly also carries the sense of preciousness and honor. The verse joins that value to careful work that reaches the hidden foundation and the outermost surface.
ALSO GROWS
yaqar: Precious or costly.
יָקָר
This is the root word behind the description of the stones.
yeqar: Honor, worth, or preciousness.
יְקָר
This branch opens the sense of value beyond price, linking the stones’ costliness with the honor given to them.
THE PATTERN
A lasting structure is shaped by care that reaches from its prepared foundation through its visible completion.
And the house, when it was in building, was built of whole stone, made ready before it was brought there, so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was in building.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
For he lays its foundation upon the seas, and makes it stand firm upon the rivers.The word for “founded” comes from יסד (yasad), the same root beneath “foundation” here. In one verse, that root describes a carefully measured building; in the other, it describes the establishing of the earth itself.
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