What Does 2 Chronicles 3:12 Mean?
And the one wing of the other cherub was five forearms, touching the wall of the house, and the other wing was five forearms also, clinging to the wing of the other cherub.
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 one wing of the other cherub was five cubits, reaching to the wall of the house: and the other wing was five cubits also, joining to the wing of the other cherub.THE KEY
The word for “joining” carries the sense of clinging: the wings do not merely meet; they hold fast to one another.
THE MEANING
Wholeness takes shape as each wing reaches the house’s boundary and joins the other wing. The space is held by these connections, each reach becoming part of a whole that neither wing forms alone.
THE ROOT
דְּבֵקָה
deveqah
GROWS FROM
דבק
dabaq
To cling, adhere, or hold fast.
The word translated “joining” shares its root with the Hebrew verb for clinging or cleaving. English can make the wings’ connection sound like simple contact; the root carries the sense of parts held close together.
ALSO GROWS
davaq: To cling or cleave.
דָּבַק
This is the verb used when a man cleaves to his wife, showing the closeness carried by the wings’ joining.
davaqti: I have clung or held fast.
דָּבַקְתִּי
This form shows the same root as an attachment held over time, not a passing touch.
THE PATTERN
A dwelling takes shape as separate parts reach their boundaries and join one another.
The five curtains shall be joined one to another, and five other curtains shall be joined one to another.And he set the cherubim within the innermost room; and they spread the wings of the cherubim, so that the wing of the one touched the one wall, and the wing of the other touched the other wall; and their wings touched one another in the midst of the house.In whom the whole building, joined at the joints, grows into a set-apart temple in the Lord.THE THREAD
Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother, and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.“Joining” here comes from דבק, the same root translated “cleave” in Genesis 2:24. In both verses, distinct parts are held close together, and their union forms a whole.
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