What Does 2 Chronicles 4:3 Mean?
And under it was the shape of oxen, which circled it round about, ten in a cubit, circling the sea round about. Two rows of oxen were poured, when it was poured.
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 under it was the similitude of oxen, which did compass it round about: ten in a cubit, compassing the sea round about. Two rows of oxen were cast, when it was cast.THE KEY
The sea’s edge becomes measurable through a repeated ring that circles it all the way around.
THE MEANING
The image surrounds the great sea with two cast rows of oxen, counted at ten to a cubit. Vast water and exact measure occupy the same frame: the surrounding pattern gives the sea a visible edge.
THE ROOT
מַקִּיפִים
maqiphim
GROWS FROM
נקף
naqaph
To go around or encircle; in related forms, to round off an edge.
“circling” in this verse is maqiphim. English spreads the repeated action across “compass,” “round about,” and “compassing”; Hebrew uses one root for the circuits, making the perimeter a continuous action. A related form uses the same root for rounding an edge, so the ring here is a deliberate shaping of the sea’s boundary.
ALSO GROWS
hiqif: To surround or encircle.
הִקִּיף
This form makes the act of forming a perimeter explicit, as the oxen encircle the sea.
taqqifu: To round off an edge.
תַּקִּפוּ
In Leviticus 19:27, the root describes rounding the edge of the head; here its encircling sense shapes the visible edge around the sea.
THE PATTERN
Scripture pictures the sea’s force within a boundary or brought to stillness, giving its expanse a limit.
And said, This far shall you come, but no further, and here shall your swelling waves be held?You set a boundary they may not cross; they do not return to cover the earth.And waking, he rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, Be silent. Be muzzled. And the wind wore itself out, and a great calm came.THE THREAD
And under the lip of it, all around, there were buds going around the sea, ten to a forearm. The buds were poured in two rows, when it was poured.Kings uses the same Hebrew verb, מַקִּיפִים (maqiphim), meaning “encircling,” for the repeated circuit around the basin. Together, the descriptions place the encircling pattern beneath the vessel and around its brim, showing the perimeter as part of its structure.
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