What Does Exodus 25:7 Mean?
Onyx stones, and stones of filling for the ephod, and for the breastplate.
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
Onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod, and in the breastplate.THE KEY
The stones are called “fillings”: their purpose is to fill a setting and become part of a larger whole.
THE MEANING
These precious stones have a place in the ephod and breastplate; they are meant to be fitted into something that carries them. Their value is expressed through their place in the whole, not only in their beauty.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It loosens the belief that what is precious matters only when kept apart: these stones are meant to be set into something that carries them.
THE ROOT
מִלֻּאִים
millu'im
GROWS FROM
מלא
m-l-ʾ
מלא (male) means to be full; in its causative forms, to fill.
“stones of filling” in this verse is millu'im. The Hebrew names these as “stones of fillings,” linking their setting to the language of filling and fullness. They are not just precious objects beside the garment: they fill its designated places and become part of its structure.
ALSO GROWS
male: full; to be full
מָלֵא
This basic form shows the fullness carried by the word for the stones’ settings.
millu'im: fillings or settings; also used for ordination
מִלּוּאִים
The verse’s word for the set stones joins their placement to the idea of filling a designated space.
THE PATTERN
A stone takes its place in a larger whole, where its placement gives it meaning.
O bowed one, storm-tossed, not comforted, behold, I will lay down your stones in kohl, and lay your foundations in sapphires. And I will set your pinnacles in ruby, your gates in glowing stone, and all your edges in stones of delight.You also, as living stones, are built up into a house of breath, a set-apart priesthood, to carry up sacrifices of breath, well received by God through Jesus, the Anointed One.And the foundations of the wall of the city are arranged with every precious stone. The first foundation is jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald. The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprase; the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst.THE THREAD
The stones will be twelve, according to the names of the children of Israel, like the engravings of a seal, each with its own name according to the twelve tribes.The next instruction reveals what the stones carry: the names of Israel’s tribes, engraved one by one. The settings are places for named people to be held within the garment’s design.
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