What Does Exodus 26:13 Mean?
And a forearm on the one side, and a forearm on the other side, of that which remains in the length of the curtains of the tent, it shall hang over the sides of the dwelling on this side and on that side, to cover it.
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 a cubit on the one side, and a cubit on the other side of that which remaineth in the length of the curtains of the tent, it shall hang over the sides of the tabernacle on this side and on that side, to cover it.THE KEY
The covering’s measured surplus is what lets it reach past the tent and shelter both sides.
THE MEANING
The curtains have a measured surplus: one cubit falls beyond each side. Their length reaches past the tent’s edge, so the sides are covered too. The extra length is part of how the covering works.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that what extends beyond the center is waste: here, the measured excess covers the sides.
THE ROOT
לְכַסֹּתוֹ
lekhassoto
GROWS FROM
כסה
Cover, conceal, or clothe.
“to cover it” in this verse is lekhassoto. The verse’s word for covering comes from the root כסה, which names both the act of covering and, in related forms, a covering itself. Here the measured surplus is part of that covering’s reach: it extends over both sides of the tent.
ALSO GROWS
kasah: To cover or conceal.
כָּסָה
This is the verbal form behind the verse’s “to cover it,” keeping the action tied to the covering’s reach.
mikhseh: A covering, or cover.
מִכְסֶה
This related noun uses the same root consonants to name the covering itself, alongside the verse’s action of covering.
אֹרֶךְ
orekh
GROWS FROM
ארך
Be long; lengthen.
The curtains’ “length” shares its root with language for something long in time as well as space. The verse uses that length as a measured reach: it continues beyond the tent’s span and covers the sides.
ALSO GROWS
arekh: Long.
אָרֵךְ
The adjective carries the same root into a description of extent, as the curtains’ length extends beyond the tent.
erekh appayim: Slow to flare.
אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם
The same root for length appears in this phrase about anger, where the stretch is temporal rather than spatial.
THE PATTERN
Protection is pictured as a covering that extends over and around those it shelters.
And the cherubim spread their wings upward, shading the covering with their wings, each face turned toward its brother; toward the covering the faces of the cherubim look.He covers you with his feathers, and beneath his wings you take shelter; his steadiness is your shield and your encircling buckler.O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!THE THREAD
And the cherubim spread their wings upward, shading the covering with their wings, each face turned toward its brother; toward the covering the faces of the cherubim look.Both verses use כסה: here, the curtains’ extra measure covers the tabernacle’s sides; there, the cherubim’s wings cover the mercy seat. The same root links the outer shelter to the central place within it.
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