What Does Exodus 26:19 Mean?
And you shall make forty sockets of silver under the twenty boards; two sockets under one board for its two tenons, and two sockets under another board for its two tenons.
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 thou shalt make forty sockets of silver under the twenty boards; two sockets under one board for his two tenons, and two sockets under another board for his two tenons.THE KEY
A board’s two “hands” fit into silver bases, so what looks self-standing is held by support hidden underneath.
THE MEANING
The structure is supported beneath what you can see: each board’s two “hands” enter bases below it. Its steadiness comes through many fitted points of contact, with each base receiving the weight above it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The false belief that what stands upright supports itself dissolves here: each board depends on a base fitted beneath it.
THE ROOT
אֲדָנִים
ʾădānîm
GROWS FROM
אדן
A base, pedestal, or socket that receives and supports what stands above it.
The same Hebrew noun rendered “sockets” here appears as “foundations” in Job 38:6. These are the structural footings themselves, receiving the boards’ weight beneath the visible frame.
ALSO GROWS
adanim: The plural form used here for the silver sockets.
אֲדָנִים
Each base receives one of a board’s tenons, turning a separate board into part of a standing structure.
adaneha: The same noun with a possessive ending, translated “foundations” in Job 38:6.
אֲדָנֶיהָ
It carries the image from a board’s footing to the earth’s foundations.
יְדֹתָיו
yedotav
GROWS FROM
יד
Hand; by extension, power, means, or agency.
The word translated “tenons” comes from יָד (yad, hand), so the joinery is pictured as the board’s hands. Each board stands where those hands enter and are held by a base.
ALSO GROWS
yad: The hand, the body part used to grasp and make contact.
יָד
The tenons are literally named as hands: they reach from the board into its support.
bəyad: An expression using the same word for hand, often conveying agency or means.
בְּיַד
The hand is where the board’s weight meets the base; its support is enacted through that point of contact.
THE PATTERN
A structure stands as its separate parts are secured by foundations that receive their weight.
And there shall be eight boards, and their sockets of silver, sixteen sockets; two sockets under one board, and two sockets under another board.Into what were its sockets sunk? Or who cast its cornerstone?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
Into what were its sockets sunk? Or who cast its cornerstone?The word rendered “sockets” here and “foundations” in Job is אֲדָנִים / אֲדָנֶיהָ (adanim / adaneha), from אדן (adan), meaning a base or socket. Job widens the image from each board’s footing to the earth’s footing: what stands is secured by what lies beneath.
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