What Does Exodus 26:22 Mean?
And for the sides of the dwelling westward you shall make six boards.
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 for the sides of the tabernacle westward thou shalt make six boards.THE KEY
The tabernacle’s westward side is literally its rear, and the verse gives that far edge a precise place in the dwelling.
THE MEANING
The dwelling has a rear edge formed by six boards, facing seaward. The Hebrew word translated “sides” can name the rear parts, so even the far edge belongs to the structure’s complete form.
THE ROOT
הַמִּשְׁכָּן
hamishkan
GROWS FROM
שׁכן
sh-k-n
to dwell, settle, remain
The Hebrew name for the structure grows from the verb for dwelling, so it names a place by what happens there. The six boards at its rear belong to that dwelling, just as surely as its other parts do.
ALSO GROWS
shakan: to dwell, settle, remain
שָׁכַן
The verb names the action carried in the tabernacle’s name.
shakhen: neighbor, one who dwells nearby
שָׁכֵן
The same root can name a dweller in relation to others, echoing the promise that God will dwell among them.
יַרְכְּתֵי
yarketei
GROWS FROM
ירך
y-r-kh
thigh, flank
The Hebrew word translated “sides” can mean the rear parts of the dwelling. Its root also names the thigh or flank, giving the structure’s back edge the sense of a defined side rather than an undefined remainder.
ALSO GROWS
yarekh: thigh, flank
יָרֵךְ
This is the root’s bodily sense, which also supplies the image of a side or flank.
yarkah: side, rear, or recess
יַרְכָּה
This related form shows how the word can identify the dwelling’s far or rear section.
THE PATTERN
A dwelling takes its complete shape as each part is given its place.
And you shall make the boards for the dwelling, twenty boards on the south side southward.Widen the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your dwellings stretch out. Do not hold back; lengthen your cords, and grip your pegs.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.THE THREAD
And let them make me a set-apart place, that I may pitch my tent among them.The tabernacle, מִשְׁכָּן (mishkan, dwelling), and the verb שָׁכַן (shakan, to dwell) share the root שׁכן (sh-k-n). The boards described here give form to the place named for dwelling among people.
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