What Does Exodus 26:8 Mean?
The length of one curtain shall be thirty forearms, and the width of one curtain four forearms; the eleven curtains shall be all of one size.
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
The length of one curtain shall be thirty cubits, and the breadth of one curtain four cubits: and the eleven curtains shall be all of one measure.THE KEY
The tent’s spaciousness is built from repeated measure: every curtain carries the same breadth.
THE MEANING
A whole takes shape through pieces that each keep their dimensions while sharing a common measure. Here, breadth is carried across all eleven curtains, making space part of the pattern that holds the covering together.
THE ROOT
רֹחַב
rokhav
GROWS FROM
רחב
To be wide; to open into spaciousness.
The breadth here belongs to the same Hebrew root as a wide or open place. English separates a curtain’s physical width from the idea of spaciousness; the root holds them together, so each repeated breadth contributes to the room the covering makes.
ALSO GROWS
rachav: Wide, spacious.
רָחָב
It shares the root’s sense of width, showing that the curtain’s breadth belongs to a wider language of open space.
merchav: A broad place, open space.
מֶרְחָב
This branch names spaciousness itself, a meaning that also appears in the verse’s measured breadth.
מִדָּה
middah
GROWS FROM
מדד
To measure or measure out.
The phrase “one measure” gives all eleven curtains a shared dimension. The word comes from a root of measuring, so the common proportion is built into the verse’s language, not merely added as a technical detail.
ALSO GROWS
madad: To measure, measure out.
מָדַד
The verb names the act behind the shared measure assigned to every curtain.
moded: Measuring; one who measures.
מוֹדֵד
This form keeps the same measuring action in view, linking the curtains’ dimensions to a common standard.
THE PATTERN
A shared dwelling takes shape as measured pieces are given room and joined into one structure.
And you shall make fifty taches of gold, and join the curtains together with the taches; and it shall be one dwelling.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.In whom the whole building, joined at the joints, grows into a set-apart temple in the Lord.THE THREAD
He brings me out into a broad place; he pulls me loose, because he delights in me.“Breadth” in Exodus and “large place” in this verse share the root רחב (rachav), meaning to be wide or spacious. The root links a curtain’s measured width with being brought into open space.
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