What Does Exodus 27:18 Mean?
The length of the enclosure shall be one hundred forearms, and its width fifty throughout, and its standing height five forearms of fine twisted linen, and their bases of bronze.
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 the court shall be an hundred cubits, and the breadth fifty every where, and the height five cubits of fine twined linen, and their sockets of brass.THE KEY
The court’s boundary is woven linen standing on bronze: its openness has a measured shape and a material foundation.
THE MEANING
The space of encounter has a defined extent: a hundred cubits long, fifty wide, and five high. Its linen boundary stands on bronze sockets, giving the open court both an edge and a foundation. The verse presents sacred space as something measured and materially held.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that openness means having no boundaries: this court is open, yet its dimensions and supports are specified.
THE ROOT
מָשְׁזָר
mashzar
GROWS FROM
שזר
shazar
Twist or twine strands together.
“fine twisted linen” in this verse is mashzar. The linen’s name carries the action of twisting strands together into one material. The court’s boundary is not a bare line: it is a woven surface, joined from strands.
ALSO GROWS
shazar: To twist or twine.
שָׁזַר
The verb names the joining action inside the material that forms the court’s boundary.
mashzar: Twined or twisted material.
מָשְׁזָר
This derived form describes the linen here and in the tabernacle curtains, linking the court’s boundary to the sanctuary’s coverings.
קוֹמָה
qomah
GROWS FROM
קום
qum
Rise or stand.
“standing height” in this verse is qomah. The word for height comes from the root for rising or standing. The verse describes not just a dimension on paper, but how high the boundary stands around the court.
ALSO GROWS
qum: To rise or stand.
קוּם
This is the root action expressed by the court’s measured height.
maqom: Place or location.
מָקוֹם
This related form connects a place with the idea of standing: the court is a defined space that takes its shape in the world.
חָצֵר
ḥāṣēr
GROWS FROM
חצר
ḥṣr
An enclosed or settled space.
The Hebrew word can name a court or a village, carrying both the bounded space and the place where people gather. Here, its measurements make that enclosure visible as a particular place.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāṣēr: Court or courtyard.
חָצֵר
This is the word for the measured enclosure in the verse.
ḥāṣēr: Settlement or village.
חָצֵר
The same word’s broader use for a settled place suggests that the court is a shaped space, not simply an empty expanse.
THE PATTERN
Sacred space takes form through measured dimensions and material boundaries.
Moreover you shall make the dwelling with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet; with cherubim of cunning work you shall make them.He measured it by its four breaths, and it had a wall all around, five hundred reeds long, and five hundred wide, to make a parting between the set-apart place and the open ground.And the city lies four-cornered, and its length is as great as its width. And he measures the city with the reed, twelve thousand stades. Its length and width and height are equal.THE THREAD
Moreover you shall make the dwelling with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet; with cherubim of cunning work you shall make them.The same Hebrew word מָשְׁזָר (mashzar, twined) describes the court’s linen here and the tabernacle curtains there. The shared word connects the outer boundary with the sanctuary’s inner covering through one woven material.
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