What Does Exodus 27:8 Mean?
Hollow, of planks, you shall make it, as you were made to see it on the mountain, so they shall make 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
Hollow with boards shalt thou make it: as it was shewed thee in the mount, so shall they make it.THE KEY
The verse specifies the altar’s hollow form as part of its design, shaped by a pattern first shown.
THE MEANING
You meet a design in which the hollow construction is deliberate, not an unfilled accident. What is made takes its shape from a pattern first shown, and the inner form belongs to the design as much as its visible boards.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A hollow form is unfinished or deficient; here its hollowness is explicitly part of the intended design.
THE ROOT
נְבוּב
nevuḇ
GROWS FROM
נבב
n-b-b
to be hollow; to hollow out
The Hebrew names a hollowed form as a deliberate feature of the construction. The verse specifies that form alongside the pattern shown for its making, so the hollow is part of the design.
ALSO GROWS
navav: to be hollow or hollow out
נָבַב
The verb names the shaping that gives the altar its hollow form.
nevuḇ: hollow; hollowed
נְבוּב
This form describes the altar’s construction as a specified feature.
הֶרְאָה
herʾah
GROWS FROM
ראה
r-ʾ-h
to see; in this form, to show or make visible
“made you to see” in this verse is herʾah. The form translated “showed” comes from the verb “to see”: the pattern is made visible before the making begins. The verse binds seeing and doing together, with the finished form answering to what is seen.
ALSO GROWS
raʾah: to see; perceive
רָאָה
The root begins with seeing, the perception behind the shown pattern.
marʾeh: appearance; vision
מַרְאֶה
This branch names what is seen, linking the visible pattern to the form being made.
THE PATTERN
Faithful making gives visible form to a pattern that is first shown.
Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.And see that you make them according to their form, which was shown to you on the mountain.All this, said David, the LORD made me see in writing by his hand upon me, even all the works of this shape.THE THREAD
who serve in a tracing and a shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was warned by God when he was about to finish the tent. For look, he says, "Make all things according to the impression shown to you on the mountain."Hebrews calls the pattern shown on the mountain an example and shadow of heavenly things. This places the altar within a sanctuary whose made forms take their shape from what is shown.
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