What Does Exodus 28:23 Mean?
And you will make on the breastpiece two rings of gold, and set the two rings on the two ends of the breastpiece.
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 upon the breastplate two rings of gold, and shalt put the two rings on the two ends of the breastplate.THE KEY
The rings sit at both ends, making the breastplate’s edges its points of attachment.
THE MEANING
The verse places the fastenings at both ends of what rests over the heart. Its center and its edges work together: what is carried near the heart is secured through connections at its boundaries. The boundary is part of the structure, not leftover space.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Only what sits at the center matters; what lies at the edges is incidental.
THE ROOT
טַבְּעֹת
ṭabbaʿot
GROWS FROM
טבע
To sink or be submerged.
“rings” in this verse is ṭabbaʿot. The Hebrew word for ring belongs to a root also used for sinking or being submerged. Alongside its role as a fitting, the word carries an image of something set into a point of connection; elsewhere, the same noun names a signet ring that carries an imprint.
ALSO GROWS
ṭāvaʿ: To sink or be submerged.
טָבַע
The same root gives the ring word an echo of something set in place, fitting its role as an anchor at the breastplate’s edge.
ṭabbaʿat: Ring; signet ring.
טַבַּעַת
Genesis 41:42 uses this same noun for Pharaoh’s ring, whose placement marks a transfer of authority.
קְצוֹת
qetsot
GROWS FROM
קצה
Edge, extremity, end.
The repeated word marks the two attachment points as edges or boundaries. The verse makes those boundaries structurally active: both ends hold a ring.
ALSO GROWS
qatséh: Edge or end.
קָצֶה
This form names an edge as a definite place, clarifying where the breastplate’s fastening points are set.
miqtseh: Extremity or farthest end.
מִקְצֶה
This form extends the same edge-word family toward the outermost point, echoing the placement of the rings at both ends.
THE PATTERN
A whole is held together through connections where its separate parts meet.
And you shall make fifty taches of gold, and join the curtains together with the taches; and it shall be one dwelling.from whom the whole body, joined together and knit by every joint that supplies, according to the working in the measure of each part, makes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.THE THREAD
And the Great House took the ring from his hand, and put it on Joseph's hand, and clothed him in garments of fine linen, and put a chain of gold about his neck.Genesis uses the same Hebrew noun, טַבַּעַת (ṭabbaʿat, ring), for Pharaoh’s signet ring. There it marks a transfer of authority; here, paired rings secure the breastplate at its edges.
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