What Does Exodus 28:31 Mean?

And you will make the robe of the ephod wholly of blue.

Exodus 28:31 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

And thou shalt make the robe of the ephod all of blue.

THE KEY

The robe’s blue is not an accent: the Hebrew describes the garment as wholly blue, complete in one color.

THE MEANING

Your attention is drawn to a covering whose defining quality is completeness: the robe is blue throughout, not blue in one portion only. The Hebrew word behind “all” carries the sense of wholeness, presenting the garment as one continuous field rather than a collection of contrasting parts.

THE ROOT

כְּלִיל

kəlîl

GROWS FROM

כָּלַל

k-l-l

Complete; make whole.

“wholly” in this verse is kəlîl. ⁨כְּלִיל⁩ (kalil) means whole or entire, from ⁨כָּלַל⁩ (kalal), to complete or make whole. The wording presents blue as the robe’s complete substance, not an accent; completeness is part of the garment’s description.

ALSO GROWS

kalal: To complete; make whole.

כָּלַל

This verbal branch gives the word for “all” its sense of completeness: the robe is described as blue in its entirety.

kol: All; the whole; every.

כֹּל

This branch carries the same totalizing sense, drawing attention to the whole garment rather than a blue detail.

THE PATTERN

Scripture uses clothing as a covering through which the bearer’s identity or presence becomes visible.

He wraps himself in light as with a garment, stretching out the heavens like a curtain.

Psalm 104:2 · SDVLight is pictured as a garment, making the presence it carries visible as a covering.

I will exult greatly in the LORD; my living soul shall leap in my God; for he has clothed me in garments of deliverance, he has wrapped me in the robe of alignment, as a bridegroom dons a headdress, and as a bride binds on her jewels.

Isaiah 61:10 · SDVThe reader is pictured as clothed and covered in deliverance and alignment.

For as many of you as have been immersed into the Anointed One have put on the Anointed One.

Galatians 3:27 · SDVBeing immersed into the Anointed One is pictured as putting on an encompassing identity.

THE THREAD

And he made the robe of the ephod of woven work, all of blue.

Exodus 39:22 · SDV

This verse repeats the same phrase, ⁨כְּלִיל תְּכֵלֶת⁩ (kalil tekhelet, wholly blue). The repetition brings out ⁨כָּלַל⁩ (kalal, complete or make whole): the blue is the robe’s entire field.

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