What Does Exodus 28:33 Mean?
And below, on its hem, you will make pomegranates of blue, purple, and scarlet, and gold bells between them, all around.
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 beneath upon the hem of it thou shalt make pomegranates of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, round about the hem thereof; and bells of gold between them round about:THE KEY
The garment’s edge bears both fruit and sound, making its boundary a signal of life in motion.
THE MEANING
The verse presents a boundary that carries signs of life and sound together. Pomegranate forms encircle the hem, with gold bells between them, so movement makes the edge both visible and audible.
THE ROOT
פַּעֲמֹנִים
pa'amonim
GROWS FROM
פעם
pa'am
To beat, strike, or step; by extension, a pulse or recurring occasion.
The Hebrew name for bells shares a root with a beat or footfall. The bells are an audible trace of movement, and the same root can describe something stirred inwardly.
ALSO GROWS
pa'am: A step, footfall, occasion, or one time.
פַּעַם
This branch connects the bell’s sound to the repeated steps that make it ring.
vattippa'em: Was stirred or troubled, as in Genesis 41:8.
וַתִּפָּעֶם
The root that makes a strike audible can also name an inward stirring.
THE PATTERN
Life in sacred service becomes perceptible through both fruit-bearing signs and sound that accompanies movement.
And it will be upon Aaron to serve. His sound will be heard when he goes into the set-apart place before the LORD, and when he comes out, so that he does not die.In this my Father is given weight, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.Praise him upon the ringing cymbals that sound; praise him upon the ringing cymbals that shout.THE THREAD
And it came to pass in the morning that his breath was struck. He sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men, and Pharaoh told them his dream. But there was none who could loose them for Pharaoh.The Hebrew verb translated “was troubled” comes from the same root as the bells’ name. In Pharaoh’s account, the root describes inward stirring; here, its sound is carried outward by the garment’s movement.
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