What Does Exodus 35:17 Mean?
The hangings of the courtyard, its pillars, and their bases, and the screen for the gate of the courtyard.
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 hangings of the court, his pillars, and their sockets, and the hanging for the door of the court,THE KEY
The word for the doorway hanging belongs to the same root as shelter: the holy place’s boundary is also its covering.
THE MEANING
The space before you is neither bare nor sealed: its boundary hangs between pillars, and even the gate has its own screen. The Hebrew word for that screen grows from a root for covering, which also forms a word for a booth or shelter. Entry and protection meet at the threshold.
THE ROOT
מָסַךְ
māsāḵ
GROWS FROM
סכך
s-k-k
To cover, screen, or hedge around.
English “hanging” sounds like fabric; מָסַךְ (māsāḵ, a screen or covering) carries the work of screening and covering. The same root forms סֻכָּה (sukkāh, a booth or shelter), so the gate’s boundary and a shelter belong to the same covering vocabulary.
ALSO GROWS
sāḵaḵ: To cover, screen, or hedge around.
סָכַךְ
This is the root action beneath the doorway screen: it covers while marking a boundary.
sukkāh: A booth or shelter.
סֻכָּה
A shelter and a screen at the entrance share the image of a covering that defines a space.
עַמּוּדָיו
ʿammūdāw
GROWS FROM
עמד
ʿ-m-d
To stand or remain upright.
“pillars” in this verse is ʿammūdāw. The word for a pillar grows from the word for standing. The screen is not free-floating: the passage’s boundary depends on what stands to support it.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāmad: To stand or remain upright.
עָמַד
The pillar’s name carries the action it performs: it stands.
maʿămād: A standing, station, or position.
מַעֲמָד
This branch extends standing into a held position, echoing the pillars’ role in sustaining the boundary.
THE PATTERN
A threshold can mark passage while preserving a covering boundary.
And you shall make a hanging for the door of the tent, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with needlework.A fresh and living way that he opened anew for us through the hanging curtain of his flesh;THE THREAD
He covers you with his feathers, and beneath his wings you take shelter; his steadiness is your shield and your encircling buckler.The Hebrew verb translated “cover” here comes from סכך (s-k-k), the same root behind the doorway screen מָסַךְ (māsāḵ). The same covering that marks an entrance can also describe shelter under wings.
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