What Does Exodus 35:9 Mean?
And onyx stones, and stones of filling for the ephod, and for 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 onyx stones, and stones to be set for the ephod, and for the breastplate.THE KEY
The Hebrew calls them “stones of filling”: their beauty is described as what fills a prepared place.
THE MEANING
These stones have a place in the ephod and breastpiece; they are precious as they fill prepared settings. What is distinct does not lose its identity when it enters a larger form, it becomes part of what is carried. The stones’ places on the garments hold the names of Israel over the priest’s shoulders and heart.
THE ROOT
מִלֻּאִים
millu'im
GROWS FROM
מלא
m-l-ʾ
To be full; to fill.
“stones of filling” in this verse is millu'im. The Hebrew phrase is literally “stones of fillings” or “settings,” from מלא (maleʾ, to fill). The word joins adornment with completion: the stones occupy prepared places in the priestly garment.
ALSO GROWS
maleʾ: Be full; become full.
מָלֵא
This form shows fullness as the state behind the stones’ name: setting them fills the prepared spaces.
millu'i: Filling; fulfillment.
מִלּוּי
This noun carries the same root into the act or result of filling, linking the stones’ placement with completion.
THE PATTERN
Distinct stones take their places in a larger form, where their placement gives them a shared purpose.
And you will fill it with stone in four rows. The first row will be a sardius, a topaz, and a carbuncle; this will be the first row.You also, as living stones, are built up into a house of breath, a set-apart priesthood, to carry up sacrifices of breath, well received by God through Jesus, the Anointed One.In whom the whole building, joined at the joints, grows into a set-apart temple in the Lord.THE THREAD
And you will fill it with stone in four rows. The first row will be a sardius, a topaz, and a carbuncle; this will be the first row.The Hebrew word for the settings here comes from מלא (maleʾ, to fill), the same root behind מִלֻּאִים (millu’im, fillings or settings) in Exodus 35:9. The root makes the placement visible as filling: each stone occupies a prepared place in what carries the names of the people.
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