What Does Exodus 36:14 Mean?

And he made curtains of goats' hair for the tent over the dwelling; eleven curtains he made them.

Exodus 36:14 · 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 he made curtains of goats’ hair for the tent over the tabernacle: eleven curtains he made them.

THE KEY

The tabernacle’s Hebrew name shares its root with “neighbor”: this layered tent is a dwelling shaped around nearness.

THE MEANING

You see a tent of goats’ hair placed over the tabernacle, forming shelter around a dwelling-place. Its Hebrew name shares its root with “dwell,” so the covering surrounds a place where presence settles.

THE ROOT

מִשְׁכָּן

mishkan

GROWS FROM

שׁכן

sh-k-n

To dwell, settle, or reside.

⁨מִשְׁכָּן⁩ (mishkan, “dwelling-place”) grows from ⁨שׁכן⁩ (sh-k-n), “to dwell.” The same root forms ⁨שָׁכֵן⁩ (shakhen, “neighbor”), joining a place of dwelling with the nearness of someone who lives beside you.

ALSO GROWS

shakhan: To dwell, settle, or reside.

שָׁכַן

This is the action the tabernacle’s name carries: a place for dwelling.

shakhen: A neighbor, someone who lives nearby.

שָׁכֵן

The shared root links dwelling with nearness, revealing a relationship inside the name of the covered place.

THE PATTERN

Scripture presents divine nearness through dwelling within, among, or beside people.

And let them make me a set-apart place, that I may pitch my tent among them.

Exodus 25:8 · SDVThe sanctuary serves the stated purpose of dwelling among people.

He who settles in the hiding place of the Most High lodges in the shadow of the Almighty.

Psalm 91:1 · SDVDwelling with the Most High is expressed as shelter under the Almighty’s shadow.

And the word became flesh and pitched a tent among us, and we beheld his weight, the weight as of the only-born from the Father, full of favor and truth.

John 1:14 · SDVThe Greek verb ⁨σκηνόω⁩ (skēnoō, “pitch a tent” or “dwell in a tent”) describes the Word dwelling among people.

THE THREAD

And let them make me a set-apart place, that I may pitch my tent among them.

Exodus 25:8 · SDV

The verb ⁨שָׁכַן⁩ (shakhan, “dwell”) shares its root with ⁨מִשְׁכָּן⁩ (mishkan, “dwelling-place”). This verse makes explicit what the tabernacle’s name holds: its structure serves dwelling among the people.

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