What Does Exodus 36:23 Mean?
And he made frames for the dwelling; twenty frames for the south side southward.
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 he made boards for the tabernacle; twenty boards for the south side southward:THE KEY
The “tabernacle” is a mishkan, from “to dwell,” so the counted boards give dwelling a material shape.
THE MEANING
The verse names a dwelling as a made thing with a specified side and counted boards. It keeps sacred space concrete: a structure is assembled piece by piece and oriented in a particular direction.
THE ROOT
מִשְׁכָּן
mishkan
GROWS FROM
שׁכן
To dwell, settle, or remain.
The English “tabernacle” sounds like a thing, but mishkan comes from shakan, “to dwell, settle.” The count of boards describes dwelling taking material form; the related word for “neighbor” links dwelling with nearness.
ALSO GROWS
shakan: To dwell, settle.
שָׁכַן
This is the verb behind mishkan: the structure is named for the act of dwelling.
shakhen: Neighbor; one dwelling nearby.
שָׁכֵן
The same root connects dwelling with nearness, so a place to dwell carries the idea of being among others.
THE PATTERN
Dwelling takes form through concrete, ordered parts.
And let them make me a set-apart place, that I may pitch my tent among them.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.Have you not seen that you are God's temple, and that the breath of God dwells in you?THE THREAD
And let them make me a set-apart place, that I may pitch my tent among them.The word for “dwell” comes from the same root as mishkan, “tabernacle.” This verse names the purpose of the boards: they give a dwelling place form so presence can be among the people.
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