What Does Exodus 36:25 Mean?
And for the other side of the dwelling, which is toward the north corner, he made twenty frames.
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 for the other side of the tabernacle, which is toward the north corner, he made twenty boards,THE KEY
The Hebrew for “northward” echoes a root for what is hidden or stored away, yet this side receives its full count of twenty boards.
THE MEANING
The dwelling includes the side turned away from view: it receives twenty boards, just as the other side does. What is out of sight still belongs to the structure and has its place in it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The side that faces away from view is less important and may be left incomplete.
THE ROOT
צָפוֹנָה
tsafonah
GROWS FROM
צפן
To hide or store away.
The word for northward echoes the root for hiding or storing something away. That gives the tabernacle’s north side an undertone of concealment, even as the verse gives it an exact, full measure of boards.
ALSO GROWS
tsaphan: To hide or store up.
צָפַן
This is the verbal root echoed in the word for northward.
tsafun: Hidden or stored away.
צָפוּן
This form makes the hidden quality in the northward direction easier to hear.
מִשְׁכָּן
mishkan
GROWS FROM
שכן
To dwell or settle.
The tabernacle is named from the act of dwelling: the place is a dwelling-place. The same root can name a neighbor, bringing dwelling and nearness into the same seed.
ALSO GROWS
shakan: To dwell or settle.
שָׁכַן
This verb is the action held in the name mishkan.
shakhen: A neighbor, one who dwells nearby.
שָׁכֵן
This branch links dwelling with nearness.
THE PATTERN
A dwelling takes shape when every part is accounted for and fitted into the whole.
And for the second side of the dwelling, on the north side, there shall be twenty boards.In whom the whole building, joined at the joints, grows into a set-apart temple in the Lord.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.THE THREAD
How great is your goodness, which you store up for those in awe of you, which you work for those who take shelter in you before the sons of men!The Hebrew for northward here echoes צפן (tsaphan), meaning to hide or store up. Psalm 31 uses that root for goodness “laid up,” connecting the north-facing side with what is kept out of sight.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us