What Does Exodus 36:28 Mean?

And two frames made he for the corners of the dwelling in the two sides.

Exodus 36:28 · 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 two boards made he for the corners of the tabernacle in the two sides.

THE KEY

The dwelling is held by what happens at the corners, where its separate sides meet.

THE MEANING

A dwelling takes shape where its sides meet, and the verse gives those corners their own support. Its stability lies not only in its broad sides but also in the joins that hold them together.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The places where the sides meet are secondary to the main walls.

THE ROOT

מִשְׁכָּן

mishkan

GROWS FROM

שׁכן

sh-k-n

To dwell, settle, or inhabit.

The root ⁨שׁכן⁩ (sh-k-n, shakan: to dwell or settle) names what happens in the ⁨מִשְׁכָּן⁩ (mishkan, dwelling place): it is a place of dwelling. Here, boards support that dwelling at the meeting points of its sides, making the joins part of the structure that holds it together.

ALSO GROWS

shakan: To dwell or settle.

שָׁכַן

This verb shares the root of mishkan and makes dwelling the central idea of the structure.

shakhen: A neighbor, one who dwells nearby.

שָׁכֵן

The root also connects dwelling with nearness: a neighbor is one who lives alongside others.

THE PATTERN

A dwelling’s strength depends on the joins that hold its separate sides together.

And they shall be joined together beneath, and they shall be joined together above its head, unto one ring; thus shall it be for them both; they shall be for the two corners.

Exodus 26:24 · SDVThe corner boards are coupled above and beneath so the meeting points hold the structure together.

Jerusalem is built as a city bound together.

Psalm 122:3 · SDVThe city is pictured as a dwelling whose parts are held together.

In whom the whole building, joined at the joints, grows into a set-apart temple in the Lord.

Ephesians 2:21 · SDVThe temple takes form as its parts are fitted together into one dwelling.

THE THREAD

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

Exodus 25:8 · SDV

The word “dwell” is ⁨שָׁכַן⁩ (shakan, to dwell), the root of ⁨מִשְׁכָּן⁩ (mishkan, dwelling place) in Exodus 36:28. The corner boards support the structure named for dwelling, giving form to the image of presence among people.

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