What Does Exodus 36:32 Mean?
And five bolts for the frames of the other side of the dwelling, and five bolts for the frames of the dwelling for the two sides westward.
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 five bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the tabernacle for the sides westward.THE KEY
The dwelling holds together through bars that run across its separate boards.
THE MEANING
A dwelling takes shape as separate boards are joined by bars that run across them. Its wholeness comes through the connections binding its parts into one structure.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The visible boards alone make the dwelling whole; this verse names the crossbars as part of what holds the structure together.
THE ROOT
בְּרִיחִם
berichim
GROWS FROM
ברח
to flee, run, or move swiftly
“bolts” in this verse is berichim. The word for a bar or bolt, בְּרִיחַ (beriach), is linked to בָּרַח (barach), “to run” or “flee.” English presents a static brace; the Hebrew word carries the motion of a piece running across the boards to bind them.
ALSO GROWS
barach: to flee or run
בָּרַח
This verb shares the bars’ root and brings movement into the image of a fixed structure.
mivrach: flight or escape
מִבְרָח
This related word keeps the root’s sense of movement away, echoing how the bar runs across the boards.
מִשְׁכָּן
mishkan
GROWS FROM
שכן
to dwell or settle
The word translated “tabernacle” comes from the root for dwelling. The bars are not incidental hardware: they belong to the structure that makes a dwelling from separate pieces.
ALSO GROWS
shakan: to dwell or settle
שָׁכַן
This verb is the root of mishkan and names the purpose of the structure being assembled.
shakhen: neighbor, one who dwells nearby
שָׁכֵן
The related word for a neighbor carries the same root of dwelling, linking a place to those who inhabit it.
THE PATTERN
A dwelling becomes one structure as its separate parts are joined across their boundaries.
And the middle bar in the midst of the boards shall reach from end to end.Jerusalem is built as a city bound together.In whom the whole building, joined at the joints, grows into a set-apart temple in the Lord.THE THREAD
And the middle bar in the midst of the boards shall reach from end to end.The next building instruction gives the middle bar’s full reach, from one end to the other. The Hebrew bar-word shares its root with a verb for running, so the connection across the boards is carried in the word itself.
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