What Does Exodus 36:34 Mean?
And he sheathed the frames with gold, and made their rings of gold to be houses for the bolts, and sheathed the bolts with gold.
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 overlaid the boards with gold, and made their rings of gold to be places for the bars, and overlaid the bars with gold.THE KEY
The rings are literally called houses for the bars: what holds the dwelling together is given a dwelling of its own.
THE MEANING
Connection has a place of its own: the rings are called houses for the bars. The boards, rings, and bars share the same gold covering, so the joining work belongs to the dwelling it holds together. The bars pass through their receiving forms and bind the boards into one frame.
THE ROOT
בָּתִּים
battim
GROWS FROM
בית
bayit
House, dwelling, or place of habitation.
The rings are described with the word for houses: the bar does not pass through an anonymous opening but has a place made to receive it. The structure gives its connecting support a dwelling of its own.
ALSO GROWS
Bethel: A place named “house of God.”
בֵּית־אֵל
The name preserves בית (bayit, house), showing how a place can be named by what it holds.
Bethlehem: A place named “house of bread.”
בֵּית לֶחֶם
As with the rings that are houses for bars, the name describes a place by what belongs within it.
בְּרִיחִם
berichim
GROWS FROM
ברח
baraḥ
To flee, bolt, or move swiftly away.
“bars” in this verse is berichim. The bar’s name comes from a root whose verb means to flee or bolt, giving a fixed building piece a word of motion. Here the crossbars run through their ring-houses and bind separate boards into one frame.
ALSO GROWS
baraḥ: To flee or escape.
בָּרַח
This verb carries the motion still audible in the name of the crossbar.
beriaḥ: A bar or bolt.
בְּרִיחַ
This is the singular form of the structural piece that runs through the rings to join the boards.
טַבְּעֹתֵיהֶם
tabbeʿoteihem
GROWS FROM
טבע
ṭabaʿ
To sink or plunge.
“rings” in this verse is tabbeʿoteihem. The ring-word shares its root with sinking or plunging, giving the receiving form an echo of something set into an opening. The verse makes that image physical: the bar is held by entering the ring.
ALSO GROWS
ṭāvaʿ: To sink or plunge.
טָבַע
The root evokes entry into a depth or opening, like the bar passing into its ring.
ṭabbaʿat: A ring or signet ring.
טַבַּעַת
This is the singular ring-word used for the fittings that receive the bars.
THE PATTERN
A dwelling becomes one through pieces fitted together, each with a place in the whole.
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.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
And you shall overlay the boards with gold, and make their rings of gold for places for the bars, and you shall overlay the bars with gold.The same Hebrew word for “houses” describes the rings made for the bars in both verses. The repeated wording makes the image plain: each bar has a home, and the places that join the structure belong to the dwelling itself.
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