What Does Exodus 36:35 Mean?
And he made a dividing curtain of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twisted linen; with cherubim he made it, the work of skilled hands.
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 a vail of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen: with cherubims made he it of cunning work.THE KEY
The veil carries Eden’s guardians on its surface, turning a barrier into an image of the guarded way to the tree of life.
THE MEANING
The threshold before the holy is carefully shaped, not blank: cherubim are woven into it, recalling the guardians at Eden’s way. The boundary stands as a marked threshold bearing the image of what it guards.
THE ROOT
מַעֲשֵׂה חֹשֵׁב
ma'aseh ḥōshēv
GROWS FROM
חשב
ḥ-š-b
to think, devise, calculate, or reckon
“the work of skilled hands” in this verse is ma'aseh ḥōshēv. The phrase joins work (ma’aseh) to choshev, one who thinks or devises. The veil is thought shaped into a visible pattern, and its cherubim make the boundary legible.
ALSO GROWS
maḥashavah: thought, plan, or design
מַחֲשָׁבָה
This branch shows the inward imagining that the crafted veil gives visible form to.
ḥeshbon: reckoning or account
חֶשְׁבּוֹן
This branch carries the root’s sense of considered arrangement: the veil’s pattern is deliberate and ordered.
THE PATTERN
The threshold around the holy carries Eden’s guarding imagery, and scripture later shows the veil opening.
So he drove out the man, and he pitched the cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and the flaming sword that turned every way would guard the way of the tree of life.And you shall hang up the veil under the taches, so that you may bring in there, within the veil, the ark of the testimony; and the veil shall divide for you between the set-apart place and the most set-apart place.And look, the hanging curtain of the temple was torn in two, from above to below, and the earth shook, and the rocks broke open.THE THREAD
So he drove out the man, and he pitched the cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and the flaming sword that turned every way would guard the way of the tree of life.The veil puts cherubim at the threshold of the holy place, echoing the cherubim at Eden’s east who guard the way to the tree of life. The sanctuary’s boundary carries the image of Eden’s guarded way.
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