What Does Exodus 36:6 Mean?
And Moses gave commandment, and they passed a voice through the camp, saying, Let neither man nor woman make any more work for the lifted offering of the set-apart place. So the people were held back from bringing.
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 Moses gave commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp, saying, Let neither man nor woman make any more work for the offering of the sanctuary. So the people were restrained from bringing.THE KEY
Generosity has an endpoint: when the work has enough, even the people’s giving is restrained.
THE MEANING
A shared work can reach sufficiency. When it has what it needs, further contribution is held back; completion includes the moment of stopping. Restraint protects the work’s limits without undoing the generosity already given.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
More is always better, and stopping a gift means the giver has failed.
THE ROOT
וַיִּכָּלֵא
vayyikkālēʾ
GROWS FROM
כלא
k-l-ʾ
to restrain, withhold, or shut in
The verb carries the force of being held back. Here restraint is not a sign that the people are ungenerous: the work has enough, so the flow of contributions receives a boundary.
ALSO GROWS
kālāʾ: to restrain, withhold, or shut up
כָּלָא
It makes clear that the people’s bringing is actively held back.
mikhlāʾah: an enclosure or sheepfold
מִכְלָאָה
This related word pictures movement contained within a boundary.
תְּרוּמָה
terumah
GROWS FROM
רום
r-w-m
to rise, be high, or lift up
“lifted offering” in this verse is terumah. The contribution carries the image of a portion lifted up. A lifted portion can fulfill its purpose once there is enough for the sanctuary.
ALSO GROWS
marom: height or a high place
מָרוֹם
It keeps the root’s image of height and elevation audible.
terumah: a contribution or lifted portion
תְּרוּמָה
It names the contribution set apart for the sanctuary’s work.
מֹשֶׁה
Mosheh
GROWS FROM
משה
m-sh-h
to draw out, especially from water
Moses’s name carries the nature of one drawn out of water. Here the one drawn out gives the command that marks a limit to the people’s outpouring.
ALSO GROWS
māshāh: to draw out of water
מָשָׁה
This is the verb associated with the naming of Moses.
Mosheh: Moses, the one drawn out
מֹשֶׁה
The name carries the action of being drawn out into the scene.
THE PATTERN
Shared giving answers a concrete need, and its measure is whether the work is supplied rather than how much can be collected.
And they spoke unto Moses, saying, The people multiply their bringing, far more than enough for the serving of the work, which the LORD commanded to make.But through evenness, that in this present season your overflow may fill their lack, and their overflow may fill your lack, that there may be evenness.For none among them lacked, for as many as owned fields or houses sold them and carried the prices of what was sold,THE THREAD
And blessed be your taste, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from coming to pour out blood, and from avenging myself with my own hand.The Hebrew verb behind “hast kept me” is כלא (k-l-ʾ), meaning to restrain or hold back, the same root as “were restrained” here. In one verse it holds back further contributions; in the other it holds back bloodshed, showing restraint as a boundary that can preserve what matters.
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