What Does Exodus 37:13 Mean?
And he poured four rings of gold for it, and set the rings on the four feet that belonged to its four legs.
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 cast for it four rings of gold, and put the rings upon the four corners that were in the four feet thereof.THE KEY
The table’s “feet,” פַּעֲמֹתָיו (paʿămōṯāw, its feet), share a root with “steps”, its supports already carry the language of movement.
THE MEANING
The gold rings sit at the table’s four feet, fitting a stable furnishing to be carried. Its Hebrew word for “feet” also carries the sense of steps, joining support with movement. Sacred provision has a place to rest and fittings for the journey.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The sacred must remain fixed in one place; this table is built to be carried.
THE ROOT
פַּעֲמֹתָיו
paʿămōṯāw
GROWS FROM
פעם
To strike or beat; in related forms, a step or an occurrence.
English makes these simply the table’s “feet.” The Hebrew פַּעֲמֹתָיו (paʿămōṯāw, its feet) shares its root with פַּעַם (paʿam, a step or beat), so the word for the table’s supports also evokes movement.
ALSO GROWS
paʿam: A step or beat; also a time or occasion.
פַּעַם
The shared root links the table’s feet to a step, the movement its supports make possible.
paʿamim: Steps; times or occasions.
פְּעָמִים
Isaiah 26:6 uses this form for the needy person’s steps, showing the same root in motion.
paʿamon: A bell.
פַּעֲמוֹן
The bell’s ringing or striking preserves the root’s sense of a beat.
THE PATTERN
What is set apart for sacred use is fitted to bear its presence onward.
And you make for it four rings of gold, and set the rings at the four corners of its four feet.And when Aaron and his sons have finished covering the set-apart place and all its vessels, as the camp pulls up, then the sons of Kohath shall come to lift it. But they shall not touch any set-apart thing, lest they die. These are the loads of the sons of Kohath in the tent of meeting.But the Lord said to him, Go on your way, for he is a chosen vessel to me, to carry my name before the nations and kings and the children of Israel.THE THREAD
The foot will trample it, the feet of the bowed ones, the steps of the emptied.Isaiah’s “steps,” פַּעֲמֵי (paʿămê), share the פעם root with the table’s “feet,” פַּעֲמֹתָיו (paʿămōṯāw). In the table the root names supports fitted for carrying; in Isaiah it names the steps of the needy.
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