What Does Exodus 37:25 Mean?
And he made the altar of rising smoke, of shittim wood. One forearm was its length, and one its breadth; it was four-cornered; and two forearms was its standing height; its horns were of the same.
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 the incense altar of shittim wood: the length of it was a cubit, and the breadth of it a cubit; it was foursquare; and two cubits was the height of it; the horns thereof were of the same.THE KEY
The altar’s horns are not added to it: its reach rises from the same substance as the place that holds the incense.
THE MEANING
The incense altar has a measured body: equal in length and breadth, twice as high, with horns that belong to the same whole. What rises from it and what holds the incense share one substance.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the assumption that the altar’s reach must be an attachment from elsewhere; its horns come from the same substance as its body.
THE ROOT
קְטֹרֶת
qetoret
GROWS FROM
ק־ט־ר
q-t-r
to burn incense, make smoke
“altar of rising smoke” in this verse is qetoret. The word for incense shares its root with the act of making smoke and with smoke itself. The altar gives a measured form to what rises from burning.
ALSO GROWS
qatar: to burn incense; make smoke
קָטַר
The action and the incense share a root, joining what the altar holds with what rises from it.
qitor: smoke
קִיטֹר
This branch names what the incense becomes as it rises, making the altar’s purpose visible in the root family.
קַרְנֹתָיו
qarnotav
GROWS FROM
ק־ר־ן
q-r-n
horn; a projecting or radiating form
The word for horns belongs to a root also associated with rays that project outward. Since these horns are ‘of the same,’ the altar’s reach is part of its own form.
ALSO GROWS
qeren: horn; a projecting form
קֶרֶן
This is the singular form of the word used for the altar’s horns, whose source the verse locates within the altar itself.
qaran: to send out rays; shine
קָרַן
This related form evokes something extending outward, deepening the image of the horns as the altar’s own projecting reach.
THE PATTERN
Incense gives what rises before God a visible, embodied form.
A forearm shall be its length, and a forearm its breadth; four-cornered shall it be, and two forearms its height; its horns shall rise from it.Let my prayer be set before you as smoke, and the lifting of my palms as the evening offering.And another messenger comes and stands at the altar, holding a golden censer; and much incense is given to him, so that he might give it with the prayers of all the set-apart ones upon the golden altar before the face of the throne.THE THREAD
Let my prayer be set before you as smoke, and the lifting of my palms as the evening offering.The Hebrew word translated ‘incense’ in both verses is qetoret. Psalm 141:2 names prayer as incense, so the altar’s measured body becomes a place for the unseen rising of prayer.
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