What Does Exodus 37:6 Mean?
And he made the covering of clean gold. Two and a half forearms was its length, and one and a half forearms its breadth.
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 mercy seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half was the length thereof, and one cubit and a half the breadth thereof.THE KEY
The object called the mercy seat is named from the root for covering, so the ark’s sacred surface is itself a covering.
THE MEANING
The ark has a precisely measured surface of pure gold above it. Its name carries the action of covering, making that surface part of the verse’s meaning as well as its design.
THE ROOT
כַּפֹּרֶת
kappōret
GROWS FROM
כפר
k-p-r
Cover, coat over.
The name kappōret (כַּפֹּרֶת, covering) carries the root’s action of covering. The same seed appears as kāphar (כָּפַר, cover or coat) when Noah coats the ark; covering links the vessel that carries life with the gold surface above the testimony.
ALSO GROWS
kāphar: Cover or coat over; the verb used for pitching Noah’s ark.
כָּפַר
It shows the root’s covering as an action that encloses and protects what is carried within.
kippurim: Coverings, or atonement.
כִּפֻּרִים
This ritual branch carries the root’s idea of covering from a physical surface into a relationship.
THE PATTERN
In Scripture, a covering defines a surface where what is carried beneath it is held within a space of protection and encounter.
And you make a covering of clean gold, two and a half forearms its length, and a forearm and a half its width.He takes some of the blood of the bullock and sprinkles it with his finger upon the covering eastward, and before the covering he sprinkles some of the blood with his finger seven times.Above it are the cherubim of weight, casting their shade over the covering, about which we cannot now speak piece by piece.THE THREAD
Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; make nests in the ark, and cover it within and without with pitch.The verb translated “pitch” is kāphar (כָּפַר, cover or coat), from the same root as kappōret (כַּפֹּרֶת, covering). Here the root coats the vessel that carries life; in Exodus, it names the gold surface above what the ark holds.
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