What Does Exodus 38:15 Mean?
And for the other side of the gate of the enclosure, on this hand and that hand, were hangings of fifteen forearms, their pillars three, and their bases three.
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 for the other side of the court gate, on this hand and that hand, were hangings of fifteen cubits; their pillars three, and their sockets three.THE KEY
The gate is a measured opening whose hanging sides stand on counted supports.
THE MEANING
The passage into what is set apart stays open while its edges are measured and supported. Equal lengths of hanging cloth rest on three pillars and three sockets on either side; the opening has a clear shape because its boundary is held.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It loosens the assumption that access requires an unbounded opening: here, the entrance remains within a measured, supported boundary.
THE ROOT
עַמּוּד
ʿammûd
GROWS FROM
עמד
ʿ-m-d
to stand, remain, or take one’s stand
English calls these “pillars,” a noun that can sound like a static object; the Hebrew word is formed from עמד, “to stand.” It presents the supports as standing members that hold the hanging boundary around an open gate.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāmad: to stand, remain
עָמַד
The curtain’s frame depends on uprights that stand; the fabric does not hold the boundary by itself.
maʿămād: a standing place, position, or station
מַעֲמָד
The same root can name a position or station, linking support with a place held in standing.
THE PATTERN
A passage is shaped by a defined opening whose flanking boundaries rest on counted supports.
And for the gate of the enclosure there shall be a screen of twenty forearms, of blue, purple, and crimson, and fine twisted linen, embroidered. Their pillars shall be four, and their bases four.This is the gate to the LORD; the aligned enter into it.I am the door. Through me, if anyone enters, he shall be delivered, and shall go in and out, and shall find pasture.THE THREAD
For look, I have set you this day a fortress city, and an iron pillar, and bronze walls against all the land, against the kings of Judah, against its princes, against its priests, and against the people of the land.Jeremiah uses the same Hebrew word עַמּוּד (ʿammûd), meaning “pillar,” to describe a standing support. That root makes the counted pillars here more than ornament: they are the standing members that hold the boundary around the gate.
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