What Does Exodus 38:16 Mean?
All the hangings of the enclosure all around were of fine twisted linen.
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
All the hangings of the court round about were of fine twined linen.THE KEY
The court’s boundary is made by twisting many strands together into one enclosing fabric.
THE MEANING
The court is enclosed by fine linen made from twisted strands, and that fabric surrounds the space. The verse gives the boundary a material form: many joined threads shaping the edge of a set-apart place.
THE ROOT
מָשְׁזָר
mashzar
GROWS FROM
שזר
to twist or twine strands together
The root names the making of the linen: separate threads are twisted together to form a strand. The court’s enclosing fabric is thus made from many joined strands, each still present within the whole.
ALSO GROWS
shazar: to twist or twine together
שָׁזַר
This is the verbal action beneath the verse’s description of the linen.
mashzar: twisted or twined
מָשְׁזָר
This form describes the linen used to surround the court.
סָבִיב
saviv
GROWS FROM
סבב
to turn or go around
“round about” in this verse is saviv. The root carries motion around a center, giving the court’s boundary the shape of an encircling perimeter. The hangings mark the space by surrounding it on every side.
ALSO GROWS
sabab: to turn or go around
סָבַב
The verb reveals the movement contained in the court’s encircling boundary.
saviv: around or surrounding
סָבִיב
This form places the linen hangings around the whole court.
THE PATTERN
A set-apart dwelling takes form as distinct materials are joined into a larger whole.
Moreover you shall make the dwelling with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet; with cherubim of cunning work you shall make them.In whom the whole building, joined at the joints, grows into a set-apart temple in the Lord.You also, as living stones, are built up into a house of breath, a set-apart priesthood, to carry up sacrifices of breath, well received by God through Jesus, the Anointed One.THE THREAD
Moreover you shall make the dwelling with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet; with cherubim of cunning work you shall make them.The same word מָשְׁזָר (mashzar, twined) describes the linen curtains of the tabernacle and the court’s hangings. The same joining of strands forms both the sanctuary’s covering and the boundary around it.
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