What Does Exodus 38:31 Mean?
And the bases of the enclosure all around, and the bases of the gate of the enclosure, and all the pegs of the dwelling, and all the pegs of the enclosure all around.
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 the sockets of the court round about, and the sockets of the court gate, and all the pins of the tabernacle, and all the pins of the court round about.THE KEY
The dwelling holds together through the supports beneath it and the pegs securing its edges, details the eye could easily miss.
THE MEANING
The dwelling is secured from its base to its perimeter: sockets support the court, and pegs fasten both the tabernacle and the court around it. The verse gives these quiet supports a place in the completed structure.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The sacred dwelling depends only on its visible center; its small fittings are incidental.
THE ROOT
סָבִיב
saviv
GROWS FROM
סבב
sabab
To turn, go around, or surround.
“round about” in this verse is saviv. The phrase comes from a root of circling and surrounding. Its repetition makes the court’s perimeter and the pegs around it part of one continuous boundary.
ALSO GROWS
sabab: To turn, go around, or surround.
סָבַב
This verb gives the repeated phrase its sense of a boundary encircling the space.
svivah: Surroundings or environs.
סְבִיבָה
This related noun keeps attention on the area around a place, where the court’s supports are set.
מִשְׁכָּן
mishkan
GROWS FROM
שכן
sh-k-n
To dwell or settle.
The tabernacle’s name grows from the verb “to dwell”: it is a dwelling-place. The pegs and sockets are counted as part of securing that place for dwelling.
ALSO GROWS
shakhan: To dwell, settle, or abide.
שָׁכַן
The verb names the dwelling action contained in the word for tabernacle.
shakhen: A neighbor or one who dwells nearby.
שָׁכֵן
This word for a neighbor shares the root of dwelling, linking place with those who inhabit its surroundings.
mishkan: A dwelling-place or tabernacle.
מִשְׁכָּן
The verse names the secured structure through the same root as dwelling.
יְתֵדוֹת
yetedot
GROWS FROM
יתד
y-t-d
A peg, pin, or stake used to fasten something in place.
The same word names the pegs of the tabernacle and the pegs of the court. One fastening word serves both the dwelling and its boundary, joining their stability in the verse.
ALSO GROWS
yated: A peg, pin, or tent stake in the singular.
יָתֵד
The singular form shows the concrete object behind the repeated plural in this verse.
yetedot: Pegs, pins, or stakes in the plural.
יְתֵדוֹת
This plural applies to both the tabernacle and the court, fastening the structure and its perimeter.
THE PATTERN
A dwelling’s visible span depends on supports and fastenings that secure its foundations and edges.
All the vessels of the dwelling, for all its service, and all its pegs, and all the pegs of the enclosure, shall be of bronze.Widen the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your dwellings stretch out. Do not hold back; lengthen your cords, and grip your pegs.Into what were its sockets sunk? Or who cast its cornerstone?THE THREAD
Widen the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your dwellings stretch out. Do not hold back; lengthen your cords, and grip your pegs.The Hebrew word translated “stakes” is יְתֵדוֹת (yetedot), the same word used for the pins of the tabernacle and court. Isaiah’s tent can expand because its stakes are strengthened; Exodus names those same fastenings as part of the dwelling’s perimeter.
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