What Does Exodus 38:6 Mean?
And he made the poles of shittim wood, and sheathed them with bronze.
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 staves of shittim wood, and overlaid them with brass.THE KEY
The altar’s carrying poles are part of its sacred design: what is set apart is built to travel.
THE MEANING
Here the altar is made for movement: its distinct wooden poles are covered in bronze and built into its design for carrying. Sacred work is not confined to one fixed place; its means of travel are part of its making.
THE ROOT
הַבַּדִּים
habbaddim
GROWS FROM
בדד
b-d-d
Be apart, remain separate, be alone.
“staves” in this verse is habbaddim. The pole noun בַּד (bad) is commonly connected with בָּדַד (badad, to be apart). The carrying pieces are distinct from the altar’s body, and that separation serves a purpose: it makes the altar bearable.
ALSO GROWS
levad: Alone, apart, by oneself.
לְבַד
This branch names apartness; the poles, too, are distinct pieces that belong to the altar’s design.
boded: One who is solitary or set apart.
בּוֹדֵד
The word carries the sense of separation into a form describing something distinct, echoing the poles as separate supports for carrying.
נְחֹשֶׁת
nechosheth
GROWS FROM
נחש
נְחֹשֶׁת means copper or bronze; its consonants echo נָחָשׁ (nachash, serpent), a pairing made explicit in Numbers 21:9.
The bronze covering carries the same consonants as the Hebrew word for serpent. Numbers 21:9 brings the echo into view in the phrase “serpent of brass”; here it adds a scriptural sound-link without making the altar a serpent symbol.
ALSO GROWS
nachash: Serpent.
נָחָשׁ
Numbers 21:9 places this word beside נְחֹשֶׁת (nechosheth, bronze), making the shared consonants audible.
nichesh: Practice divination.
נִחֵשׁ
This verb shares the נחש consonants, extending the sound-family while leaving the bronze covering’s meaning here concrete.
THE PATTERN
What is sacred moves through material supports and vessels made to carry it.
And you set the poles into the rings at the sides of the ark, that the ark may be lifted with them.And they drew out the poles, so that the ends of the poles were seen from the set-apart place before the innermost room, but they were not seen from outside. And there they are to this day.But we hold this treasure in clay vessels, so that the overflow of strength may be of God and not from us.THE THREAD
And you set the poles into the rings at the sides of the ark, that the ark may be lifted with them.The same word, הַבַּדִּים (habbaddim, the poles), appears there, where their purpose is stated plainly: the ark is borne with them. That makes the separate poles in Exodus 38:6 part of a design for movement, not incidental hardware.
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