What Does Exodus 39:13 Mean?
And the fourth row, a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper; they were filled into their settings of gold.
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 fourth row, a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper: they were inclosed in ouches of gold in their inclosings.THE KEY
The Hebrew calls the settings “fillings,” picturing each stone fitted into a precise place in the whole.
THE MEANING
The fourth row names beryl, onyx, and jasper, each set in gold. The Hebrew describes the stones as set into a pattern and the settings as “fillings.” The piece takes shape through distinct stones fitted into their places.
THE ROOT
מִלּוּאֹתָם
millu'otam
GROWS FROM
מלא
m-l-ʾ
To fill or be full.
“filled into” in this verse is millu'otam. The word rendered “inclosings” comes from the root for filling or being full; the settings are described as fillings. This adds the image of stones fitted into specific places, with each setting contributing to the whole.
ALSO GROWS
mālēʾ: To fill or become full.
מָלֵא
This basic form shows the seed meaning carried by the word for the stones’ settings.
milluʾ: A filling or a place fitted to receive something.
מִלּוּא
This form brings the root’s sense of filling directly into the image of each gem fitted into its place.
מְשֻׁבָּצִים
meshubbatsim
GROWS FROM
שׁבץ
š-b-ṣ
To interlace or set into a patterned work.
“filled into” in this verse is meshubbatsim. The word translated “inclosed” comes from a root associated with interlacing and patterned settings. Together with the word for “fillings,” it describes both the stones’ patterned placement and the settings that receive them.
ALSO GROWS
mishbetsot: Stone settings, including the gold settings of the breastpiece.
מִשְׁבְּצוֹת
This related form names the crafted places that hold the stones.
meshubbats: Something interlaced or set into patterned work.
מְשֻׁבָּץ
This form brings attention to each stone’s placement within the design.
THE PATTERN
Distinct precious stones take their place in an ordered whole through the structure that holds them.
And you will fill it with stone in four rows. The first row will be a sardius, a topaz, and a carbuncle; this will be the first row.And the foundations of the wall of the city are arranged with every precious stone. The first foundation is jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald.THE THREAD
And Aaron will carry the names of the children of Israel on the breastpiece of ruling, upon his heart, when he goes into the set-apart place, for a remembrance before the LORD continually.This verse shows what the breastplate carries: the names of Israel rest over the heart. The ordered stones belong to a garment of remembrance, and their precise arrangement gives that remembrance visible form.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us