What Does Exodus 39:27 Mean?
And they made tunics of fine linen, of woven work, for Aaron and for his sons.
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 they made coats of fine linen of woven work for Aaron, and for his sons,THE KEY
The garment is not just something they made: Hebrew uses the same root for “made” and “work,” binding the covering to the labor inside it.
THE MEANING
A calling takes shape in what is made and worn; it is not an abstraction detached from the body. The coats belong to Aaron and his sons, and the verse names the handiwork within them: fine linen shaped into a shared covering.
THE ROOT
וַיַּעֲשׂוּ
wayyaʿăśû
GROWS FROM
עשה
do, make, fashion
“made / work” in this verse is wayyaʿăśû. English separates “they made” from “work,” but both words come from עשה. The verse binds the act of making to the workmanship present in the garment.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāśāh: to do, make, or fashion
עָשָׂה
The verse uses this root in “they made” for the act that forms the coats.
maʿăśeh: work, deed, or workmanship
מַעֲשֶׂה
This noun repeats the root in “woven work,” joining the making of the coats to the craft within them.
אֹרֵג
ʾōrēg
GROWS FROM
ארג
weave
“of woven work” in this verse is ʾōrēg. The phrase rendered “woven work” names the weave itself. The covering is specified not only by its linen, but by the craft that shapes the threads into cloth.
ALSO GROWS
ʾārag: to weave
אָרַג
This verb names the action that gives the linen its woven form.
ʾōrēg: weaver; one who weaves
אֹרֵג
This form appears in the verse’s description of the work, pointing to weaving as the craft behind the covering.
THE PATTERN
Scripture presents clothing as a made, visible covering that can mark a person’s condition or calling.
And the LORD God made tunics of skin for Adam and for his wife, and clothed them.And for Aaron's sons you will make tunics, and you will make sashes for them, and you will make caps for them, for weight and for adornment.And it is given to her to be wrapped in fine linen, bright and clean, for the fine linen is the alignments of the set-apart ones.THE THREAD
And the LORD God made tunics of skin for Adam and for his wife, and clothed them.Both verses use the Hebrew root עשה for making coats: here, coats are made for Aaron and his sons; there, the LORD makes coats for Adam and his wife. The shared root links the covering to the work of making it.
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