What Does Exodus 39:39 Mean?
The bronze altar, and its mesh of bronze, its poles, and all its vessels, the basin and its base.
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
The brasen altar, and his grate of brass, his staves, and all his vessels, the laver and his foot,THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “altar” is built from the act of slaughter, so the object still carries its action inside its name.
THE MEANING
Before you is a whole arrangement: altar, grate, poles, vessels, basin, and its stand. The verse keeps the place of offering joined to its tools and to the support beneath the basin.
THE ROOT
מִזְבֵּחַ
mizbeach
GROWS FROM
זבח
z-b-ḥ
to slaughter; to sacrifice
מִזְבֵּחַ (mizbeach, altar) grows from זבח (z-b-ḥ), the root of slaughtering or sacrificing. English presents a piece of equipment; Hebrew keeps the act of sacrifice audible in its name.
ALSO GROWS
zāvaḥ: to slaughter; to sacrifice
זָבַח
The verb names the action carried by the altar’s name.
zevaḥ: a sacrifice or slaughtered offering
זֶבַח
This noun makes the altar’s connection to the offering explicit.
כַּנּוֹ
kanno
GROWS FROM
כון
k-w-n
to be firm; to establish or set in place
The basin’s base is named with the language of being set firm. Even the support beneath the vessel belongs to the complete arrangement.
ALSO GROWS
mekhonah: a base or stand
מְכוֹנָה
This related word names a support that holds something in place.
hekin: to prepare or establish
הֵכִין
The root links the base to the act of making something ready and firm.
THE PATTERN
An offering becomes concrete when something is brought forward and presented.
And Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean beast and of every clean bird, and sent up rising offerings on the altar.You shall make an altar of soil for me, and upon it you shall slaughter your rising offerings and your wholeness offerings, your sheep and your herd. In every place where I cause my name to be remembered, I will come to you, and I will bless you.Therefore I urge you, brothers, through the compassions of God, to set your bodies beside God as a living sacrifice, set apart, well-pleasing to him, which is your true service.THE THREAD
You shall make an altar of soil for me, and upon it you shall slaughter your rising offerings and your wholeness offerings, your sheep and your herd. In every place where I cause my name to be remembered, I will come to you, and I will bless you.This verse pairs מִזְבֵּחַ (mizbeach, altar) with זָבַח (zāvaḥ, to sacrifice), words growing from זבח (z-b-ḥ), the root of slaughtering or sacrificing. The altar in Exodus 39:39 carries that action in its name.
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