What Does Exodus 40:11 Mean?
You shall anoint the basin and its stand with oil, and set it apart.
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 thou shalt anoint the laver and his foot, and sanctify it.THE KEY
The basin and its foot are both anointed and set apart: the whole instrument of cleansing receives this designation.
THE MEANING
The basin and its base are both marked with anointing and set apart; the structure that carries the washing is included with the vessel itself. For you now, the verse holds cleansing together with the whole form that bears it: no working part is outside the setting-apart.
THE ROOT
וּמָשַׁחְתָּ
u-mashachta
GROWS FROM
משח
To smear or apply oil; to anoint.
“anoint” in this verse is u-mashachta. The same seed gives the word for the anointed one, so anointing carries the sense of marking someone or something for a designated role. Here, both the basin and its support receive that marking.
ALSO GROWS
mashiach: Anointed one.
מָשִׁיחַ
The branch shows that anointing marks its recipient for a distinct role, just as this vessel and its foot are designated for sacred use.
mishchah: Anointing oil or anointing.
מִשְׁחָה
The oil is the applied sign of designation; the verse names both parts of the washing station as receiving it.
וְקִדַּשְׁתָּ
veqiddashta
GROWS FROM
קדש
To set apart as sacred.
The root also forms words for set-apartness and for a sanctuary, a place set apart. The verse pairs anointing with setting apart, showing both the marking and the designation of the whole instrument.
ALSO GROWS
qodesh: Set-apartness; something sacred.
קֹדֶשׁ
This branch gives the state toward which the basin and its foot are designated.
miqdash: Sanctuary; a set-apart place.
מִקְדָּשׁ
The same root names a place set apart, connecting the vessel’s designation to the space and service it belongs to.
THE PATTERN
Anointing marks what receives it for a designated service or discernment.
And you shall set them apart, so that they are most set apart; whatever touches them shall be set apart.Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers, and the breath of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.But the anointing you have received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. As the same anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is no lie, you will remain in him, even as it has taught you.THE THREAD
And he sprinkled some of it upon the altar seven times, and anointed the altar and all its vessels, both the basin and its stand, to set them apart.This verse enacts the same pairing: anointing and setting apart reach the laver and its foot together. Exodus gives the instruction; Leviticus echoes both root actions in the completed act.
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