What Does Exodus 40:27 Mean?
And he made the fragrant smoke rise upon it, as the LORD commanded Moses.
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 burnt sweet incense thereon; as the LORD commanded Moses.THE KEY
The incense is named by what it becomes: smoke rising from the sanctuary.
THE MEANING
The dwelling’s sacred life takes form through an act given its place by the LORD’s instruction. The incense becomes smoke that rises within it, making the offering an image of ascent. Moses, whose name carries the sense of one drawn out, receives the instruction that shapes this act.
THE ROOT
קְטֹרֶת
qetoret
GROWS FROM
קטר
q-t-r
To emit smoke or burn incense.
“made the smoke rise” in this verse is qetoret. The Hebrew word for incense grows from the root for making smoke. English names the substance, while the root also carries its transformation: the offering becomes something that rises.
ALSO GROWS
qatar: To burn incense; make smoke rise.
קָטַר
The verb names the act that turns the incense into rising smoke.
qitor: Smoke or vapor.
קִיטוֹר
This related noun shows that the root links the incense to the smoke it produces.
מֹשֶׁה
Mosheh
GROWS FROM
משׁה
m-sh-h
To draw out, especially from water.
The name Moses carries the sense of being drawn out. Here the name stands beside an instruction being carried into action, joining the one drawn out with the ordered life of the dwelling.
ALSO GROWS
mashah: To draw out.
מָשָׁה
This verb gives the name Moses its name-nature in the biblical naming account.
Mosheh: Moses; the one drawn out.
מֹשֶׁה
The name keeps the drawing-out image present as Moses receives the instruction.
THE PATTERN
Incense becomes rising smoke before God, and scripture uses that same image to make prayer visible.
And Aaron shall make sweet smoke rise upon it every morning; when he trims the lamps, he shall make the smoke rise upon it.Let my prayer be set before you as smoke, and the lifting of my palms as the evening offering.And another messenger comes and stands at the altar, holding a golden censer; and much incense is given to him, so that he might give it with the prayers of all the set-apart ones upon the golden altar before the face of the throne. And the smoke of the incense rises with the prayers of the set-apart ones, from the hand of the messenger, before the face of God.THE THREAD
Let my prayer be set before you as smoke, and the lifting of my palms as the evening offering.Psalm 141 uses the same Hebrew word, qetoret (קְטֹרֶת), for incense. It makes explicit the image held in this act: incense rises before God, and prayer is pictured as rising with it.
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