What Does Exodus 40:33 Mean?
And he raised up the enclosure all around the dwelling and the altar, and set the screen at the gate of the enclosure. So Moses finished the work.
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 reared up the court round about the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the hanging of the court gate. So Moses finished the work.THE KEY
Completion here is a whole arrangement: the dwelling stands enclosed, with its entrance placed in the boundary.
THE MEANING
The verse shows completion as a visible arrangement: the tent and altar stand within a court, and the court has a defined entrance. What takes shape around the dwelling gives its approach a form and boundary. The work reaches its end as these parts stand together.
THE ROOT
וַיְכַל
vayekhal
GROWS FROM
כלה
To come to an end, be complete, or bring something to completion.
The verb וַיְכַל (vayekhal, “finished”) comes from כלה (kalah, “come to an end or complete”). The same root appears in forms for coming to an end or being spent, giving this finish a clear edge: the court stands around the tent and altar, and the gate screen is in place.
ALSO GROWS
yikhleh: Will come to an end; will be finished.
יִכְלֶה
This form keeps the same root consonants, כ־ל־ה, and shows completion as reaching an end.
nikhlah: Be consumed, exhausted, or brought to an end.
נִכְלָה
This form carries the same root consonants and shows the root’s sense of reaching an end through being spent.
וַיָּקֶם
vayyaqem
GROWS FROM
קום
To rise or stand; in a causative form, to raise or cause to stand.
“raised up” in this verse is vayyaqem. The court is caused to stand around the tabernacle and altar. מָקוֹם (maqom, “place”) comes from this root, joining the idea of a place with what stands; Moses (מֹשֶׁה, Moshe, “drawn out”) is the one who brings this enclosing form into place.
ALSO GROWS
maqom: Place, location.
מָקוֹם
A place is named from the same root as standing, tying the court’s erected form to the making of a defined place.
tequmah: Rising, restoration.
תְּקוּמָה
This noun shares the root consonants and carries standing into the sense of rising or being restored to standing.
וַיִּתֵּן
vayyitten
GROWS FROM
נתן
To give, set, or place.
“set the screen” in this verse is vayyitten. The verb translated “set up” comes from נתן (natan, “give, set, place”). The hanging is placed at the court’s entrance, so the threshold is completed by giving the gate screen its position.
ALSO GROWS
mattan: Gift, something given.
מַתָּן
This noun shares the root consonants נתן and shows the root’s sense of giving.
mattanah: Gift, present.
מַתָּנָה
This related noun also comes from נתן; its sense of what is given illuminates the verb’s underlying idea of placing or giving.
THE PATTERN
Completion becomes visible when a work’s labor reaches its full end.
And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had made, and he stopped on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.Thus all the work of the dwelling, the tent of meeting, was finished. And the children of Israel did according to all that the LORD commanded Moses, so they did.When Jesus had taken the sour wine, he said, It is finished. And he bowed his head, and handed over his breath.THE THREAD
And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had made, and he stopped on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.The Hebrew verb וַיְכַל (vayekhal, “finished”) uses the same root כלה (kalah, “bring to an end”) as the verb for God ending his work in Genesis. The shared root links the completed sanctuary arrangement to the completion of creation.
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