What Does 2 Chronicles 3:12 Mean in the King James?

And one wing of the other cherub was five cubits, reaching to the wall of the house: and the other wing was five cubits also, joining to the wing of the other cherub.

2 Chronicles 3:12 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The word for “joining” carries the sense of clinging: the wings do not merely meet; they hold fast to one another.

THE MEANING

Wholeness takes shape as each wing reaches the house’s boundary and joins the other wing. The space is held by these connections, each reach becoming part of a whole that neither wing forms alone.

THE ROOT

דְּבֵקָה

deveqah

GROWS FROM

דבק

dabaq

To cling, adhere, or hold fast.

The word translated “joining” shares its root with the Hebrew verb for clinging or cleaving. English can make the wings’ connection sound like simple contact; the root carries the sense of parts held close together.

ALSO GROWS

davaq: To cling or cleave.

דָּבַק

This is the verb used when a man cleaves to his wife, showing the closeness carried by the wings’ joining.

davaqti: I have clung or held fast.

דָּבַקְתִּי

This form shows the same root as an attachment held over time, not a passing touch.

THE PATTERN

A dwelling takes shape as separate parts reach their boundaries and join one another.

The five curtains shall be coupled together one to another; and other five curtains shall be coupled one to another.

Exodus 26:3 · KJVSeparate curtains become a continuous covering as they are coupled to one another.

And he set the cherubims within the inner house: and they stretched forth the wings of the cherubims, so that the wing of the one touched the one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall; and their wings touched one another in the midst of the house.

1 Kings 6:27 · KJVThe wings span the house from wall to wall and meet in the middle, echoing the joined reach described here.

In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:

Ephesians 2:21 · KJVThe building becomes a whole as its parts are fitted together.

THE THREAD

Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

Genesis 2:24 · KJV

“Joining” here comes from ⁨דבק⁩, the same root translated “cleave” in Genesis 2:24. In both verses, distinct parts are held close together, and their union forms a whole.

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