What Does 2 Chronicles 3:13 Mean in the King James?
The wings of these cherubims spread themselves forth twenty cubits: and they stood on their feet, and their faces were inward.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The cherubim’s wings span the full twenty cubits, but their feet stay planted and their faces point toward the house, their reach is directed, not escape.
THE MEANING
The wings fill the span while the figures remain standing, facing toward the house. The verse holds great reach together with stillness and inward orientation: what extends across the space remains turned toward the dwelling.
THE ROOT
כַּנְפֵי
kanfei
GROWS FROM
כנף
Wing; also the outer edge or extremity of something.
The word for wings also names edges and extremities, so the image carries more than the idea of flight: it is about reach across the room. The full span makes the cherubim’s wings a covering-like boundary around the house.
ALSO GROWS
kanaf: A wing, the part that extends outward.
כָּנָף
This is the singular form behind the verse’s wings, foregrounding their extended reach.
kanfot: Outer edges or corners, as in “the four corners of the earth.”
כַּנְפוֹת
The same word family can name a far edge, widening the image from flight to the reach of a covering across the space.
פְּרֻשִׂים
perusim
GROWS FROM
פרשׂ
To spread out or stretch across a space.
“spread themselves forth” in this verse is perusim. The wings are described as spread across a measured twenty cubits. Beside the figures standing on their feet, the word presents extension over a place, not movement away from it.
ALSO GROWS
perusim: Extended across an area; the form used for the wings here.
פְּרֻשִׂים
It makes the wings’ breadth the focus of the verse.
paras: To extend outward, as when hands are stretched out.
פָּרַשׂ
The same root can describe a deliberate reach, which echoes the cherubim’s full, fixed span.
פְּנֵיהֶם
penehem
GROWS FROM
פנה
To turn, face, or direct toward.
The Hebrew says their faces are לַבָּיִת (la-bayit, toward the house); “inward” condenses that direction. Their posture is not only still but oriented toward the dwelling.
ALSO GROWS
panim: The face, or the presence turned toward another.
פָּנִים
The faces give the figures a clear orientation within the space.
panah: To turn or direct oneself toward something.
פָּנָה
This root brings out the direction held by “their faces were inward.”
THE PATTERN
A wing’s full reach is directed toward the place it covers.
The wings of these cherubims spread themselves forth twenty cubits: and they stood on their feet, and their faces were inward.And the cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubims be.O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!THE THREAD
And the cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubims be.Exodus uses the same roots for כָּנָף (kanaf, wing) and פָּרַשׂ (paras, spread out), then names what the wings cover: the mercy seat. Its faces point toward that place, making reach and orientation part of one image.
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