What Does 2 Chronicles 4:3 Mean in the King James?
And under it was the similitude of oxen, which did compass it round about: ten in a cubit, compassing the sea round about. Two rows of oxen were cast, when it was cast.
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 sea’s edge becomes measurable through a repeated ring that circles it all the way around.
THE MEANING
The image surrounds the great sea with two cast rows of oxen, counted at ten to a cubit. Vast water and exact measure occupy the same frame: the surrounding pattern gives the sea a visible edge.
THE ROOT
מַקִּיפִים
maqiphim
GROWS FROM
נקף
naqaph
To go around or encircle; in related forms, to round off an edge.
English spreads the repeated action across “compass,” “round about,” and “compassing”; Hebrew uses one root for the circuits, making the perimeter a continuous action. A related form uses the same root for rounding an edge, so the ring here is a deliberate shaping of the sea’s boundary.
ALSO GROWS
hiqif: To surround or encircle.
הִקִּיף
This form makes the act of forming a perimeter explicit, as the oxen encircle the sea.
taqqifu: To round off an edge.
תַּקִּפוּ
In Leviticus 19:27, the root describes rounding the edge of the head; here its encircling sense shapes the visible edge around the sea.
THE PATTERN
Scripture pictures the sea’s force within a boundary or brought to stillness, giving its expanse a limit.
And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth.And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.THE THREAD
And under the brim of it round about there were knops compassing it, ten in a cubit, compassing the sea round about: the knops were cast in two rows, when it was cast.Kings uses the same Hebrew verb, מַקִּיפִים (maqiphim), meaning “encircling,” for the repeated circuit around the basin. Together, the descriptions place the encircling pattern beneath the vessel and around its brim, showing the perimeter as part of its structure.
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