What Does Deuteronomy 27:5 Mean in the King James?
And there shalt thou build an altar unto the LORD thy God, an altar of stones: thou shalt not lift up any iron tool upon them.
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 altar’s making is not completed by cutting; it is built while the stones remain whole.
THE MEANING
Now, sacred form takes shape through stones that remain uncut: the altar is built, but iron is withheld from their surface. Making here includes restraint, so the tool’s force does not define what is set apart.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the assumption that what is sacred becomes fit only after human tools cut it into shape.
THE ROOT
תָנִיף
tanif
GROWS FROM
נוף
נוף (nuph): wave, swing, move through the air.
“lift up” in this verse is tanif. The verb is more specific than a generic lift: נוף (nuph, “wave, swing”) names a moving motion. Its branch תְּנוּפָה (tenufah, “wave offering”) names that motion in ritual presentation; here the iron tool is barred from being moved over the stones.
ALSO GROWS
henif: wave, lift up
הֵנִיף
This verb form shares the root motion of swinging or waving, clarifying what the tool is forbidden to do over the stones.
tenufah: a wave offering, a waving
תְּנוּפָה
This branch names ritual presentation through waving; the verse places the tool outside that movement over the altar stones.
מִזְבֵּחַ
mizbeach
GROWS FROM
זבח
זבח (zavach): slaughter, sacrifice.
The altar’s name grows from the act of sacrifice, so its purpose is already carried in its name. The verse pairs this place of offering with stones that no iron tool may shape, setting sacrifice beside a surface left whole.
ALSO GROWS
zavach: to slaughter, sacrifice
זָבַח
The verb names the act associated with the place called מִזְבֵּחַ (mizbeach, “altar”).
zevach: a sacrifice, a sacrificial meal
זֶבַח
This noun makes the altar’s connection to offering explicit while the verse focuses on how its stones remain uncut.
אֲבָנִים
avanim
GROWS FROM
אבן
אבן (even): stone.
The word אֶבֶן (even, “stone”) carries a father-son wordplay: אָב (av, “father”) and בֵּן (ben, “son”) overlap on ב within its spelling. That echo places relation inside the material, while the verse preserves the stones from being cut by iron.
ALSO GROWS
even: stone
אֶבֶן
This singular form is the same material named in plural in the verse, keeping each stone visible within the altar.
avne: stones of
אַבְנֵי
This construct form binds stones to what is assembled from them while retaining their identity as stones.
THE PATTERN
Sacred dwelling takes form through stones whose identity is preserved within the building.
And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither: so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building.Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.THE THREAD
And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.This altar instruction uses the same Hebrew verb נוף (nuph, “wave or lift”) for moving the tool over stone. The shared root makes the prohibition vivid: the iron tool’s motion across the altar material is barred.
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