What Does Exodus 24:10 Mean in the King James?
And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness.
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
Beneath God’s feet, the ground becomes both crafted sapphire and the clear expanse of heaven.
THE MEANING
Divine presence is made visible without becoming ordinary: beneath God’s feet is something like worked sapphire, yet the scene opens into the clarity of heaven itself. You encounter ground and sky joined in one lucid field. The image holds visibility and mystery together: God is seen, while the description remains ‘as it were.’
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the assumption that divine presence is wholly abstract and unseeable: God is depicted as seen, while the repeated ‘as it were’ leaves the vision beyond ordinary description.
THE ROOT
וַיִּרְאוּ
wayyirʾu
GROWS FROM
ראה
To see, look at, or perceive.
The verb translated ‘saw’ belongs to a root that also produces the word for an appearance. English separates the act of seeing from what becomes visible; Hebrew holds them in one word family, making this vision both encounter and disclosure.
ALSO GROWS
marʾeh: Appearance, sight, or vision.
מַרְאֶה
This branch names what comes into view, linking the act of seeing with the form that is seen.
roʾeh: Seer; one who sees.
רֹאֶה
This branch names the one who perceives, showing how the same root can describe the act, the observer, and the appearance.
לָטֹהַר
laṭōhar
GROWS FROM
טהר
To be clean or pure; by extension, purity or clarity.
The Hebrew behind ‘clearness’ also carries the sense of purity. So the sky-like surface is more than transparent: it is pictured as unclouded and pure, joining visual clarity with a state of wholeness.
ALSO GROWS
ṭāhōr: Clean or pure.
טָהוֹר
This form makes the purity within ‘clearness’ explicit.
ṭāhorah: Purity or cleanness.
טָהֳרָה
This noun shows the root describing a state of purity, not only the way something looks.
THE PATTERN
Heaven’s nearness is rendered through tangible surfaces that combine precious matter with extraordinary clarity.
And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.THE THREAD
And the sight of the glory of the LORD was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel.The Hebrew noun translated ‘sight’ (מַרְאֶה, marʾeh, ‘appearance’) comes from ראה (raʾah, ‘see’), the same root behind ‘they saw’ in Exodus 24:10. The encounter’s visible form also appears as devouring fire, showing that the seeing here holds more than one startling image.
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