What Does Exodus 25:12 Mean in the King James?
And thou shalt cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in the four corners thereof; and two rings shall be in the one side of it, and two rings in the other side of it.
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
What KJV calls the ark’s four “corners” are its four feet, placing the carrying rings at the points where the structure meets the ground.
THE MEANING
The verse places two rings on each side at the ark’s four feet, so its capacity to be carried is built into its points of support. For you now, being grounded does not require being fixed in one place; this design holds support and movement together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that being rooted means being immovable falls away here: the ark’s feet are also where its carrying fittings are placed.
THE ROOT
פַּעֲמֹתָיו
paʿamotav
GROWS FROM
פעם
p-ʿ-m
Foot or step; the word family also carries senses of beat, impulse, and time or occasion.
“corners” in this verse is paʿamotav. English gives a coordinate, “corner”; the Hebrew names these paʿamot, the ark’s four feet. With this root’s related senses of step and impulse, the rings appear at the structure’s grounded points where its movement begins.
ALSO GROWS
paʿam: Foot or step.
פַּעַם
The plural in this verse is commonly rendered “corners,” but it names the ark’s four feet; the rings sit at those points.
happaʿam: This time; this occasion.
הַפַּעַם
The same noun can mark a time or occasion, as in Genesis 29:34; the sense of a measured beat sits beneath the verse’s deliberate placement of four feet.
vattippaʿem: Was troubled or stirred; struck with agitation.
וַתִּפָּעֶם
In Genesis 41:8, the root describes Pharaoh being stirred within; here its movement-sense accompanies an object fitted to be borne.
טַבְּעֹת
tabbaʿot
GROWS FROM
טבע
ṭ-b-ʿ
Sink or sink down; the related noun denotes a ring or signet ring.
The Hebrew word for rings belongs to a root family whose verb means “sink down.” Here the rings are placed at the ark’s feet and sides as fixed fittings where carrying begins.
ALSO GROWS
ṭāvaʿ: To sink or sink down.
טָבַע
The same verb describes the Egyptians’ chariots sinking in Exodus 15:4, preserving the root’s downward sense.
tabbaʿat: A ring; a signet ring.
טַבַּעַת
This is the singular form of the word translated “rings” here; the fittings make the ark ready to be borne.
THE PATTERN
Sacred presence becomes near through forms shaped to bear it.
And thou shalt put the staves into the rings by the sides of the ark, that the ark may be borne with them.But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.THE THREAD
And thou shalt put the staves into the rings by the sides of the ark, that the ark may be borne with them.The next verse names what the rings are for: the staves pass through them so the ark can be borne. That turns the four placements from a construction detail into a carrying system, with movement built into the object’s form.
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