What Does Exodus 25:4 Mean in the King James?

And blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats’ hair,

Exodus 25:4 · KJV

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 scarlet is named through a worm, so the dwelling’s beauty still carries the life that gives it color.

THE MEANING

The place where God dwells with you is textured by distinct materials: color, fine linen, and goat hair. The scarlet retains a word for the worm in its name, so its color still carries the life from which it comes.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It dissolves the idea that what becomes sacred must hide its origins: here the scarlet still carries the worm’s name.

THE ROOT

תּוֹלַעַת שָׁנִי

tola'at shani

GROWS FROM

תלע

Worm or worm-like creature; the related scarlet term also names dye or material associated with the dye-bearing worm.

The Hebrew phrase for scarlet includes ⁨תּוֹלַעַת⁩ (tola’at), a word for a worm. The color’s name keeps the living source close to the finished textile, a connection English reduces to “scarlet.”

ALSO GROWS

tola: Worm or worm-like creature.

תּוֹלָע

This form makes the creature beneath the scarlet word visible.

tola'at: Worm, grub, or scarlet dye/material.

תּוֹלַעַת

This branch holds the creature and the colored material together in one word.

THE PATTERN

A dwelling for God takes shape as distinct materials and offerings are gathered into one shared structure.

And all the women that were wise hearted did spin with their hands, and brought that which they had spun, both of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine linen.

Exodus 35:25 · KJVDifferent colors and textures enter one dwelling through the work of many hands.

Now I have prepared with all my might for the house of my God the gold for things to be made of gold, and the silver for things of silver, and the brass for things of brass, the iron for things of iron, and wood for things of wood; onyx stones, and stones to be set, glistering stones, and of divers colours, and all manner of precious stones, and marble stones in abundance.

1 Chronicles 29:2 · KJVThe house takes form through many distinct materials, each with its own place in the shared work.

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.

1 Peter 2:5 · KJVThe shared dwelling is formed from distinct living stones brought together as one house.

THE THREAD

But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.

Psalm 22:6 · KJV

The Hebrew word translated “worm” is ⁨תּוֹלַעַת⁩ (tola’at), the same word inside Exodus’s phrase for scarlet. English separates the creature from the color, while Hebrew lets the same word connect them.

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