What Does Exodus 26:20 Mean in the King James?

And for the second side of the tabernacle on the north side there shall be twenty boards:

Exodus 26:20 · 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 north side is named with a word rooted in hiding and storing away, yet its twenty boards are fully counted in the dwelling.

THE MEANING

The dwelling includes its north side in an exact count, even though that face is out of view. What is hidden still has a place in the structure’s wholeness.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

What is out of view is missing from the whole.

THE ROOT

צָפוֹן

tsafon

GROWS FROM

צפן

To hide or store away.

The word translated “north” carries an echo of what is hidden or kept in reserve. Here, the dwelling’s less-visible side is not incidental: it is built from twenty boards and included in the count.

ALSO GROWS

tsaphan: To hide; to store away.

צָפַן

This verb shares the root of “north,” bringing concealed things into the word used for the tabernacle’s side.

tsafun: Hidden; stored away.

צָפוּן

This related form makes the root’s hidden or reserved sense audible beneath the directional word.

THE PATTERN

Wholeness includes what remains out of sight as well as what stands in view.

But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.

1 Samuel 16:7 · KJVThe outward face does not contain the whole person; what is within also matters.

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

Matthew 6:6 · KJVWhat happens in secret remains fully seen and held within the larger whole.

Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary:

1 Corinthians 12:22 · KJVParts that seem less visible or less prominent still have an essential place in the body.

THE THREAD

Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.

Psalm 48:2 · KJV

The Hebrew word ⁨צָפוֹן⁩ (tsafon, north) appears in both verses. Its root ⁨צפן⁩ (tsaphan, hide or store away) lets the tabernacle’s north side echo in the verse’s image of Zion on the “sides of the north.”

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