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

And thou shalt make bars of shittim wood; five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle,

Exodus 26:26 · 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 bars bind separate boards into one dwelling, so the frame’s wholeness depends on what passes between its parts.

THE MEANING

A dwelling takes shape as separate boards are held by bars that run across them. The whole frame depends on supports that join its pieces, even when the boards are more visible. What looks like many parts becomes shelter through connection.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The belief that strength belongs only to each piece standing alone is undone here: the supports joining the pieces are part of the strength of the whole.

THE ROOT

בְּרִיחִים

berichim

GROWS FROM

ברח

To flee or move swiftly; the related noun means a bolt or bar.

English gives only a hardware word, but ⁨בְּרִיחִים⁩ (berichim) shares its root with ⁨בָּרַח⁩ (barach), “to flee.” The next verse shows the bars running through the boards from end to end: the image joins movement across the frame with the fastening that holds it together.

ALSO GROWS

barach: To flee or move swiftly.

בָּרַח

This verb shares the root ⁨ברח⁩ with the bars, opening a sense of movement that the English hardware word does not carry by itself.

beriach: A bolt or bar.

בְּרִיחַ

This singular form names the support that passes across and secures the boards.

THE PATTERN

A dwelling becomes one when supports join its separate pieces.

And the middle bar in the midst of the boards shall reach from end to end.

Exodus 26:28 · KJVThe bar runs through the boards from end to end, showing how a hidden support binds the frame.

Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together:

Psalm 122:3 · KJVThe city is pictured as a joined whole rather than a scatter of separate buildings.

In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:

Ephesians 2:21 · KJVThe image of a building held together gives many parts a shared form.

THE THREAD

And the middle bar in the midst of the boards shall reach from end to end.

Exodus 26:28 · KJV

The same Hebrew word for bar returns as the middle bar running from end to end. Verse 26 names the supports; verse 28 reveals their reach through the frame, fastening separate boards into a dwelling.

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