What Does Exodus 27:16 Mean in the King James?

And for the gate of the court shall be an hanging of twenty cubits, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with needlework: and their pillars shall be four, and their sockets four.

Exodus 27:16 · 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.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The entrance is held together by a covering: its boundary and its passage are one crafted thing.

THE MEANING

The court’s entrance is a woven, colored screen held by four supports. Its measure, materials, and pillars give the threshold a visible form: it marks the boundary while remaining an entrance.

THE ROOT

מָסָךְ

māsāk

GROWS FROM

סכך

to cover, screen, or hedge around

The hanging is a screen at the entrance, and its root carries the sense of covering or screening. The boundary is not separate from the passage: the covering itself marks where entry happens.

ALSO GROWS

sāḵaḵ: to cover, screen, or hedge

סָכַךְ

This verb makes clear that the hanging does the work of a covering at the court’s entrance.

sukkāh: booth or shelter

סֻכָּה

The related shelter word shows how the same root can describe a covering that gives a space its boundary.

עַמּוּדִים

ʿammūdīm

GROWS FROM

עמד

to stand or remain standing

The pillars are named from the verb for standing: the entrance’s woven boundary is given a standing form. The screen and its supports belong together, the covering marks the threshold, and the pillars hold it in place.

ALSO GROWS

ʿāmaḏ: to stand or remain

עָמַד

The verb names the action carried by each pillar: standing at the entrance.

ʿammūd: pillar or column

עַמּוּד

The noun names what stands to support the hanging and make the threshold visible.

THE PATTERN

A threshold marks passage by making the boundary visible and giving entry a defined form.

And thou shalt make an hanging for the door of the tent, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with needlework.

Exodus 26:36 · KJVThe tent’s door is marked by a woven hanging, giving another entrance a visible boundary.

For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.

Psalm 84:10 · KJVThe doorkeeper stands at the passage between the courts and the house, where the threshold becomes a place of belonging.

I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.

John 10:9 · KJVThe door is named as the passage itself, with entering and going out made part of the image.

THE THREAD

And thou shalt make an hanging for the door of the tent, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with needlework.

Exodus 26:36 · KJV

The hanging here and the hanging at the court’s gate share the Hebrew word ⁨מָסָךְ⁩ (māsāk), a screen or covering. The same woven threshold marks both entries, carrying the boundary inward from the court to the tent.

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