What Does Exodus 28:5 Mean in the King James?

And they shall take gold, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen.

Exodus 28:5 · 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 in this sacred garment carries the name of a worm, so even its color remembers the living source from which it comes.

THE MEANING

Here, what is set apart takes a visible, tactile form: gold, blue, purple, scarlet, and linen are gathered into one garment. Their distinct materials and colors remain distinct even as they belong to a single whole.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

This loosens the belief that what is sacred must be invisible or separate from matter; here it is made tangible.

THE ROOT

תּוֹלַעַת הַשָּׁנִי

tola'at ha-shani

GROWS FROM

תלע

t-l-ʿ

Worm; the word tola’at also names the scarlet dye associated with the worm.

The word translated “scarlet” includes tola’at, “worm.” A color in this garment therefore carries the name of a living source in its own word, joining the creature and the material in a way the English color name leaves unseen.

ALSO GROWS

tola'at: Worm or grub.

תּוֹלַעַת

This is the creature-word inside the phrase for scarlet, bringing a living source into the list of garment materials.

tola: Crimson or scarlet.

תּוֹלָע

The related form names the color itself, letting the worm-word and the red hue echo one another.

THE PATTERN

What is set apart takes visible form through distinct materials gathered into a whole.

And of the blue, and purple, and scarlet, they made cloths of service, to do service in the holy place, and made the holy garments for Aaron; as the LORD commanded Moses.

Exodus 39:1 · KJVThe gathered colors and fabric become garments for service, giving the materials a shared visible form.

And the whole house he overlaid with gold, until he had finished all the house: also the whole altar that was by the oracle he overlaid with gold.

1 Kings 6:22 · KJVGold gives the house and altar a tangible, finished form.

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 image of a house and priesthood is carried through living stones gathered into a structure.

THE THREAD

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

Psalm 22:6 · KJV

Psalm 22:6 uses the same worm-word, ⁨תּוֹלַעַת⁩ (tola’at), that appears within Exodus’s phrase for scarlet. A word that names a garment color here also names a person’s felt lowliness there, bringing the color’s living source into sharper view.

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