What Does Exodus 28:6 Mean in the King James?
And they shall make the ephod of gold, of blue, and of purple, of scarlet, and fine twined linen, with cunning work.
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 ephod is thought made wearable: its form comes from skilled design joining unlike materials.
THE MEANING
What is set apart takes visible form through material held together by intentional design. The ephod is gold, blue, purple, scarlet, and fine linen shaped into one garment; “cunning work” names thought carried into skilled making.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that sacred things are made apart from material and skilled hands: here, gold, dyed thread, and linen are part of the garment’s making.
THE ROOT
מַעֲשֵׂה חֹשֵׁב
ma'aseh choshev
GROWS FROM
חשב
chashav (חָשַׁב): to think, devise, or reckon.
“cunning work” in this verse is ma'aseh choshev. The phrase means work of a designer: the garment carries thought into its woven form. English “cunning” can sound like trickery today, but here the root reveals deliberate design and skilled making.
ALSO GROWS
machashavah: thought, plan, or design
מַחֲשָׁבָה
The ephod’s colors and materials are not merely gathered; they are arranged as parts of a conceived whole.
cheshbon: account or reckoning
חֶשְׁבּוֹן
The same root links design with considered ordering: the garment’s many materials take shape as one work.
THE PATTERN
A purposeful whole takes form when distinct materials or parts are joined through considered design.
To devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass,My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.THE THREAD
To devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass,Exodus 31:4 uses the same חשב (chashav, think or devise) root in “devise cunning works.” That shared root shows the ephod’s making as a design conceived and then carried into material form.
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