What Does Exodus 31:4 Mean in the King James?
To devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass,
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 work in gold, silver, and brass begins as a design held in thought: the hands make visible what the mind has formed.
THE MEANING
Your making is already happening as you devise: the design takes shape in thought before gold, silver, and brass receive it. Conception and craft belong to the same act, so the finished work carries an intention made visible.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Craft is only manual dexterity; this verse places devised design within the work of the hands.
THE ROOT
לַחְשֹׁב
lachshov
GROWS FROM
חשב
ḥ-š-b
Think, plan, devise, reckon.
The verse’s “devise” comes from the same seed as words for thought and design: making begins as an inward arrangement before it becomes an object. English can make “cunning works” sound like dexterity alone; the Hebrew also puts intention inside the craft.
ALSO GROWS
machashavah: Thought, plan, design.
מַחֲשָׁבָה
This branch names the conceived design that becomes visible in the metalwork.
cheshbon: Account, calculation, reckoning.
חֶשְׁבּוֹן
This branch links the root to deliberate calculation: the work is conceived and arranged, not merely handled.
THE PATTERN
What is conceived inwardly takes shape outwardly through what is made and done.
And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.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
A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.“Deviseth” here and “devise” in Exodus grow from the same Hebrew root, חשב (ḥ-š-b), meaning to think or plan. In Proverbs, that seed shapes a way and its steps; in Exodus, it gives form to metal.
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