What Does Exodus 35:32 Mean in the King James?
And to devise curious 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 Hebrew says, in effect, “to design a design”: devising and the crafted pattern share one root.
THE MEANING
Here, design reaches toward gold, silver, and brass; thought and making move together. An inward pattern takes visible form in work the hands can shape.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that thought is abstract while skilled handwork is merely practical: this verse joins them in a single act of design.
THE ROOT
לַחְשֹׁב
laḥshov
GROWS FROM
חשב
ḥ-sh-b
to think through, devise, plan, or reckon
The verse pairs לַחְשֹׁב (laḥshov, to devise) with מַחֲשָׁבֹת (machashavot, designs): the same root names both the act of conceiving a pattern and the pattern itself. English separates those into “devise” and “curious works,” while Hebrew lets thought and crafted design echo one another.
ALSO GROWS
machashavah: A thought, plan, or design
מַחֲשָׁבָה
The verse uses its plural form, מַחֲשָׁבֹת (machashavot, designs), beside the verb from the same root, joining the imagined pattern to the work made from it.
choshev: A designer or deviser
חֹשֵׁב
In Exodus 26:1, the related word appears in “cunning work,” describing patterned craft; the same root links the designer’s thought with a pattern worked into material.
THE PATTERN
Design becomes visible when an inward pattern is carried into material form.
Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.He was a widow’s son of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass: and he was filled with wisdom, and understanding, and cunning to work all works in brass. And he came to king Solomon, and wrought all his work.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
Moreover thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet: with cherubims of cunning work shalt thou make them.“Cunning work” translates מַעֲשֵׂה חֹשֵׁב (maʿaseh choshev, designer’s work), using the same חשב (ḥ-sh-b, devise or design) root as “devise” here. The root connects the conceived pattern with the patterned fabric made for the tabernacle.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us