What Does Exodus 36:17 Mean in the King James?
And he made fifty loops upon the uttermost edge of the curtain in the coupling, and fifty loops made he upon the edge of the curtain which coupleth the second.
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 curtains become one covering at their edges, where repeated points of contact connect them without erasing their distinctness.
THE MEANING
Your wholeness can include distinct parts: what is separate meets at the edge, where each part offers a corresponding point of connection. The verse shows a covering held together through repeated joining, so unity forms through relationship while the pieces remain distinct.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that becoming whole requires every part to lose its distinction.
THE ROOT
שְׂפָה
śāfāh
GROWS FROM
ש־פ־ה
ś-p-h
Lip; also edge or boundary.
The word translated “edge” is שְׂפָה, the same word used for a lip and for language. Hebrew lets the curtain’s edge be its lip: here the loops make contact at the boundary where separate expanses are joined.
ALSO GROWS
śāfāh: The edge of the mouth.
שָׂפָה
The verse places the loops on the curtain’s “lip,” its edge of contact.
śāfāh: Speech or language.
שָׂפָה
English separates a lip from language; Hebrew holds both in one word, showing how an edge can also be a point of expression.
מַחְבָּרֶת
maḥberet
GROWS FROM
ח־ב־ר
ḥ-b-r
Join, bind, or associate.
The root behind “coupling” also gives words for a companion and an association. The joining is a relationship: matched loops let two distinct curtains participate in one covering.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāver: A fellow or companion.
חָבֵר
The word pictures connection as a relationship between distinct parts.
ḥeber: An association or group.
חֶבֶר
A company is made of members joined together, as the curtains form one covering.
THE PATTERN
A whole can be formed when distinct parts meet through repeated, fitted connections.
And thou shalt make fifty taches of gold, and couple the curtains together with the taches: and it shall be one tabernacle.But now are they many members, yet but one body.In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:THE THREAD
The five curtains shall be coupled together one to another; and other five curtains shall be coupled one to another.The verb translated “coupled” comes from חָבַר (ḥābar, “join”), the same root behind “coupling” here. Exodus 26:3 shows the larger sets of curtains joined through the same connecting action.
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