What Does Exodus 36:21 Mean in the King James?
The length of a board was ten cubits, and the breadth of a board one cubit and a half.
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 word for a board’s breadth shares its root with the Hebrew for making room: the dwelling’s space is built into the measure.
THE MEANING
The board’s breadth is a measured width, and its Hebrew word grows from the root for widening and making room. Its length and breadth give the dwelling a concrete, bounded form, while the word for breadth carries an echo of room opening.
THE ROOT
רֹחַב
roḥav
GROWS FROM
רחב
r-ḥ-b
The verbal root rachav means to widen or make room.
The word translated “breadth” comes from the root for widening and making room. That root also appears in Rehoboth, “broad places,” and in the words “the LORD hath made room for us,” so the board’s measured span echoes the language of room opening.
ALSO GROWS
rachav: To widen or become spacious
רָחַב
This is the verbal root beneath “breadth,” linking the board’s physical span with widening.
Rehoboth: Broad places
רְחֹבוֹת
The name shares the root and shows its sense of spaciousness and room.
אֹרֶךְ
ʾorekh
GROWS FROM
ארך
ʾ-r-k
The verbal root arakh means to be long or to lengthen.
The word for length belongs to a root that also describes extension over time. Hebrew carries the same idea of “long” into the phrase erekh appayim, “slow to flare,” where length describes a delayed response.
ALSO GROWS
arakh: To lengthen or prolong
אָרַךְ
This verb shows the extension already present in the board’s measured length.
erekh appayim: Slow to flare
אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם
The same root’s sense of length extends from physical span to a response held back over time.
THE PATTERN
A dwelling takes shape as distinct parts are measured, fitted, and joined into a shared habitation.
Two tenons shall there be in one board, set in order one against another: thus shalt thou make for all the boards of the tabernacle.In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.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.THE THREAD
And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, For now the LORD hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.Here, “breadth” is רֹחַב (roḥav), from רחב (rachav), widening or making room; Genesis 26:22 uses that same root in “the LORD hath made room for us.” The shared root lets the board’s exact span echo the language of room being opened while keeping its measure concrete.
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