What Does Exodus 36:25 Mean in the King James?
And for the other side of the tabernacle, which is toward the north corner, he made twenty boards,
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 for “northward” echoes a root for what is hidden or stored away, yet this side receives its full count of twenty boards.
THE MEANING
The dwelling includes the side turned away from view: it receives twenty boards, just as the other side does. What is out of sight still belongs to the structure and has its place in it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The side that faces away from view is less important and may be left incomplete.
THE ROOT
צָפוֹנָה
tsafonah
GROWS FROM
צפן
To hide or store away.
The word for northward echoes the root for hiding or storing something away. That gives the tabernacle’s north side an undertone of concealment, even as the verse gives it an exact, full measure of boards.
ALSO GROWS
tsaphan: To hide or store up.
צָפַן
This is the verbal root echoed in the word for northward.
tsafun: Hidden or stored away.
צָפוּן
This form makes the hidden quality in the northward direction easier to hear.
מִשְׁכָּן
mishkan
GROWS FROM
שכן
To dwell or settle.
The tabernacle is named from the act of dwelling: the place is a dwelling-place. The same root can name a neighbor, bringing dwelling and nearness into the same seed.
ALSO GROWS
shakan: To dwell or settle.
שָׁכַן
This verb is the action held in the name mishkan.
shakhen: A neighbor, one who dwells nearby.
שָׁכֵן
This branch links dwelling with nearness.
THE PATTERN
A dwelling takes shape when every part is accounted for and fitted into the whole.
And for the second side of the tabernacle on the north side there shall be twenty boards:In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: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
Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!The Hebrew for northward here echoes צפן (tsaphan), meaning to hide or store up. Psalm 31 uses that root for goodness “laid up,” connecting the north-facing side with what is kept out of sight.
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