What Does Exodus 37:15 Mean in the King James?
And he made the staves of shittim wood, and overlaid them with gold, to bear the table.
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 table’s name carries the motion of shalach, sending forth, so its provision is built to travel.
THE MEANING
Provision here is portable: the poles make the table able to travel with the people. The word for table, shulchan, carries the root sense of shalach, to send forth, extend, release, so provision is pictured in motion. The gold covers the wood while the carrying frame lets the table remain present along the way.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse unsettles the belief that what is sacred must stay fixed: this table is made to be carried.
THE ROOT
שֻׁלְחָן
shulchan
GROWS FROM
שלח
Send forth, extend, release.
The table’s name carries the consonants of shalach, “send forth, release.” Here that echo becomes physical: poles make the table’s provision something that can travel with the people.
ALSO GROWS
shalach: Send forth, release, stretch out.
שָׁלַח
The table is fitted to be carried, giving provision a way to move outward with the people.
shaliach: Sent messenger, envoy.
שָׁלִיחַ
A shaliach carries a sending outward; the table likewise travels through the poles that bear it.
לָשֵׂאת
laset
GROWS FROM
נשא
Lift, carry, bear.
The verb for “to bear” comes from nasa, whose branches include both a load and one raised up. The poles make bearing concrete: they lift the table so its provision can move.
ALSO GROWS
massa: Load, burden.
מַשָּׂא
The table is something borne; its poles carry its weight as it travels.
nasi: Prince, one lifted up.
נָשִׂיא
This branch carries the sense of being raised, echoing how the poles lift the table.
THE PATTERN
Provision is prepared to move into the places where it is needed.
Over against the border shall the rings be for places of the staves to bear the table.Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would.THE THREAD
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.The Hebrew word for “table” is shulchan in both verses. The psalm’s table is prepared before the speaker among enemies; here the table is fitted to be borne, so the same provision is present and mobile.
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