What Does Exodus 38:4 Mean in the King James?

And he made for the altar a brasen grate of network under the compass thereof beneath unto the midst of it.

Exodus 38:4 · KJV

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 altar’s name grows from the word for sacrifice, and its bronze mesh gives that offering a shaped place to rest.

THE MEANING

The altar includes a bronze lattice beneath its surrounding edge, extending from below to its midpoint. The offering rests within a measured structure, open rather than solid.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

That a sacred offering is only an inward act, unrelated to the material form that holds it.

THE ROOT

מִזְבֵּחַ

mizbēaḥ

GROWS FROM

זבח

z-b-ḥ

To slaughter or sacrifice; the altar’s name comes from the act it receives.

The Hebrew word for altar is rooted in the word for sacrifice: the place is named by what happens there. The bronze mesh is part of that receiving place, supporting the offering within a built form.

ALSO GROWS

zāvaḥ: To slaughter or offer a sacrifice.

זָבַח

This verb names the action from which the altar’s name grows.

zevaḥ: A sacrifice or sacrificial meal.

זֶבַח

This noun shows the same root can name both the act of offering and what is offered.

THE PATTERN

An offering is given shape by the structure that receives and orders it.

And the fire upon the altar shall be burning in it; it shall not be put out: and the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and lay the burnt offering in order upon it; and he shall burn thereon the fat of the peace offerings.

Leviticus 6:12 · KJVThe offering is laid in order on the altar, whose fire and daily arrangement give the act a continuing form.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Romans 12:1 · KJVThe body itself becomes the living offering, giving sacrifice a tangible form.

THE THREAD

Then Jacob offered sacrifice upon the mount, and called his brethren to eat bread: and they did eat bread, and tarried all night in the mount.

Genesis 31:54 · KJV

The words “altar” here and “offered sacrifice” there grow from ⁨זבח⁩ (z-b-ḥ, slaughter or sacrifice). The root links the place to the act it receives.

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