What Does Exodus 39:18 Mean in the King James?

And the two ends of the two wreathen chains they fastened in the two ouches, and put them on the shoulderpieces of the ephod, before it.

Exodus 39:18 · 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.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The ornament is itself a path of connection: chain ends join settings, and the settings meet the ephod at its shoulders.

THE MEANING

You see an ornament whose construction is also a route of connection: the chains’ ends are fastened into two settings, which are placed on the ephod’s shoulderpieces. Each join has a precise place in the finished garment.

THE ROOT

חִבְּרוּ

chibberu

GROWS FROM

ח־ב־ר

ḥ-b-r

to join, bind together, or associate

“fastened” in this verse is chibberu. The word for fastening comes from a root that also describes association between people. The chains, settings, and shoulderpieces form one connected assembly through these joins.

ALSO GROWS

chaver: companion or associate

חָבֵר

A companion is joined to another through a relationship.

chever: company or group

חֶבֶר

A company is a whole formed from members joined together.

THE PATTERN

Separate parts become one structure when they are joined at their points of attachment.

And thou shalt make fifty taches of gold, and couple the curtains together with the taches: and it shall be one tabernacle.

Exodus 26:6 · KJVThe clasps join separate curtains into one tabernacle, making the points of connection part of the structure.

Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together:

Psalm 122:3 · KJVThe city is pictured as a built whole, its parts held together in a compact form.

From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

Ephesians 4:16 · KJVThe body becomes a joined whole through its joints, with each part contributing to the structure.

THE THREAD

And thou shalt make fifty taches of gold, and couple the curtains together with the taches: and it shall be one tabernacle.

Exodus 26:6 · KJV

Exodus 26:6 uses the same root, ⁨ח־ב־ר⁩ (ḥ-b-r), for coupling the curtains together. There the joins make one tabernacle; here they connect the chains, settings, and shoulderpieces into one assembly.

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