What Does Exodus 39:21 Mean in the King James?
And they did bind the breastplate by his rings unto the rings of the ephod with a lace of blue, that it might be above the curious girdle of the ephod, and that the breastplate might not be loosed from the ephod; as the LORD commanded Moses.
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 breastplate stays in place because it is bound to the garment that carries it.
THE MEANING
The breastpiece remains above the ephod’s girdle because its rings are tied to the ephod’s rings by a blue cord. That bond keeps it from slipping free of the garment that bears it. The closing name Moshe (מֹשֶׁה, Moshe, “drawn out”) carries the image of one drawn from water.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the idea that placement alone keeps something close: the breastplate stays joined because it is fastened to what carries it.
THE ROOT
וַיִּקְשְׁרוּ
vayyiqshĕrū
GROWS FROM
קשר
q-sh-r
To bind, tie, or join.
“bind” in this verse is vayyiqshĕrū. The same root appears in Deuteronomy 6:8 for binding words as a sign to the hand and forehead. Here, the fastening is a joining that keeps the breastpiece with the garment that bears it.
ALSO GROWS
ūqĕšartām: You shall bind them.
וּקְשַׁרְתָּם
Deuteronomy 6:8 uses this form for binding words as a sign to the body, echoing the breastpiece fastened to the ephod.
qešer: Bond or alliance; in some uses, conspiracy.
קֶשֶׁר
The noun carries the same binding root into relationships and alliances, beyond a physical cord.
מֹשֶׁה
Mōsheh
GROWS FROM
משה
m-sh-h
To draw out, especially from water.
“Moses” in this verse is Mōsheh. The verse’s closing name carries its own image: Moshe is the one drawn out. Exodus 2:10 expresses this wordplay as “I drew him out of the water.”
ALSO GROWS
māšāh: To draw out.
מָשָׁה
This is the verb associated with Moses’s name and the act of drawing him from the water.
məšîtihū: I drew him out.
מְשִׁיתִהוּ
This form appears in Exodus 2:10, where the drawing out of the water explains the name Moshe.
THE PATTERN
What is meant to stay joined is held in place through a binding connection.
And they shall bind the breastplate by the rings thereof unto the rings of the ephod with a lace of blue, that it may be above the curious girdle of the ephod, and that the breastplate be not loosed from the ephod.And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.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.THE THREAD
And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.Deuteronomy uses the same Hebrew root, qashar, for binding words as a sign to the hand and forehead. The shared verb links the breastpiece’s fastening with something held close to the body and kept in view.
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