What Does Exodus 39:31 Mean in the King James?
And they tied unto it a lace of blue, to fasten it on high upon the mitre; 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
Hebrew names the mitre as a wrap and the blue lace as a twisted cord, so the fastening is a twist holding the wrapping in place.
THE MEANING
The blue cord holds the head covering high in place; even this small fastening belongs to the commanded form. You see the priestly headpiece assembled through specific materials and placement.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The false belief this undoes is that only the headpiece itself matters; the verse gives the small blue fastening its own place in completing it.
THE ROOT
מִצְנֶפֶת
mitsnepheth
GROWS FROM
צנף
To wrap or roll up.
“mitre” in this verse is mitsnepheth. The Hebrew term carries the action of wrapping within the name of the headpiece. The blue strand fastens a covering whose name already holds that image.
ALSO GROWS
mitsnepheth: Turban, wrapped head covering.
מִצְנֶפֶת
This is the headpiece named in the verse; its Hebrew form makes the act of wrapping audible beneath “mitre.”
tsenēphah: A rolling up or wrapping.
צְנֵפָה
The same root describes being rolled up like a ball, showing the physical action carried by the headpiece’s name.
פְּתִיל
pəṯîl
GROWS FROM
פתל
To twist or entwine; by extension, to wrestle.
“lace” in this verse is pəṯîl. The cord’s noun grows from a root for twisting that also names wrestling. Hebrew lets a thread’s turned strands and a struggle’s twisting share one seed, giving the fastening a tactile sense beyond decoration.
ALSO GROWS
pāṯîl: A thread or cord, something twisted together.
פָּתִיל
This is the blue lace itself: a strand whose name carries the twist that forms it.
niphtalti: I wrestled or struggled.
נִפְתַּלְתִּי
This verb from the same root describes wrestling, revealing the shared image of twisting in both the cord and the struggle.
THE PATTERN
A visible mark carried on the body keeps a calling or instruction present.
And thou shalt put it on a blue lace, that it may be upon the mitre; upon the forefront of the mitre it shall be.And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them; and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring:And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.THE THREAD
Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue:The phrase פְּתִיל תְּכֵלֶת (pəṯîl təḵēlet, “blue cord”) appears here and in Numbers 15:38. The next verse says the thread is looked upon so the commandments are remembered, revealing this fastening as part of a visible language of remembrance.
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