What Does Exodus 39:9 Mean in the King James?
It was foursquare; they made the breastplate double: a span was the length thereof, and a span the breadth thereof, being doubled.
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 fold makes the breastplate one measured square with a hidden second face.
THE MEANING
What you meet here is a measured surface with an inside: the square is folded so two layers remain one. Its face stays a span by a span, while the fold gives the form a second side held within the first.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A thing is only what its visible face shows.
THE ROOT
כָּפוּל
kāfûl
GROWS FROM
כפל
To fold or double, making one form twofold.
“doubled” in this verse is kāfûl. The Hebrew root holds both doubling and folding together: the breastplate is not merely described as twice as much, but as one form folded into two joined sides. The fold gives the measured square an unseen face within it.
ALSO GROWS
kāphal: To double or fold.
כָּפַל
This verb names the action that turns a single surface into joined layers.
kiflayim: Twofold; double.
כִּפְלַיִם
This form shows the root’s reach beyond a physical fold to anything held in a doubled measure.
רָבוּעַ
rāḇûaʿ
GROWS FROM
רבע
Four; a four-sided or square form.
“foursquare” in this verse is rāḇûaʿ. English gives the finished geometry; Hebrew keeps the number four audible in the shape itself. Its four-sidedness is named before the verse describes the fold, so the fold preserves a square rather than stretching it into a strip.
ALSO GROWS
reviʿi: Fourth.
רְבִיעִי
This branch carries the same four-root into an ordered position, showing the number held within the shape.
reviʿit: A fourth part; a quarter.
רְבִיעִת
This branch makes the fourfold division explicit, illuminating the square’s measured proportions.
THE PATTERN
Doubling gives one measure a second layer or a second measure.
And thou shalt couple five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves, and shalt double the sixth curtain in the forefront of the tabernacle.Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.THE THREAD
And thou shalt couple five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves, and shalt double the sixth curtain in the forefront of the tabernacle.The Hebrew word for “double” here comes from the same root as “doubled” in the breastplate’s description. One fold shapes the breastplate; another doubles the tabernacle curtain, the shared root names a single surface becoming joined layers.
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