What Does Exodus 40:20 Mean in the King James?
And he took and put the testimony into the ark, and set the staves on the ark, and put the mercy seat above upon the ark:
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 testimony is placed beneath a covering, so what is covered remains present rather than erased.
THE MEANING
The testimony is set within the ark, with the covering above it. You see a witness that stays present at the center while covered; its covering does not erase it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being covered means what is within has been forgotten or denied.
THE ROOT
כַּפֹּרֶת
kappōret
GROWS FROM
כפר
cover; cover over
Kappōret belongs to the kaphar family of covering. The word adds a covering-root beneath the English phrase “mercy seat”: here the witness is inside, and the covering is above it.
ALSO GROWS
kippur: covering; atonement
כִּפּוּר
This branch keeps the covering sense visible in a word often rendered only as atonement.
kōfer: ransom; a covering price
כֹּפֶר
Here covering extends to a price that covers a life, showing the root’s reach beyond a physical lid.
עֵדוּת
ʿēdût
GROWS FROM
עוּד
testify; bear witness
The testimony placed inside the ark belongs to the language of bearing witness. What is held within is not merely stored; it remains there as an attestation.
ALSO GROWS
ʿēd: witness
עֵד
The witness is the one who bears testimony, bringing the word’s personal and active sense into view.
hēʿîd: testify; attest
הֵעִיד
This verb names the act of bearing witness, linking the testimony inside the ark to an ongoing act of attestation.
THE PATTERN
The witness is placed within and kept at the center of what holds it.
And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee.I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;THE THREAD
And he shall take of the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy seat eastward; and before the mercy seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times.Leviticus uses the same Hebrew word, kappōret, for the place where the blood is sprinkled. The shared word makes the covering above the testimony a specific place of action, not only an architectural detail.
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