What Does Exodus 40:3 Mean in the King James?
And thou shalt put therein the ark of the testimony, and cover the ark with the vail.
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 veil conceals the testimony without removing it; the covering gives what remains at the center a defined inner boundary.
THE MEANING
What is set at the center can be covered without being absent. The testimony remains present and named even when the veil keeps it from view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
What is concealed is not necessarily lost or removed; here, the testimony stays at the center beneath its covering.
THE ROOT
וְסַכֹּתָ
wəsakkōtā
GROWS FROM
סכך
סָכַךְ (sākhakh) means to screen, cover, or enclose.
“cover” in this verse is wəsakkōtā. This word belongs to the same family as words for a shelter and a screen. The ark is not simply hidden: the covering defines an inside around the testimony, keeping it present within a boundary.
ALSO GROWS
sukkāh: booth, shelter
סֻכָּה
The shared root links covering with shelter: the veil screens the ark within a defined space.
māsākh: screen, curtain
מָסָךְ
This related noun makes the screening sense audible in the verse’s verb for covering.
הָעֵדוּת
hāʿēdût
GROWS FROM
עוד
עוּד (ʿûd) carries the sense of returning or reaffirming; in a causative form it means to testify or bear witness.
Testimony is bound to witness-bearing, with a verbal family that can carry the sense of reaffirming. The ark holds that witness at the center, while the veil marks its place rather than making it disappear.
ALSO GROWS
ʿēd: witness
עֵד
The witness is the one who bears the testimony named in the verse.
hēʿîd: testify, bear witness
הֵעִיד
This verb shows testimony as an act of making a witness known.
THE PATTERN
The veil marks the boundary around what is set apart and defines how it is approached.
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.And thou shalt hang up the vail under the taches, that thou mayest bring in thither within the vail the ark of the testimony: and the vail shall divide unto you between the holy place and the most holy.By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;THE THREAD
And thou shalt hang up the vail under the taches, that thou mayest bring in thither within the vail the ark of the testimony: and the vail shall divide unto you between the holy place and the most holy.This verse names the veil’s work: it divides the holy place from the most holy, with the ark of testimony within that boundary. That makes the covering in Exodus 40:3 more than concealment; it marks a distinct inner place for the testimony.
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