What Does Exodus 40:5 Mean in the King James?
And thou shalt set the altar of gold for the incense before the ark of the testimony, and put the hanging of the door to the tabernacle.
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 hanging is placed at פֶּתַח, the opening, so the boundary marks the entrance without making it disappear.
THE MEANING
The verse gives you an ordered space: incense stands before the testimony, and a hanging marks the tabernacle’s opening. A boundary stands at the threshold while the opening remains named and present. Approach and concealment coexist in the same arrangement.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a veil means the way is gone: the text still names an opening beneath it.
THE ROOT
הַפֶּתַח
ha-pétaḥ the opening
GROWS FROM
פתח
To open; an opening or entrance.
“door, entrance” in this verse is ha-pétaḥ the opening. The word translated “door” names the opening itself. The hanging is set at that opening, so the verse holds passage and boundary together in one image.
ALSO GROWS
pātaḥ: To open.
פָּתַח
The verb shares the root letters פ־ת־ח and makes explicit the action contained in the entrance’s name.
mafteaḥ: A key.
מַפְתֵּחַ
This related word shares the root letters and names what opens a way through a closed boundary.
מִזְבֵּחַ
mizbēaḥ altar
GROWS FROM
זבח
To slaughter or offer a sacrifice.
Even though this altar is for incense, its Hebrew name carries the root of sacrifice and offering. Fragrance here belongs to the wider language of what is brought before the testimony.
ALSO GROWS
zāvaḥ: To slaughter or offer a sacrifice.
זָבַח
This verb supplies the altar’s root action: the altar is named from the act of sacrifice.
zevaḥ: A sacrifice or sacrificial offering.
זֶבַח
This noun makes the altar’s relation to offering explicit, even when the offering here is incense.
THE PATTERN
Approach to divine presence is marked by an ordered threshold and an offering placed before it.
This shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD: where I will meet you, to speak there unto thee.Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.THE THREAD
And thou shalt make an hanging for the door of the tent, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with needlework.This verse uses the same word פֶּתַח (pétaḥ, opening) for the sanctuary entrance. The repeated wording lets you see the hanging as a boundary laid across a passage.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us