What Does Numbers 10:21 Mean in the King James?

And the Kohathites set forward, bearing the sanctuary: and the other did set up the tabernacle against they came.

Numbers 10:21 · KJV

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 set-apart things are already moving while the dwelling for them is still being raised.

THE MEANING

What is set apart moves with you while the space prepared for it is coming together. The carrying and the making ready are separate works, coordinated so the dwelling stands when the sacred things arrive.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The holy things must wait until their dwelling is finished before they can move.

THE ROOT

מִשְׁכָּן

mishkan

GROWS FROM

שׁכן

sh-k-n

To dwell, settle, or remain in a place.

“tabernacle” in this verse is mishkan. Mishkan names the structure by its purpose: it is a dwelling. The related word shakhen means “neighbor,” one who dwells nearby; this root makes the dwelling something prepared among a traveling people, not a fixed address.

ALSO GROWS

shakan: To dwell or settle

שָׁכַן

The verb names the action the tabernacle makes possible: dwelling among the people.

shakhen: Neighbor; one who dwells nearby

שָׁכֵן

This branch joins dwelling with nearness, echoing a sanctuary set up in the midst of a people on the move.

THE PATTERN

A shared sacred work advances through coordinated roles: some carry what is set apart while others prepare the place to receive it.

On the first day of the first month shalt thou set up the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation.

Exodus 40:2 · KJVThe dwelling is prepared as a distinct act, making a place ready for what will be set apart within it.

Then David said, None ought to carry the ark of God but the Levites: for them hath the LORD chosen to carry the ark of God, and to minister unto him for ever.

1 Chronicles 15:2 · KJVThe carrying of the sacred object is entrusted to a particular role within the larger work.

But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.

1 Corinthians 12:18 · KJVThe shared whole takes shape through distinct members, each placed within it.

THE THREAD

And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.

Exodus 25:8 · KJV

The tabernacle here is ⁨מִשְׁכָּן⁩ (mishkan), from ⁨שׁכן⁩ (shakan), “to dwell.” Exodus names the purpose of this dwelling; Numbers shows it being made ready as the people travel with what is set apart.

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