What Does Numbers 15:38 Mean in the King James?
Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue:
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 word rendered “borders” is כַּנְפֵי (kanfei), “wings,” so the garment’s edge becomes a wing bearing a visible thread.
THE MEANING
The garment around your body has an outer edge the Hebrew names as a wing. A fringe and blue cord are set on that wing, so a visible sign travels with you at the boundary between what covers you and what is open. Ordinary clothing becomes a bearer of the sign.
THE ROOT
כַּנְפֵי
kanfei
GROWS FROM
כנף
Wing; the outer edge or extremity of something.
English “borders” sounds like a flat boundary, but כָּנָף (kanaph) also means “wing.” The word appears twice in the verse: the fringe is placed on the garment’s wings, at its outer edges.
ALSO GROWS
kanaph: Wing.
כָּנָף
The same Hebrew word translated “borders” here names a bird’s wing, giving the garment’s edge a living image.
kanfei ha’aretz: The four corners or extremities of the earth (Isaiah 11:12).
כַּנְפֵי הָאָרֶץ
The same word reaches from a garment’s outer edge to the farthest edges of the earth.
THE PATTERN
A truth meant to travel with a person is made visible on the body, as a sign on a garment, a mark on the hand, or a name on clothing.
And beneath upon the hem of it thou shalt make pomegranates of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, round about the hem thereof; and bells of gold between them round about:And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.THE THREAD
And he said, Who art thou? And she answered, I am Ruth thine handmaid: spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid; for thou art a near kinsman.The same word כָּנָף (kanaph) rendered “borders” in Numbers is rendered “skirt” in Ruth. In Numbers, the garment’s wing bears a blue fringe; in Ruth, that same garment-wing is spread over someone.
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