What Does Numbers 3:26 Mean in the King James?
And the hangings of the court, and the curtain for the door of the court, which is by the tabernacle, and by the altar round about, and the cords of it for all the service thereof.
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 work of service includes every boundary, doorway, and cord that holds the altar’s approach together.
THE MEANING
This verse gathers the court hangings, entrance screen, altar surroundings, and cords into one work of service. In your life now, the structures that hold a meaningful act together belong to that work as fully as its visible center. Support and passage have a place within the service itself.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Only the visible center counts as service.
THE ROOT
עֲבֹדָתוֹ
avodato
GROWS FROM
עבד
ʿ-b-d
To work, serve, or labor.
The verse’s word for “service” belongs to a root that spans both work and serving. It places the cords, court hangings, and entrance screen within the work itself, revealing that what holds the approach together is part of the service.
ALSO GROWS
eved: Servant
עֶבֶד
The same root connects the person who serves with the work being done; service is both a role and an activity.
avad: To work, serve, or till
עָבַד
This verb can describe labor as well as service, widening the word’s reach to the work that sustains and prepares a place.
THE PATTERN
A shared sacred work is sustained by distinct parts, including the pieces that connect and hold it together.
This is the sum of the tabernacle, even of the tabernacle of testimony, as it was counted, according to the commandment of Moses, for the service of the Levites, by the hand of Ithamar, son to Aaron the priest.But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.THE THREAD
This is the sum of the tabernacle, even of the tabernacle of testimony, as it was counted, according to the commandment of Moses, for the service of the Levites, by the hand of Ithamar, son to Aaron the priest.Both verses use עֲבֹדָה (avodah, service/work): Numbers includes the cords and court furnishings within it, and Exodus applies the same word to the tabernacle’s counted work. The shared root lets the quiet labor of holding the whole together appear as service.
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