What Does Revelation 21:19 Mean in the King James?

And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald;

Revelation 21:19 · 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.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

Here, the foundations themselves are adorned: beauty belongs to what bears the wall, not only to what is seen above it.

THE MEANING

You are shown a city whose wall foundations are set with precious stones. What bears its boundary is also made visible as valuable and beautiful, with each foundation named by its own stone.

THE ROOT

κεκοσμημένοι

kekosmēmenoi

GROWS FROM

κοσμ-

kosm-

To arrange or put in order; to adorn.

“garnished” in this verse is kekosmēmenoi. The Greek verb carries both the sense of arranging and of adorning. The foundations are not merely decorated; they are shown as part of an ordered beauty that belongs to the city’s structure.

ALSO GROWS

kosmos: Order, arrangement; also the world.

κόσμος

The related word links adornment with an ordered whole: the city’s precious foundations belong to its larger design.

kosmios: Orderly, well-arranged, decorous.

κόσμιος

This related form keeps the sense of beauty shaped by order, rather than beauty added at random.

τιμίῳ

timiō

GROWS FROM

τιμ-

tim-

Value, worth, honor.

“precious” in this verse is timiō. The stones are described with a word that carries worth and honor as well as preciousness. The foundation’s material is not anonymous: its value is part of what the verse lets you see.

ALSO GROWS

timē: Value, honor, price.

τιμή

This noun makes the link between a stone’s preciousness and the worth assigned to it explicit.

timaō: To honor or value.

τιμάω

The related verb shows the same root moving from worth itself to the act of recognizing worth.

THE PATTERN

God’s dwelling is pictured as a built work whose stones and materials disclose the value of what is being made.

O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires.

Isaiah 54:11 · KJVThe foundations and stones of the city are described through precious material, as in Revelation’s jeweled foundations.

Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;

1 Corinthians 3:12 · KJVThe materials built on a foundation disclose the worth and character of the structure.

Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 2:5 · KJVThe image of a dwelling built from stones continues, with the stones themselves belonging to the structure.

THE THREAD

And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Revelation 21:2 · KJV

The word translated “adorned” in this verse comes from the same Greek verb ⁨κοσμέω⁩ (kosmeō), meaning to arrange or adorn, as “garnished” in Revelation 21:19. The city is adorned as a whole, and its foundations share in that same ordered beauty.

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