And the table and his furniture, and the pure candlestick with all his furniture, and the altar of incense,

EXODUS 31:8KJV
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Exodus 31:8 (KJV)

What does Exodus 31:8 mean?

Exodus 31:8 names three pieces of furniture that skilled workers were to make for Israel’s meeting place with God: a table, a lampstand, and an altar for burning incense. The verse also includes the equipment needed for the table and lampstand.

God is speaking to Moses as he lists the work assigned to the craftsmen. The KJV calls the lampstand a “candlestick,” but it held oil lamps rather than candles. Incense was fragrant material burned to produce a scented smoke.

The Hebrew behind Exodus 31:8

  • “furniture” — כְּלִי (keli): This word can mean an article, utensil, or piece of equipment. Here it points to the objects used with the table and lampstand, rather than to more large pieces of furniture.
  • “pure” — טָהוֹר (tahor): This word can mean pure or clean. The description fits the lampstand’s construction from pure gold, as specified in Exodus 25:31.

Why Exodus 31:8 matters

  • The list joins the furnishings to the work of the craftsmen. Exodus 31:6 says God has given them skill to make what he has commanded.
  • The equipment mattered along with the main objects. The repeated phrase “his furniture” includes the utensils for each piece, such as the table’s dishes and the lampstand’s snuffers and trays described in Exodus 25:29 and 25:38.

Where else these words appear

“candlestick” Hebrew H4501 · used in 31 verses

  • Exodus 25:31 And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold: of beaten work shall the candlestick be made: his shaft, and his branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, shall be of the same.
  • Exodus 37:19 Three bowls made after the fashion of almonds in one branch, a knop and a flower; and three bowls made like almonds in another branch, a knop and a flower: so throughout the six branches going out of the candlestick.
  • Numbers 8:4 And this work of the candlestick was of beaten gold, unto the shaft thereof, unto the flowers thereof, was beaten work: according unto the pattern which the LORD had shewed Moses, so he made the candlestick.

“incense” Hebrew H7004 · used in 58 verses

  • Exodus 25:6 Oil for the light, spices for anointing oil, and for sweet incense,
  • Leviticus 16:12 And he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the LORD, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the vail:
  • Numbers 16:35 And there came out a fire from the LORD, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense.

“table” Hebrew H7979 · used in 62 verses

  • Exodus 25:23 Thou shalt also make a table of shittim wood: two cubits shall be the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof.
  • 1 Samuel 20:34 So Jonathan arose from the table in fierce anger, and did eat no meat the second day of the month: for he was grieved for David, because his father had done him shame.
  • Job 36:16 Even so would he have removed thee out of the strait into a broad place, where there is no straitness; and that which should be set on thy table should be full of fatness.

“pure” Hebrew H2889 · used in 87 verses

  • Genesis 7:2 Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.
  • Exodus 39:30 And they made the plate of the holy crown of pure gold, and wrote upon it a writing, like to the engravings of a signet, HOLINESS TO THE LORD.
  • Deuteronomy 12:15 Notwithstanding thou mayest kill and eat flesh in all thy gates, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee: the unclean and the clean may eat thereof, as of the roebuck, and as of the hart.