the Berasit Hebrew Dictionary

משכנ

'meseken' (pronounced 'mesheken') means “home”.

The word occurs very frequently in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy to describe the tent which functioned as a temple of Ihoh during the forty years of wandering in Sinai. In these instances 'meseken' is usually translated as “tabernacle”. This is also the usage in modern Hebrew, where it is transliterated as “mishkan”.

However, the word is not only applied specifically to this unique structure. 'meseken' appears in the narrative long before the construction of “the tabernacle”, in the book of Job, arguably the oldest written portion of the texts. Here, 'meseken' is applied to one's “home” or “tent”.

Numbers chapter 16 refers uses the 'meseken' to refer to both the “tabernacle” and the home of a person named Korah. It also refers to Korah's home using the word ahel, meaning “tent”. Essentially, 'meseken' and 'ahel' are words that refer to the same object, and correlate to English “home” and “house”.

Numbers 24 also uses 'meseken' in this more general sense, typically interpreted to be referring to a plurality of tents. This is exemplified quite explicitly in 1 Chronicles 17:5 in which Ihoh states: “for not I have dwelt in a house since the time that I brought up Israel, even to this day, but have gone from tent to tent home”

There are a lot of very fascinating objects, item, practices, and other cultural and physical artifacts described in association with or as part and parcel of the 'meseken'.

The word kecep occurs several times in this context, where it is traditionally consistently mistranslated as the metallic element “silver”, ostensibly used to make certain objects in the meseken. Three specific phrases are used in this context:

The first phrases is “adeni kecep”. It occurs four times in Exodus 26 and repeated in Exodus 36, and is traditionally translated as “sockets of silver”. The second phrases is “seqih kecep”. This phrase occurs four times in Exodus 27 and repeated in Exodus 38, and is traditionally translated as “bands of silver”. The third phrase is “ooi kecep”. It occurs in Exodus 26, 27, 36, and 38. It is traditionally translated as “hooks of silver”.

These references are the only time in the ancient Hebrew language where kecep is not generally understood to indicate money. The fact that this translation is flawed is quite obvious when examining the other 400 or so instances of kecep throughout the texts.

The meseken was designed with a series of items or objects that were intended specifically to be used with money or coins.

discuss kerobim

LexID 4908