Following up on the last post, note also the word furniture in KJV Exodus 39:33: "And they brought the tabernacle unto Moses, the tent, and all his furniture." This word also, unexpectedly to modern ears, translates Hebrew kelim. Today furniture refers to the large furnishings of a house – the tables, chairs, rugs, lamps, and so forth – but in 1611 it meant equipment. In Exodus it refers to the dishes, cups, jars, bowls, pans, trowels, etc. used in the sacrificial worship. (The word his, by the way, refers to the tent, not to Moses.)
Here the KJV
translators appear
to have followed the Bishops' Bible, which also has furniture, while the
Geneva Bible has instruments and the Tyndale Bible apparel — another
word with a different modern meaning! The NRSV and ESV translate
"utensils."
So we have seen the KJV use three words in three different verses to
translate a single Hebrew word. This illustrates the obvious point that there
is no one-to-one relationship between the words of one language and the words
of another – a point that is sometimes obscured by the hankering for a
"literal" translation. A second point is that these three words –
artillery, carriage, furniture – have changed their meaning in the 400+ years
between King James and ourselves. The KJV is a monument of English literature, but
its archaic language renders it liable to misinterpretation.
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