1S1-15: How The Meaning Of The Hebrew Word MEZUZAH Changed Over Time

So we’re told that after the festival meal, the emotionally and spiritually broken Hannah walked over to the entrance of the Tabernacle and knelt down to pour out her heart and soul to the Lord.

The Hebrew phrase describing  exactly where Hannah knelt contains a word I think you’re familiar with.

It is MEZUZAH HEKAL.

For those who aren’t familiar with Judaism, a MEZUZAH was traditionally a small rectangular box containing Scripture verses taken from Deuteronomy Chapters 6 and 11.

In ancient times when most dwellings had only one entrance, it was attached to the outer door.

Later on when homes began having many rooms with many doors separating them, it became customary to attach a MEZUZAH to every doorway entrance for every room in the house.

However, this is NOT the type of MEZUZAH being described here in 1 Samuel…

Because that type of MEZUZAH hadn’t even come into existence yet.

During Samuel’s time, a MEZUZAH referred only to the entrance of a home.

The entrance could have been a regular doorway as we understand it…

Or it could have been an entrance hall such as the open area of a building used by the public like the lobby of a hotel or movie theater.

So we all know what a MEZUAH is…

But what about the word HEKAL?

What does that mean?

HEKAL was actually the typical word for “temple”.

So if we were to interpret this literally, it means there was a temple to God that had been erected at Shiloh.

If that’s the case, then wouldn’t it be incorrect to say Solomon built the 1st Temple hundreds of years later?

Understand that even according to the Hebrew understanding of those times, the Temple and the Tabernacle were considered 2 different things.

The Temple was a PERMANENT structure made out of stone and wood whereas the Tabernacle was a PORTABLE tent.

These were considered 2 different things.

So the big question here is….

Was there some temple built at Shiloh before King David asked the Lord for permission to build one in Jerusalem?

There’s actually a lot of scholarly debate on this topic.

So what’s the answer?

Well, it all has to do with REAL meaning of the word HEKAL…

Which is what we’ll get into the next time we meet.