Dictionaries :: Body of Heaven

International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia

Body of Heaven:

The King James Version translates the Hebrew idiom, etsem ha-shamayim, by "the body of heaven" (Ex 24:10). A more correct rendering is given in the Revised Version (British and American), "the very heaven," taking the word ‘etsem in its idiomatic use as an intensive, which is derived from its literal meaning, "bone," as "strength," "substance," and then as "self" (compare Job 21:23); the substance of the blue, unclouded sky, hence, the clear sky itself.