a screen or covering: a woven cloth hung across an entrance, or a cover spread over something to shield or conceal it
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled
The word names something set up to close off or cover an opening. In most of its appearances it is a specific fitting of the ancient worship tent: the embroidered curtain hung across the doorway you passed through to go in, and the matching curtain at the gate of the surrounding courtyard.
The same word also names the inner covering that curtained off the chest holding the covenant, keeping the most sacred space out of sight. Away from the sanctuary it is any cloth or cover spread over something: a woman throws one over the mouth of a well to hide the men beneath it, and God spreads a cloud like a canopy over his people in the wilderness.
Because its job is always to shield or shut off, it can stand as a picture of protection. When Isaiah says the covering of Judah was pulled away, he means the nation's defenses were stripped bare. The one idea running through every use is a barrier drawn across an opening, whether of fabric, of cloud, or (in the image) a country's guard.
Nuances
1athe entrance screen of the worship tent: an embroidered curtain hung across the doorway of the sacred tent and across the gate of its courtyard
points to a specific spread or hung cloth-like cover drawn over an opening or space, not just any layer over a thing2Sa 17:19
Both
both describe something placed over an object to conceal or shelter itPsa 105:39
Only covering
English covering is very broad and can mean a lid, a coat of paint, or a blanket, losing the sense of a screen drawn across an opening
“hanging”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“curtain”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How masakh differs from similar Hebrew words
פָּרֹכֶתthe inner dividing veil before the most holy place, a more sacred and fixed barrier, where this word is the general screen hung at an entrance you pass through
names the screen hung over an opening people actually passed through: the doorway of the tabernacle tent and the gate of its surrounding court, a threshold crossed every day rather than a barrier meant to keep everyone out.Exo 26:36Exo 27:16
is also used far outside the sanctuary, for an ordinary covering that hides or shelters something: a cloth spread over a well's mouth to hide two messengers, the cloud spread over Israel in the wilderness, and the stripped-away defenses of Jerusalem in Isaiah's oracle against Judah.2Sa 17:19Psa 105:39Isa 22:8
Both
the tabernacle inventory sometimes names the inner curtain by joining both words into one technical phrase, using the language of covering to describe what the curtain does, which shows how closely the two ideas overlap even though each word also has its own distinct use.Exo 40:21Num 4:5
names only the one curtain that sealed off the Most Holy Place, so passing behind it required blood, incense, and the high priest alone, and only once a year, on pain of death for anyone else.Lev 16:2Lev 16:12
marks a line of holiness that even priests could not all cross: a priest with a physical defect could still serve elsewhere but was barred from coming near it, and only ministering priests were permitted within it at all.Lev 21:23Num 18:7
is a fixed target in the sacrificial system: the priest sprinkled the blood of a sin offering toward it seven times, a repeated ritual gesture never directed at a doorway screen.Lev 4:6Lev 4:17
מִכְסֶהthe covering laid over the top of the tent, a roof cover of skins, where this word is the screen that hangs down across an opening
A protective cover laid over the top of something: the outer skins over the tabernacle tent, the cloth wrapped over the sacred furniture for carrying, the roof of Noah's ark.Gen 8:13Exo 26:14Num 4:8
יְרִיעָהthe large woven panels that form the walls and roof of the dwelling, where this word is the single screen at its doorway
Names a woven panel or sheet that forms the body of the tent itself: the ten linen panels and the goats'-hair panels joined together to make the tabernacle's fabric.Exo 26:1Exo 36:8Num 4:25
Stands by extension for tent life and dwelling, the cloth a person lives under: David living among them, the ruined tent whose panels are torn down.2Sa 7:2Jer 4:20Jer 10:20
Carries a poetic reach the other word never has: God stretches out the heavens like a tent panel, and enlarged tent cloth pictures a people's growth.Psa 104:2Isa 54:2
קֶלַעthe linen hangings that wall in the courtyard, where this word is the screen that closes the courtyard's gateway
Names a weapon, the sling that hurls a stone, and the sling stones themselves.1Sa 17:401Sa 17:502Ch 26:14Job 41:28
Names the long woven hangings that form the walls enclosing the courtyard on every side.Exo 27:9Exo 38:9
masakh in the other biblical languages
καταπέτασμαGreek“curtain”the curtain that screened off the most holy place in the temple; the Greek word the New Testament uses for that sacred hanging
Names a hanging screen that closes off an entrance: the curtain at the doorway of the sacred tent and the screen across the gate of its courtyard, the first covering a person meets on the way in.Exo 26:36Exo 27:16Exo 40:5
Reaches beyond fabric to any spread-out cover, such as a cloth laid over the mouth of a well or a cloud spread out overhead as a shade.2Sa 17:19Psa 105:39
Both
Both name a cloth covering that conceals or shuts off whatever lies behind it, so the reader pictures something hidden from view.2Co 3:13Exo 26:36
Names a veil worn over a person's face, and by extension a barrier over the mind that keeps someone from seeing clearly. Moses covered his face with it, and the same figurative veil is said to lie over the heart when the old covenant is read.2Co 3:132Co 3:15
Because it hides understanding rather than a room, it can be lifted or taken away when a person turns to the Lord, so its removal pictures spiritual insight being granted.2Co 3:142Co 3:16
What scholars say about masakh
מָסָךְ derives from the root סכך, to cover or screen, and the standard lexica (BDB; HALOT) define it as a screen or curtain and, more broadly, a covering. It is predominantly a technical term in the tabernacle texts for the entrance screens: the מָסָךְ פֶּתַח הָאֹהֶל at the door of the tent and the מָסָךְ שַׁעַר הֶחָצֵר at the gate of the court. It is to be distinguished from the פָּרֹכֶת, the inner veil dividing the holy from the most holy, and from the מִכְסֶה, the outer coverings of skins over the tent. The construct phrase פָּרֹכֶת הַמָּסָךְ (Exodus 40:21;Numbers 4:5) applies the term to the inner screening veil that covered the ark, and the standalone הַמָּסָךְ in the Kohathite charge (Numbers 3:31) is most naturally that same covering veil, since the doorway screens fall to the Gershonites in Numbers 3:25 to 3:26. Beyond the cult it denotes a cloth spread to conceal (2 Samuel 17:19) and a cloud spread as a canopy (Psalm 105:39); at Isaiah 22:8 מָסָךְ יְהוּדָה is widely read figuratively as the protective defenses of Judah, though the precise referent is debated.
Sources
HALOT, s.v. מָסָךְlexicon
BDB, s.v. מָסָךְlexicon
W. H. C. Propp, Exodus 19-40 (Anchor Yale Bible)commentary