Knop

Knop, that is, KNOB (Anglo-Saxon cnoep), a word employed in the A.V. to translate two terms, of the real meaning of which all that we can say with certainty is that they refer to some architectural or ornamental object, and that they have nothing in common.

1. Kaphtor' (כִּפתּוֹר or כִּפתֹּר) occurs in the description of the candlestick of the sacred tent (Ex 25:31-36; Ex 37:17-22, the two passages being identical). The knops are here distinguished from the shaft, branches, bowls, and flowers of the candlestick; but the knop and the flower go together, and seem intended to imitate the produce of an almond-tree. In another part of the work they appear to form a boss, from which the branches are to spring out from the main stem. In Am 9:1 the same word is rendered, with doubtful accuracy, "lintel." The same rendering is used in Zep 2:14, where the reference is to some part of the palace of Nineveh, to be exposed when the wooden upper story -the" cedar work"-was destroyed. The Hebrew word seems to contain the sense of "covering" and " crowning" (Gesenius, Thes. Heb. p. 709). Josephus's description (Ant. 3:6,7) names both balls (σφαιρία) and pomegranates (ῥοϊvσκοι), either of which may be the kaphtor. The Targum agrees with the latter, the Sept. (σφαιπωτῆρες) with the former. See LINTEL. All these circumstances point to a signification corresponding essentially to that of crown; and in the case of the sacred candelabrum, the term seems to point to a sharp ornamental swell placed (like a horizontal button) immediately beneath the cups that surmounted each arm and section of the shaft. See TABERNACLE.