Indeed, as a joke it was meant. Here I remixed Herbert’s in-universe quote from Orange Catholic Bible, Arran 11:4 (that in its own way stems from Revelation 13:11), with the slightly obscure meaning of scaffold as a platform or seat for a character in a (morality) play.

I chose demonstrably archaic (can be found in Middle English), while also thespian, meaning in line with style of his epigraph from Children of Dune.

Hence ‘from’ in the highlight. I understand why such construct might look somewhat stilted. Had I translated it from English, I would have supplied a footnote.

Russian translator of Children of Dune, however, misinterpreted the word behold; the end result looks like Да, Я сохранил тебя, яко зверя… (Yea, I saved thee as a beast…).