Exodus 25:21

Summary

Exodus 25:21 instructs the placement of the kapporet ("atonement cover", H3727) atop the ark and the placement of the edut ("testimony", H5715) inside the ark. The verse closes with a first-person promise that this testimony is something the speaker will give to the addressee.

Key words

• kaPoret ("atonement cover", H3727) — feminine singular noun, the object to be positioned "on" ('al, H5921A) the ark.
• 'aRon ("ark", H0727) — masculine singular noun, appearing twice, once as the surface for the cover and once as the container for the testimony.
• 'eDut ("testimony", H5715) — feminine singular noun, marked with the direct object particle 'et (H0853) and the definite article.
• ti.Ten ("you will put", H5414H) — qal imperfect, second masculine singular, describing the ongoing/future act of depositing the testimony into the ark.
• 'eTen ("I will give", H5414G) — qal imperfect, first person, from the same root as ti.Ten, describing the speaker's future giving of the testimony.

What the text says

The verse is built on two clauses joined by the narrative vav (H9001) and a second conjunctive vav (H9002), both organized around the same verbal root natan ("to put/give", H5414). The first clause uses a sequential perfect (na.ta.Ta, "you will put") to instruct placement of the kapporet "on" ('al, H5921A) the ark, specified further by the compound mi-le-ma'la ("from above", H9006+H9005+H4605), which stacks two prepositions onto the noun for "above" to indicate a position atop something. The directional he (H9011) attached to ma'la reinforces the sense of upward orientation.

The second clause shifts to a plain imperfect (ti.Ten, "you will put"), governing the object 'et-ha-'edut ("the testimony"), and specifies destination with 'el ("into", H0413) rather than 'al ("on"), marking a contrast between placing something atop the ark versus inside it. The relative clause 'asher 'eten 'eleikha ("which I will give to you") uses the same root natan again, now in first person imperfect ('eTen), creating a wordplay across the verse: the addressee "puts" (natan) what the speaker "gives" (natan). The pronominal suffix -kha (H9031, "you," masculine) on 'eleikha ties the giving directly to the addressee.

Differences between versions

The Septuagint text supplied here does not correspond to the Hebrew of 25:21; it renders content about the speaker's future meeting and speaking from above the hilasterion between the two cherubim over the ark — material matching the Hebrew of the following verse. The Vulgate text given, in qua pones testimonium quod dabo tibi ("in which you will put the testimony that I will give you"), translates only the second clause of the Hebrew verse (placing the testimony in the ark), without rendering the first clause about setting the cover atop the ark.