Exodus 25:30

Summary

Exodus 25:30 instructs that bread called lechem panim ("bread of presence/faces", H3899H + H6440G) is to be placed continually on the table, positioned lefanay ("before my face", H6440G + H9020) — that is, before the divine speaker.

Key words

• na.ta.Ta ("you will put", H5414H) — qal sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine singular; continues a chain of prior instructions as a further command in sequence.
• shul.Chan ("table", H7979) — masculine singular noun, the object on which the bread is placed.
• Le.chem ("bread of", H3899H) — masculine singular construct noun, opening a construct chain with the following word.
• pa.Nim ("presence/faces", H6440G) — masculine plural noun, here the second element of the construct phrase lechem panim, "bread of presence(s)".
• fa.Na + i ("before me", H6440G + H9020) — the same root panim in construct form with the 1st person singular suffix, literally "to the face(s) of me".

What the text says

The clause opens with the sequential perfect na.ta.Ta ("you will put"), a verb form that continues a series of commands already begun earlier in the passage rather than starting a new independent statement. The verb is followed by the prepositional phrase 'al-ha.shul.Chan ("on the table", H5921A + H9009 + H7979), specifying the location, and then the direct object lechem panim — a construct chain literally "bread of faces/presence" (H3899H + H6440G), where the plural noun panim functions idiomatically to denote "presence" rather than a literal count of faces.

Notably, the root panim (H6440G) appears twice in this short verse: once in the construct phrase describing the bread itself, and again in lefanay ("before my face", H6440G + H9020), where the same noun in construct form takes the 1st person singular suffix -i ("me/my"). This repetition links the naming of the bread directly to its placement "before" the speaker, an association the construct grammar makes explicit but which a translation using two different English words ("presence" and "before") does not visually preserve. The final word, ta.Mid ("continually", H8548), is an adverbial noun indicating the permanence or regularity of this placement.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders lechem panim as panes propositionis ("breads of proposition/setting-forth"), using a plural noun where the Hebrew lechem (H3899H) is grammatically singular/collective. The Spanish versions (RV1909, SBLIBRE) follow this pattern with "el pan de la proposición" or "el pan de la presencia," both singular, closer to the Hebrew number. The LXX text supplied here corresponds instead to material about the lampstand (Exodus 25:31, mentioning λυχνίαν, "lampstand"), not to the bread of presence described in the Hebrew, Vulgate, or Spanish texts of this verse.