Exodus 25:31

Summary

The verse instructs the making of a lampstand of pure gold, worked as a single hammered piece. It specifies that the base, shaft, cups, bulbs, and blossoms are all to be part of that same unified structure, "from it" (מִמֶּנָּה, mimmenah).

Key words

mikSHah ("hammered work", H4749) — indicates the manufacturing technique: a solid object shaped by beating metal, not cast or assembled from separate pieces.

te'aSeh ("it will be made", H6213) — niphal (passive) imperfect; the lampstand itself is the grammatical subject of a passive action, contrasting with the active ta'aseh ("you will make") in the opening clause.

yereKhah ("its base", H3409) — feminine singular noun in construct with the third-person feminine suffix -ah ("her/its"), referring back to ha-menorah ("the lampstand").

miMenah ("from it", H4480 + H9034) — preposition plus third-person feminine singular suffix, again referring to the lampstand; this phrase governs the final verb.

yihYu ("they will be", H1961) — third-person masculine plural imperfect of hayah ("to be"); its plural subject is the preceding list of parts (base, shaft, cups, bulbs, blossoms).

What the text says

The verse opens with an active verb, 'asita ("you will make", H6213, qal sequential perfect), addressed to a second-person singular subject — the one instructed to build the lampstand. The sentence then shifts grammatical voice: te'aseh ("it will be made") is niphal, so the lampstand becomes the passive subject of the shaping process itself. This shift separates the instruction to the craftsman (active "you will make") from a description of how the object comes into being (passive "it will be made... as hammered work").

The list of components — yerekhah ("its base"), ve-qanah ("and its shaft"), gevi'eiha ("its cups"), kaftoreiha ("its bulbs"), u-feracheiha ("and its blossoms") — are all nouns in construct form carrying the same third-person feminine suffix -ah, each referring back to ha-menorah ("the lampstand"). This repeated suffix ties every part grammatically to the single antecedent object. The closing clause, mimmenah yihyu ("from it they will be"), uses a plural verb yihyu to gather all these singular and plural nouns into one collective subject, stating that they originate "from it" — reinforcing at the grammatical level the point already made by miqshah ("hammered work"): the components are not separate attachments but arise from the single worked mass of gold.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew of this verse (Exodus 25:31) describes the lampstand's material, technique, and listed parts. The Vulgate ("Facies et candelabrum ductile de auro mundissimo, hastile ejus, et calamos, scyphos, et sphærulas, ac lilia ex ipso procedentia") closely follows this structure, rendering miqshah as "ductile" and listing corresponding parts. The LXX text supplied here, however, speaks of six branches (καλαμίσκοι) extending from the sides of the lampstand — content that corresponds to the following verse (Exodus 25:32) rather than to the material and parts described in the Hebrew of 25:31.