Exodus 25:32

Summary

Exodus 25:32 describes the six branches of the lampstand (menorah): three branches extend from one side of the central shaft and three from the other side. The verse specifies the total count and the symmetrical arrangement of the branches.

Key words

• shishah ("six", H8337) — cardinal number introducing the total count of branches before any further specification.
• qanim ("branches", H7070G) — masculine plural noun, the general term for the six branches as a group.
• yotze'im ("coming out", H3318L) — qal participle masculine plural, describing the branches as continuously "going out" or "extending" from the shaft, a durative/descriptive verbal form rather than a finished action.
• tzidei-ha ("sides of it", H6654 + H9024) — masculine plural construct noun with a feminine pronominal suffix referring back to menorah ("lampstand", H4501, feminine), showing that "its" points to the lampstand's own body.
• ha'echad / hasheni ("the one" / "the second", H0259 / H8145) — the definite article with an ordinal/cardinal number distinguishes the two sides explicitly, "the one side" versus "the second side."

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with the total (shishah qanim, "six branches") and the participle yotze'im ("coming out"), establishing that the six branches as a whole are described as extending from the sides (tzidei-ha) of the lampstand. The construct phrase tzidei-ha uses a feminine suffix agreeing with menorah, confirming that the "sides" belong to the lampstand itself. After this general statement, the verse breaks the six into two groups of three (shloshah qenei menorah, "three branches of lampstand"), each assigned to one side using the ordinal pair ha'echad ("the one") and hasheni ("the second"). This repetition of qenei menorah for each triad, rather than a single collective statement, gives the Hebrew a paired, almost architectural symmetry — first the whole (six branches, one participle), then the specification (two matching triads, each anchored to its own side by the definite ordinal).

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (Sex calami egredientur de lateribus, tres ex uno latere, et tres ex altero) follows the Hebrew closely in structure: six branches, three from one side, three from the other. The LXX text supplied, however, includes vocabulary not present in the Hebrew of this verse — κρατῆρες ("cups", not in this verse's word list), σφαιρωτήρ ("knob"), and κρίνον ("lily") — terms that describe decorative elements of the branches. The LXX also uses καλαμίσκοις ("small reeds/branches") rather than a direct equivalent of qanim, and states the branches "going out from the lampstand" (ἐκ τῆς λυχνίας) as a summary clause rather than the Hebrew's two-part statement about "the one side" and "the second side."