Exodus 25:34

Summary

The verse specifies that the lampstand's central shaft must carry four cups shaped like almond blossoms, each accompanied by "bulbs" and "flowers." The sentence is a nominal (verbless) clause typical of construction instructions in this chapter, listing components without a stated verb.

Key words

• me.no.Rah ("lampstand", H4501) — feminine singular noun; the antecedent for the feminine suffixes later in the verse (its bulbs, its flowers).
• 'ar.ba.'Ah ("four", H0702) — cardinal number, common gender, quantifying the cups that follow.
• ge.vi.'Im ("cups", H1375) — masculine plural noun, the object being described/counted.
• me.shu.ka.Dim ("shaped like almond blossoms", H8246) — Pual (intensive passive) participle, masculine plural; describes the cups as having been made almond-shaped, agreeing in number with ge.vi.'Im.
• kaf.to.Rei.ha ("its bulbs", H3730 + H9024) — masculine plural noun in construct form with a 3rd person feminine singular suffix ("her/its"), grammatically pointing back to me.no.Rah.

What the text says

The clause opens with u.va.me.no.Rah ("and on the lampstand"), a prepositional phrase placed first, which sets the locative frame before any noun subject appears. The core statement — 'ar.ba.'ah ge.vi.'im me.shu.ka.dim ("four cups, almond-blossom-shaped") — has no explicit verb "to be"; Biblical Hebrew regularly omits copulas in descriptive/technical listings, so the existence of these four cups on the lampstand is asserted purely through juxtaposition of noun and number.

The participle me.shu.ka.Dim is built from the Pual stem, an intensive passive pattern, which here functions adjectivally: the cups are depicted as having been formed/shaped in almond-blossom fashion, rather than performing an action themselves. Following this, two nouns appear in construct state with a 3rd feminine singular suffix — kaf.to.Rei.ha ("its bulbs") and fe.ra.Chei.ha ("its flowers") — both suffixes referring back to the feminine noun me.no.Rah. The construct + suffix structure marks these bulbs and flowers as belonging to or being components of the lampstand itself, not separate items.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew describes four almond-blossom-shaped cups with accompanying bulbs (kaf.to.Rei.ha) and flowers (fe.ra.Chei.ha) on the lampstand's shaft. The Vulgate parallels this closely but renders the shape as "in nucis modum" ("in the manner of a nut") rather than almond, and uses "lilia" ("lilies") for the flowers rather than a more generic floral term. The LXX text supplied here diverges more substantially: it speaks of a σφαιρωτήρ ("sphere-holder/knob") positioned under two and then four καλαμίσκοι ("branches/stems"), and concludes with six branches proceeding from the lampstand — content that does not directly correspond to the Hebrew's description of four cups, bulbs, and flowers on the shaft itself.