Exodus 25:36

Summary

Exodus 25:36 specifies that the decorative bulbs and branches of the lampstand must be integral to it, not separate pieces, and that the entire object is to be fashioned as a single hammered work of pure gold.

Key words

• kaftoreihem ("their bulbs", H3730) — masculine plural construct with 3mp suffix, referring back to the bulb-ornaments described earlier in the passage.
• qenotam ("their branches", H7070G) — feminine plural construct with 3mp suffix, paired with the bulbs as the two decorative elements under discussion.
• mimennah ("from it/her", H4480A + H9034) — preposition with 3fs suffix; the feminine suffix points back to the lampstand (a feminine noun in Hebrew), indicating the bulbs and branches must originate "from it," i.e., from the same mass of metal.
• miqshah ("hammered work", H4749) — feminine singular noun, a technical term for metalwork produced by hammering out a single block rather than by casting or joining separate parts.
• achat ("one", H0259) — feminine singular cardinal number agreeing with miqshah, reinforcing that the hammered work forms a single, undivided unit.

What the text says

The verse divides into two clauses. The first, kaftoreihem u-qenotam mimennah yihyu ("their bulbs and their branches, from it they shall be"), places the compound subject (bulbs and branches) before the prepositional phrase mimennah and the verb yihyu ("they will be," H1961, qal imperfect). This word order foregrounds the ornamental parts while the imperfect verb expresses a required future state — the parts are to exist as extensions "from it," using a feminine suffix that ties back to the lampstand itself.

The second clause, kullah miqshah achat zahav tahor ("all of it, one hammered work, pure gold"), has no verb; it is a nominal clause restating the material and technique. Kullah ("all of it," H3605 + 3fs suffix H9024) again uses the feminine suffix pointing to the lampstand, and miqshah achat pairs the technical noun with the numeral "one" in matching feminine gender, stressing that the object is not assembled from separate pieces but hammered from a single mass of zahav tahor ("pure gold," H2091 + H2889).

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders mimennah as ex ipso, using a masculine pronoun, since the Latin candelabrum is neuter/masculine, whereas the Hebrew suffix is feminine, agreeing with the feminine noun for the lampstand. The Vulgate also translates miqshah with the plural ductilia ("things wrought/malleable"), spreading the singular Hebrew noun miqshah across a plural Latin term, while the LXX keeps a singular adjective, toreutē ("wrought"), modified by ex henos ("from one"), closely tracking the Hebrew miqshah achat.