Exodus 25:37

Summary

This verse instructs the maker to fashion seven lamps for the lampstand, to mount them, and to have them cast light toward the front of the object referred to as "her" (the lampstand itself, implied from context). The Hebrew sentence uses three sequential verbs describing successive actions in the construction process.

Key words

• nerotea ("lamps", H5216A) — feminine plural construct with the suffix ha ("its/her", H9024), referring back to the lampstand (grammatically feminine), appearing twice (positions 4 and 10).
• shiv'ah ("seven", H7651) — cardinal number specifying the quantity of lamps.
• he'elah ("it will lift up", H5927H) — hiphil (causative) sequential perfect, marked grammatically as third-person masculine ("he"), describing the action of raising/mounting the lamps.
• he'ir ("it will give light", H0215) — hiphil sequential perfect, also third-person masculine, from the root associated with light/illumination.
• 'ever paneiha ("side of its face", H5676H + H6440G) — construct chain literally "the side of its face," an idiomatic way of indicating a direction or front-facing area, with the final "its/her" suffix again pointing to the lampstand.

What the text says

The verse opens with ve-'asita ("and you will make", H6213H), a second-person masculine sequential perfect that continues an ongoing set of instructions addressed to the builder. The two following verbs, he'elah and he'ir, are grammatically third-person masculine singular hiphil forms, even though the instructional sequence appears to still concern the same addressee. This shift in grammatical person between the first verb ("you") and the next two ("he") is a notable feature of the Hebrew text; the action described — lifting/mounting the lamps and causing light to shine — is expressed with causative (hiphil) stems, indicating that the lamps are made to perform an action (giving light) rather than simply existing in a state of light.

The phrase 'al-'ever paneiha ("on the side of its face") uses two stacked construct nouns to specify direction: 'ever ("side/region") of paneiha ("its face"), producing an idiom for "toward the front of it," with "it" grammatically feminine, matching the lampstand.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders he'elah ("it will lift up") as ἐπιθήσεις ("you shall place/set upon"), using a second-person verb, smoothing over the person-shift visible in the Hebrew. The Vulgate similarly gives pones eas ("you shall place them"), also second-person, aligning with the LXX rather than preserving the Hebrew's third-person hiphil forms. For the final phrase, the Hebrew 'ever paneiha ("side of its face") is rendered in the LXX as ἐκ τοῦ ἑνὸς προσώπου ("from the one face/side"), and in the Vulgate as ex adverso ("from the opposite side" / "facing"), both differing somewhat in phrasing from the Hebrew's construct-chain idiom.