Exodus 25:39

Summary

The verse specifies the amount of gold needed for the lampstand: a single kikkar ("talent") of pure gold. The same verb also covers the making of "all these vessels," the utensils belonging to the lampstand described in the preceding verses.

Key words

• ki.Kar ("a talent", H3603H) — feminine singular noun denoting a specific weight of metal; placed at the very start of the sentence, ahead of the verb, giving it emphasis as the topic of the clause.
• ta.Hor ("pure", H2889) — masculine singular adjective modifying zahav ("gold"); specifies the required quality of the metal, not merely its identity.
• ya.'a.Seh ("someone will make", H6213H) — Qal imperfect, third person, without an expressed subject; functions as an impersonal/passive-like construction common in instructional legal Hebrew ("it shall be made" rather than naming an agent).
• 'o.Ta + h ("it", H0853/H9034) — the object marker with a feminine pronominal suffix, referring back to the feminine noun kikkar, confirming that the verb's first object is the "talent" itself, i.e., the total quantity of gold.
• 'et kol-ha.kkelim ha.'Elleh ("all these vessels", H0853/H3605/H3627/H428) — a second object of the same verb, marked again with the object particle 'et, introducing the plural definite noun kelim ("vessels") qualified by the demonstrative 'elleh ("these"), linking this clause to the vessels just enumerated.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence fronts the noun phrase kikkar zahav tahor ("a talent of pure gold") before the verb ya'aseh, a structure that places weight-quantity as the focal information of the clause rather than as an incidental detail. The verb itself carries no explicit subject; the third-person singular Qal imperfect form functions impersonally, a common feature of instructional passages in the Pentateuch, roughly "it shall be made" or "one shall make it." This single verb governs two objects, each introduced separately by the accusative marker 'et: first 'otah ("it"), referring back to the kikkar just mentioned, and then kol-hakkelim ha'elleh ("all these vessels"). The repetition of the object marker ties the gold quantity and the vessels together as a single production requirement, without stating explicitly that the vessels are made from the same gold, though the juxtaposition of both objects under one verb implies a shared material source.

Differences between versions

The Septuagint reverses the order, opening with "all these vessels" and placing "talent of pure gold" afterward, and appends material about a pattern shown "in the mountain," which is not present in this Hebrew clause. The Vulgate renders the sentence with "pondus candelabri" ("the weight of the lampstand") as subject, explicitly naming the lampstand where the Hebrew has only the pronominal suffix -ah. RV1909 preserves a second-person verb ("lo harás," "you shall make it"), shifting the impersonal Hebrew form to an addressed instruction. SBLIBRE converts the kikkar into a modern metric estimate ("unos treinta y cuatro kilos"), an interpretive rendering of the ancient weight unit rather than a direct lexical equivalent.