Exodus 26:10

Summary

The verse instructs the making of fifty lulaot ("loops", H3924) along the edge of the outermost curtain of one joined set of tent-curtains, and another fifty loops along the edge of the curtain of the second joined set. This describes the loop placement needed to connect two sets of tabernacle curtains together.

Key words

• 'a.Si.ta ("you will make", H6213H) — qal verb in sequential perfect form, continuing the chain of instructions given to "you" (masculine singular addressee).
• lu.la.'Ot ("loops", H3924) — feminine plural noun, appearing twice (positions 4 and 17), naming the objects to be made on each curtain edge.
• se.Fat ("edge of", H8193I) — feminine singular construct noun, grammatically binding to the following noun ("edge of the curtain"), marking the precise location for the loops.
• ki.tzo.Nah ("outermost", H7020) — feminine singular adjective modifying "the one curtain," specifying which curtain within the first joined set receives the loops.
• cho.Va.ret / cho.Ve.ret ("joined set", H2279) — feminine singular noun appearing twice, referring to the assembled group of curtains sewn together, distinguished as first and second by context.

What the text says

The verse is built as two parallel clauses joined by the conjunction va ("and", H9002). Each clause follows the same pattern: a number of loops (chamishim lulaot, "fifty loops"), the preposition 'al ("on", H5921A), and the construct phrase sefat ha-yeri'ah ("edge of the curtain"). This construct chain, using se.Fat (H8193I), ties the noun "edge" tightly to "curtain," a common Biblical Hebrew way of expressing a genitive-like relationship without a separate word for "of."

The first clause specifies the curtain further with ha-'echat ha-qitzonah ("the one, the outermost"), using the numeral 'e.Chat (H0259) plus the adjective ki.tzo.Nah (H7020), both marked definite with the article ha (H9009), and locates it ba-chovaret ("in the joined set", H2279) — the first assembled group of curtains. The second clause mirrors this with ha-chovaret ha-shenit ("the joined set, the second"), using the ordinal she.Nit (H8145) instead of an adjective describing the curtain itself. The Hebrew grammar thus distinguishes the two sets by attaching "outermost" to the curtain in the first case and "second" to the joined set (chovaret) in the second case, rather than repeating identical descriptive terms for both.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders chovaret (H2279, "joined set") with κατὰ συμβολήν ("according to the joining") in the first instance and τῆς συναπτούσης ("the one joining/connecting") in the second, framing the term action-wise rather than as a noun for an assembled group. The Vulgate uses sagi ("curtain/covering") for yeri'ah (H3407) and expresses the joining relationship with purpose clauses ("ut conjungi... queat," "ut... copuletur"), making explicit a connective function that the Hebrew leaves implicit in the bare construct phrases.