Exodus 26:11

Summary

Exodus 26:11 instructs the maker to produce fifty bronze hooks, insert them through loops, and join the tent so that it becomes a single unit. The verse is part of a sequence of construction directives for the tabernacle's covering.

Key words

• qarsei ("hooks of", H7165) — masculine plural construct noun, linking to the following material nechoshet ("bronze", H5178A) in a genitive relationship: "hooks of bronze."
• lula'ot ("loops", H3924) — feminine plural noun, the receiving element into which the hooks are inserted, marked with the preposition ba- ("in the").
• chibarta ("you will join", H2266) — piel stem, sequential perfect, second person masculine singular; the piel here carries an intensive nuance of firmly joining or coupling together, continuing the chain of instructions from the previous verses.
• 'echad ("one", H0259) — cardinal number in feminine singular form, the predicate describing the resulting state after the joining action.
• 'ohel ("tent", H0168G) — masculine singular noun, the direct object of the joining verb, marked by the object marker 'et.

What the text says

The verse continues a chain of sequential perfect verbs ('asita, heveta, chibarta, hayah) that in Biblical Hebrew narrative style function as consecutive commands, each building on the previous one: "you will make... and you will bring... and you will join... and it will be." This verbal chain creates a procedural rhythm typical of technical instructions in the tabernacle construction texts.

A grammatical detail worth noting is the gender mismatch between 'ohel ("tent", masculine) as the object of chibarta, and 'echad ("one", feminine) as the resulting predicate. Since 'ohel is masculine, the feminine form of 'echad suggests the "one" being described may refer back to a feminine noun understood from context (such as the curtain or covering as a whole), rather than agreeing directly with "tent." The Hebrew text does not explicitly state what "one" is agreeing with — the feminine form is left to be inferred from the wider construction context.

The direct object marker 'et appears twice (before "the hooks" and before "the tent"), grammatically marking both nouns as definite objects receiving the verbal action, though this particle itself carries no independent translation.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew states that "you will join the tent" ('et-ha-'ohel, H0168G), using the same noun for "tent" found elsewhere in the passage. The LXX instead reads συνάψεις τὰς δέρρεις ("you will join the skins"), using a different object noun (δέρρεις, "skins/hides") rather than a word corresponding to "tent." The Vulgate renders the clause as "ut unum ex omnibus operimentum fiat" ("so that one covering may be made from all of them"), introducing "operimentum" ("covering") as the resulting unity rather than naming "the tent" as the object being joined, and restructuring the clause as a purpose statement rather than a direct action.