Exodus 26:12

Summary

The verse describes what happens to the extra length of fabric in the tent curtains covering the tabernacle: the surplus portion — specifically half of one curtain — is designated to hang down over the back of the structure. The sentence identifies the excess material twice before stating its placement.

Key words

• Serach ("the overhanging of", H5629) — construct noun naming the excess/overhang as the grammatical subject of the clause.
• 'oDef ("surplus", H5736) — qal participle, masculine singular, describing the overhang as something actively "being surplus" in the curtains.
• chaTzi ("half of", H2677) — construct noun that narrows the general "overhang" down to a specific measured amount, half a curtain.
• 'oDefet ("is surplus", H5736) — the same participle as in item 2, now feminine singular, agreeing with yri'Ah ("curtain"), repeating the description for the half-curtain specifically.
• tisRach ("it will overhang", H5628) — qal imperfect, third-person feminine, sharing the root ס-ר-ח with Serach; states the future/ongoing action of hanging down.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a long noun phrase functioning as the subject, followed by a single main verb. The subject begins with Serach ("the overhang of"), immediately qualified by the participle 'oDef ("the one being surplus") — a construction that names the excess and simultaneously describes it as an ongoing state within "the curtains of the tent" (yri'Ot ha'Ohel). This subject is then re-specified in apposition: chatzi hayri'ah ha'oDefet, "the half of the curtain, the one being surplus," using the same participial root a second time but shifted to feminine agreement with yri'Ah. Only after this double identification does the verb appear: tisRach, "it will overhang," built from the same root (ס-ר-ח) as the opening noun Serach. This root repetition (noun and verb from the same root) creates a structural echo in Hebrew that ties the description of the surplus directly to the action of its hanging, a link not necessarily visible in translation. The final phrase, 'al 'achoRei hamishKan, "over the rear of the tabernacle," locates the action using a plural construct noun 'achoRei ("the rear of"), fixing the surplus half-curtain at the back of the structure.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the passage as a set of two imperative-style future verbs, "ὑποθήσεις" ("you shall put underneath") and "ὑποκαλύψεις" ("you shall cover"), addressed to a second-person subject, where the Hebrew instead uses a noun-heavy subject (Serach, chatzi) with a single third-person verb (tisRach). The LXX also omits explicit mention of "half" in its second clause, referring generally to covering "behind the tent," while the Vulgate preserves the Hebrew's specific measurement with "ex medietate ejus" ("from its half"), matching chaTzi.