Exodus 26:14

וְעָשִׂיתָ מִכְסֶה לָאֹהֶל עֹרֹת אֵילִם מְאָדָּמִים וּמִכְסֵה עֹרֹת תְּחָשִׁים מִלְמָֽעְלָה׃ פ

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וְעָשִׂ֤יתָ מִכְסֶה֙ לָאֹ֔הֶל עֹרֹ֥ת אֵילִ֖ם מְאָדָּמִ֑ים וּמִכְסֵ֛ה עֹרֹ֥ת תְּחָשִׁ֖ים מִלְמָֽעְלָה׃ פ

Greek (Septuagint)

κάλυμμα τῇ σκηνῇ δέρματα κριῶν ἠρυθροδανωμένα, τὰ δέρματα ὑακίνθινα ἐπάνωθεν.

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Facies et operimentum aliud tecto de pellibus arietum rubricatis: et super hoc rursum aliud operimentum de janthinis pellibus.

Spanish

Harás una cubierta para la carpa de pieles de carnero teñidas de rojo, y otra cubierta de cueros finos para ponerla por encima.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Harás también á la tienda una cubierta de cueros de carneros, teñidos de rojo, y una cubierta de cueros de tejones encima.

English

Also make a covering for the tent out of ram skins dyed red, and over that a covering of fine leather. The Frames and Bases (Exodus 36:20–34)

✦ What the text says

Summary

The verse instructs the construction of two additional coverings for the tent: one made of ram skins dyed red, and another made of tachash skins placed above it.

Key words

'a.Si.ta ("you will make", H6213H) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the sequence of instructions begun earlier in the chapter, addressed to a singular "you."
mikh.Seh ("a covering", H4372) — masculine singular noun, appearing twice in the verse (once absolute, once in construct form) to introduce each of the two coverings.
'o.Rot ("skins of", H5785) — feminine plural construct noun, used twice to link the covering to its material source (rams, then tachash).
me.'a.da.Mim ("dyed red", H0119) — pual passive participle, masculine plural, agreeing with 'ei.Lim ("rams", H0352A) and describing the skins as having been made red through a dyeing process.
te.cha.Shim ("dolphins", H8476) — masculine plural noun; the gloss given here is "dolphins," though the exact referent of this animal term is uncertain in the source material.

What the text says

The verse continues a sequential narrative using the vav-consecutive construction on 'a.Si.ta ("you will make"), which chains this instruction to the preceding verses about the tent's construction. The sentence structure presents two parallel objects: mikh.Seh la-'Ohel ("a covering for the tent") made of 'o.Rot 'ei.Lim me.'a.da.Mim ("skins of rams dyed red"), followed by u-mikh.Seh 'o.Rot te.cha.Shim ("and a covering of skins of tachash").

The construct chains ('o.Rot 'ei.Lim, 'o.Rot te.cha.Shim) tightly bind the material (skins) to its animal source without needing an explicit "of" preposition, a feature Hebrew grammar allows through juxtaposition. The final phrase mi-le-Ma'e.lah combines the preposition mi ("from") with le ("to") and Ma'elah ("above"), reinforced by a directional he suffix, producing an emphatic spatial expression meaning the second covering sits positioned above the first.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders te.cha.Shim (H8476) as ὑακίνθινα ("hyacinth-colored" or violet-blue), describing a color rather than an animal, where the Hebrew presents it as a plural noun referring to an animal type (glossed here as "dolphins"). The Vulgate similarly translates this term as ianthinis ("violet-colored"), aligning with the LXX's color-based rendering rather than the Hebrew's animal-based construct phrase 'o.Rot te.cha.Shim ("skins of tachash").

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.