Exodus 26:17
שְׁתֵּי יָדוֹת לַקֶּרֶשׁ הָאֶחָד מְשֻׁלָּבֹת אִשָּׁה אֶל־אֲחֹתָהּ כֵּן תַּעֲשֶׂה לְכֹל קַרְשֵׁי הַמִּשְׁכָּֽן׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
שְׁתֵּ֣י יָד֗וֹת לַקֶּ֙רֶשׁ֙ הָאֶחָ֔ד מְשֻׁלָּבֹ֔ת אִשָּׁ֖ה אֶל־אֲחֹתָ֑הּ כֵּ֣ן תַּעֲשֶׂ֔ה לְכֹ֖ל קַרְשֵׁ֥י הַמִּשְׁכָּֽן׃
δύο ἀγκωνίσκους τῷ στύλῳ τῷ ἑνί, ἀντιπίπτοντας ἕτερον τῷ ἑτέρῳ· οὕτως ποιήσεις πᾶσι τοῖς στύλοις τῆς σκηνῆς.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
In lateribus tabulæ, duæ incastraturæ fient, quibus tabula alteri tabulæ connectatur: atque in hunc modum cunctæ tabulæ parabuntur.
Cada tabla tendrá dos espigas paralelas para que encajen unas con otras. Así harás todas las tablas del santuario.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Dos quicios tendrá cada tabla, trabadas la una con la otra; así harás todas las tablas del tabernáculo.
Two tenons must be connected to each other for each frame. Make all the frames of the tabernacle in this way.
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse specifies that each frame (qeresh, H7175) of the tabernacle structure must have two "hands" (yadot, H3027G) joined to one another, and this construction method applies uniformly to all frames of the mishkan (H4908), the tabernacle.
Key words
- yadot ("hands", H3027G) — plural common noun; here used technically for projecting pegs or tenons on the frame, not literal hands.
- meshullavot ("joined", H7947) — pual (intensive passive) participle, feminine plural, indicating the two hands are made to be joined/interlocked, agreeing grammatically with yadot.
- ishah ... achotah ("each ... its sister", H0802I / H0269) — an idiomatic construct pairing a feminine noun with its "sister," used distributively to mean "each one to the other."
- ken ("thus", H3651C) — adverb marking that the preceding description sets the pattern for what follows.
- ta'aseh ("you will do", H6213A) — qal imperfect, second person masculine singular, giving an instruction addressed to a single addressee about future/ongoing construction.
What the text says
The Hebrew sentence opens with the numeral shetei ("two", H8147) in construct with yadot, establishing that two "hands" belong to each single frame (la-qeresh ha-echad, "to the frame, the one"). The passive participle meshullavot describes the state of these two hands—already joined—and the idiom ishah el achotah ("each to its sister") reinforces the reciprocal, paired relationship between them, a construction pattern that treats the two hands as feminine counterparts joined to each other rather than naming a specific mechanical shape.
The second half of the verse shifts to direct address: ken ta'aseh, "thus you will do," using the second-person qal imperfect to instruct that this same joining pattern is to be applied le-khol qarshei ha-mishkan, "to all the frames of the tabernacle" (H3605, H7175, H4908). The construct chain qarshei ha-mishkan ties the instruction back to the totality of frames constituting the tabernacle structure, generalizing the single-frame description given in the first half of the verse.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders yadot ("hands") as ἀγκωνίσκους ("small elbow-pieces" or tenons) and qeresh ("frame") as στύλῳ ("pillar" or "post"), a different structural image than the Hebrew "frame." The Vulgate renders the same feature as incastraturae ("grooves" or "sockets"), which describes a receiving cavity rather than a projecting "hand," a divergence in the mechanical concept conveyed by each version.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.