Exodus 26:33

Summary

The verse instructs the placement of the parokhet ("curtain", H6532) beneath hooks, the positioning of the aron ha'edut ("ark of the testimony") behind it, and states that this curtain will create a separation between two zones. The three main verbs are all sequential perfects continuing a chain of instructions begun earlier in the chapter.

Key words

• pa.ro.Khet ("curtain", H6532) — feminine singular noun, repeated three times; it is the physical object being placed, and later becomes the grammatical subject of the separating action.
• he.ve.Ta ("you will bring", H0935P) — hiphil (causative) sequential perfect: "you" causes the ark to be brought/enter, continuing the instructional chain from na.ta.Tah.
• hiv.di.Lah ("it will separate", H0914) — hiphil sequential perfect, third person feminine singular. The feminine subject agrees with parokhet: it is the curtain itself, not "you," that performs the separating.
• ko.da.Shim ("holy places", H6944J) — masculine plural, forming with the preceding construct Ko.desh ("holy place of") the phrase qodesh haqqodashim, literally "holy place of the holy places," a construct superlative naming the innermost zone.
• Beit ("inside", H1004O) — construct noun functioning with the preposition mi ("from", H9006) and directional he ("toward", H9011) on Sha.ma ("there") to specify motion into an interior space "from inside toward the curtain."

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a chain of three ve-qatal (sequential perfect) verbs — na.ta.Tah ("you will put"), he.ve.Ta ("you will bring"), and hiv.di.Lah ("it will separate") — a construction typical of procedural instruction where each verb continues the sequence set by a preceding command form. The first two verbs have "you" (masculine singular) as subject, addressing the instructed party directly. The third verb, hiv.di.Lah, shifts subject: its feminine singular form agrees with ha.pa.Ro.khet ("the curtain"), meaning the curtain itself is grammatically the agent that separates, not the addressee.

The phrase bein ha.qo.Desh u.vein qo.Desh ha.qo.da.Shim uses bein ("between", H0996G) twice to frame the two flanking spaces: ha.qo.Desh ("the holy place") and qo.Desh ha.qo.da.Shim ("holy place of the holy places"), the latter a construct chain functioning as a superlative designation for the innermost space. The motion into this space is marked by Sha.ma ("there") plus a directional he, combined with mi.Beit la.pa.Ro.khet ("from inside to the curtain"), indicating placement on the interior side of the curtain.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew hiv.di.Lah makes "the curtain" the subject of the separating action ("the curtain will separate"). The LXX matches this with διοριεῖ ("it will separate," third singular), keeping καταπέτασμα ("curtain") as subject. The Vulgate instead uses a passive plural, dividentur ("shall be divided"), with sanctuarium and sanctuarii sanctuaria as the subjects being divided — shifting the grammatical focus from the curtain acting to the two spaces being acted upon.