Exodus 26:37
וְעָשִׂיתָ לַמָּסָךְ חֲמִשָּׁה עַמּוּדֵי שִׁטִּים וְצִפִּיתָ אֹתָם זָהָב וָוֵיהֶם זָהָב וְיָצַקְתָּ לָהֶם חֲמִשָּׁה אַדְנֵי נְחֹֽשֶׁת׃ ס
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וְעָשִׂ֣יתָ לַמָּסָ֗ךְ חֲמִשָּׁה֙ עַמּוּדֵ֣י שִׁטִּ֔ים וְצִפִּיתָ֤ אֹתָם֙ זָהָ֔ב וָוֵיהֶ֖ם זָהָ֑ב וְיָצַקְתָּ֣ לָהֶ֔ם חֲמִשָּׁ֖ה אַדְנֵ֥י נְחֹֽשֶׁת׃ ס
καὶ ποιήσεις τῷ καταπετάσματι καὶ χρυσώσεις αὐτοὺς χρυσίῳ· καὶ αἱ κεφαλίδες αὐτῶν χρυσαῖ, καὶ χωνεύσεις αὐταῖς πέντε βάσεις χαλκᾶς.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Et quinque columnas deaurabis lignorum setim, ante quas ducetur tentorium: quarum erunt capita aurea, et bases æneæ.
Para colgar esta cortina harás cinco postes de acacia recubiertos de oro. Sus ganchos serán de oro, y fundirás para ellos cinco bases de bronce.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y harás para la cortina cinco columnas de madera de Sittim, las cuales cubrirás de oro, con sus capiteles de oro: y hacerlas has de fundición cinco basas de metal.
Make five posts of acacia wood for the curtain, overlay them with gold hooks, and cast five bronze bases for them.
✦ What the text says
Summary
Exodus 26:37 gives instructions for the five acacia-wood pillars that will support the screen (masakh) of the tabernacle entrance. The pillars are to be overlaid with gold, their hooks are to be gold, and five bronze bases are to be cast for them.
Key words
- 'a.Si.ta ("you will make", H6213H) — qal sequential perfect, continuing a chain of second-person instructions addressed to Moses.
- ma.Sakh ("screen", H4539) — masculine singular noun naming the object for which the pillars are constructed.
- 'a.mu.Dei ("pillars of", H5982G) — masculine plural construct, linking directly to shi.Tim ("acacia", H7848) to specify the material.
- tzi.pi.Ta ("you will overlay", H6823) — piel sequential perfect; the piel stem marks an intensive/applicative action, "to cover thoroughly."
- va.vei.Hem ("hooks-their", H2053 + H9028) — masculine plural construct with possessive suffix, followed by za.Hav ("gold", H2091) with no verb — a nominal clause stating a state of being rather than an action.
What the text says
The verse is built on three sequential perfect verbs — 'a.Si.ta ("you will make", H6213H), tzi.pi.Ta ("you will overlay", H6823), and ya.tzak.Ta ("you will cast", H3332H) — each introduced by the narrative ve (H9001). This chain continues the second-person instructional register used throughout the tabernacle-construction section, presenting the pillars, their gold overlay, and their bronze bases as three successive actions Moses is told to perform.
Between the second and third verbs sits a clause without any verb: va.vei.Hem za.Hav ("their hooks, gold", H2053+H9028+H2091). Hebrew allows such nominal clauses to express a state ("their hooks are/will be gold") without a copula. This contrasts grammatically with the surrounding action verbs — the text shifts from describing what is done to the pillars to simply stating what the hooks are.
The construct chains 'a.mu.Dei shi.Tim ("pillars of acacia", H5982G+H7848) and 'ad.Nei ne.Cho.shet ("bases of bronze", H0134+H5178A) each attach a material noun to the object noun, a common Hebrew way of specifying composition without an adjective.
Differences between versions
The LXX (Swete) reads "καὶ ποιήσεις τῷ καταπετάσματι" ("you will make for the curtain") and does not explicitly repeat "five pillars of acacia" in this verse, moving directly to gilding — the Hebrew names the pillars and their material explicitly here, while this Greek text presupposes them from context. The Vulgate adds "ante quas ducetur tentorium" ("before which the curtain will be drawn"), a clarifying phrase not present in the Hebrew clauses given, describing the pillars' function rather than translating an existing Hebrew word.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.