Exodus 26:4

Summary

The verse instructs the placement of loops made of tekhelet ("violet stuff", H8504) along the edge of one curtain at the point where it joins another, and specifies that the same must be done on the edge of the outermost curtain in the second joined set. It describes a technical, repeated construction detail for assembling the tabernacle's curtain panels.

Key words

• lul'ot ("loops of", H3924) — feminine plural construct noun, grammatically bound to tekhelet that follows, meaning "loops made of X."
• 'a.Si.ta ("you will make", H6213H) — qal sequential perfect, continuing a prior narrative chain of commands, giving the sense of "and next you shall do."
• chovaret ("joined set", H2279) and machberet ("joined set", H4225) — two related feminine singular nouns naming the assembled unit of curtains at the point of joining; the text uses two distinct but synonymous terms for the first and second set.
• ta.'a.Seh ("you will do", H6213H) — qal imperfect, marking the second instruction as an ongoing/future parallel action rather than a strict sequential one like 'a.Si.ta.
• qitsonah ("outermost", H7020) — feminine singular adjective describing which curtain edge receives the loops in the second joined set.

What the text says

The verse is built as two parallel instructions joined by ve-khen ("and thus", H3651C): first, loops of tekhelet are placed 'al sefat ha-yeri'ah ha-'echat ("on the edge of the one curtain", H8193I/H3407/H0259) mi-qatzah ba-chovaret ("from an end, in the joined set", H7098/H2279); second, the same action (ta'aseh) is repeated bi-sefat ha-yeri'ah ha-qitsonah ba-machberet ha-shenit ("on the edge of the outermost curtain, in the second joined set", H8193I/H3407/H7020/H4225/H8145). The construct chains (lul'ot tekhelet, sefat ha-yeri'ah) tightly bind material and location to the noun they modify, a feature not always visible in translation when rendered as separate phrases. The shift from the sequential perfect 'a.Si.ta to the imperfect ta.'a.Seh marks a shift from continuing a listed sequence to expressing the same action applied to a second case.

Differences between versions

The LXX adds αὐταῖς ("for them"), a dative pronoun not present in the Hebrew, and renders mi-qatzah ("from an end") as ἐκ τοῦ ἑνὸς μέρους ("from the one part"). The Vulgate condenses the two-part Hebrew structure into a single sentence ("Ansulas hyacinthinas in lateribus ac summitatibus facies cortinarum, ut possint invicem copulari"), adding a purpose clause ("so that they may be joined to each other") that is not stated in the Hebrew text, and does not preserve the Hebrew's distinction between chovaret and machberet as two separate terms for "joined set."