Exodus 27:10
וְעַמֻּדָיו עֶשְׂרִים וְאַדְנֵיהֶם עֶשְׂרִים נְחֹשֶׁת וָוֵי הָעַמֻּדִים וַחֲשֻׁקֵיהֶם כָּֽסֶף׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וְעַמֻּדָ֣יו עֶשְׂרִ֔ים וְאַדְנֵיהֶ֥ם עֶשְׂרִ֖ים נְחֹ֑שֶׁת וָוֵ֧י הָעַמֻּדִ֛ים וַחֲשֻׁקֵיהֶ֖ם כָּֽסֶף׃
καὶ οἱ στύλοι αὐτῶν εἴκοσι, καὶ αἱ βάσεις αὐτῶν εἴκοσι χαλκαῖ, καὶ οἱ κρίκοι αὐτῶν καὶ αἱ ψαλίδες ἀργυραῖ.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Et columnas viginti cum basibus totidem æneis, quæ capita cum cælaturis suis habebunt argentea.
Tendrá veinte postes apoyados sobre veinte bases de bronce; pero los ganchos y las uniones de los postes serán de plata.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Sus veinte columnas, y sus veinte basas serán de metal; los capiteles de las columnas y sus molduras, de plata.
with twenty posts and twenty bronze bases, and silver hooks and bands on the posts.
✦ What the text says
Summary
Exodus 27:10 specifies the materials for the courtyard structure: twenty pillars will stand on twenty bronze bases, while the hooks and bands connecting the pillars will be made of silver.
Key words
- 'amudav / ha'amudim ("pillars", H5982G) — appears twice, first with a 3rd person masculine singular suffix ("its pillars") and later with the definite article ("the pillars"), showing the same structural element referenced from different syntactic angles.
- 'adneihem ("their bases", H0134) — construct plural noun with 3rd person masculine plural suffix, indicating the bases belong to the twenty pillars just mentioned.
- nechoshet ("bronze", H5178A) — feminine singular noun functioning predicatively, stating the material of the bases without a copula verb (Hebrew often omits "to be").
- vavei ("hooks of", H2053) construct plural — grammatically linked to ha'amudim ("the pillars"), forming the phrase "hooks of the pillars."
- chashuqeihem ("their bands", H2838) construct plural with 3rd person masculine plural suffix, paired with kasef ("silver", H3701G) as the closing predicate of the verse.
What the text says
The verse is built as two parallel clauses, each following a noun-plus-material pattern without an explicit verb "to be" — a common feature in Biblical Hebrew descriptive/technical lists. The first clause states ve'amudav 'esrim ve'adneihem 'esrim nechoshet ("and its pillars, twenty, and their bases, twenty, bronze"), where the number 'esrim ("twenty", H6242) is repeated for both the pillars and the bases, and the material nechoshet stands at the end as the implicit predicate for the bases.
The second clause, vavei ha'amudim vachashuqeihem kasef ("hooks of the pillars and their bands, silver"), shifts to a construct-chain structure: vavei and chashuqeihem are both grammatically dependent on "the pillars," meaning the hooks and bands are components attached to the pillar structure. The single word kasef ("silver") at the end serves as the predicate for both nouns in this clause, paralleling how nechoshet functioned in the first clause. The suffix -hem ("their", H9028) appears twice, both times referring back to "the pillars" as the antecedent, linking the bases in the first clause and the bands in the second to the same pillars.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders chashuqei ("bands", H2838) as ψαλίδες ("clasps/rings"), a term with a slightly different technical connotation than "bands," while the Vulgate uses cælaturis ("carvings/engravings"), introducing the idea of decorative work not explicitly present in the Hebrew term. The Vulgate also renders the first clause as "columnas viginti cum basibus totidem æneis" ("twenty columns with as many bronze bases"), restructuring the Hebrew's parallel numbering into a single combined phrase rather than two separate numbered clauses.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.