Exodus 27:14

וַחֲמֵשׁ עֶשְׂרֵה אַמָּה קְלָעִים לַכָּתֵף עַמֻּדֵיהֶם שְׁלֹשָׁה וְאַדְנֵיהֶם שְׁלֹשָֽׁה׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וַחֲמֵ֨שׁ עֶשְׂרֵ֥ה אַמָּ֛ה קְלָעִ֖ים לַכָּתֵ֑ף עַמֻּדֵיהֶ֣ם שְׁלֹשָׁ֔ה וְאַדְנֵיהֶ֖ם שְׁלֹשָֽׁה׃

Greek (Septuagint)

καὶ πέντε καὶ δέκα πήχεων τὸ ὕψος τῶν ἱστίων τῷ κλίτει τῷ ἑνί· στύλοι αὐτῶν τρεῖς, καὶ αἱ βάσεις αὐτῶν τρεῖς.

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

In quibus quindecim cubitorum tentoria lateri uno deputabuntur, columnæque tres et bases totidem:

Spanish

A un lado de la entrada habrá cortinas a lo largo de casi siete metros, colgadas de tres postes sobre tres bases.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Y las cortinas del un lado serán de quince codos; sus columnas tres, con sus tres basas.

English

Make the curtains on one side fifteen cubits long, with three posts and three bases,

✦ What the text says

Summary

Exodus 27:14 specifies the measurements for the curtains on one side of the courtyard entrance area: fifteen cubits of curtains, supported by three pillars with three corresponding bases. The verse consists of two brief nominal clauses stating dimensions and structural counts.

Key words

cha.Mesh ("fif-", H2568) — construct-state cardinal number, joined to 'es.Reh ("teen", H6240) to form the compound numeral "fifteen," modifying the noun that follows.
qela.'Im ("curtains", H7050B) — masculine plural noun, the subject implicitly measured by the preceding numeral-cubit phrase.
ka.Tef ("side", H3802) — feminine singular noun with the definite article, literally "shoulder," here designating one lateral section of the courtyard structure.
'a.mu.dei.Hem ("their pillars", H5982G + H9028) — construct plural noun with a third-person masculine plural suffix, linking the pillars back to the referent already established (the curtained side).
she.lo.Shah ("three", H7969) — cardinal number repeated twice, once for pillars and once for bases, each functioning as a predicate stating quantity.

What the text says

The verse is built from two short verbless (nominal) clauses. The first states a measurement: chamesh 'esreh amah ("fifteen cubit[s]") stands before qela'im ("curtains"), with amah ("cubit", H0520A) in the singular despite the plural numeral value — a common pattern in Biblical Hebrew where the unit of measure remains grammatically singular after numerals. The phrase la-katef ("for the side") uses the article on katef, pointing to a specific, previously identified side rather than introducing a new referent.

The second clause shifts to counting structural supports: 'ammudeihem shelosha ("their pillars, three") and ve-adneihem shelosha ("and their bases, three"). Both 'ammudim ("pillars") and adanim ("bases") appear in construct form with the pronominal suffix -hem ("their," H9028), grammatically tying the pillars and bases back to the curtains or side just mentioned. The numeral shelosha follows each noun as a predicate, a construction typical of listing counts in Hebrew technical/architectural descriptions — noun first, quantity stated afterward, rather than numeral-first ordering.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders qela'im with an added phrase, τὸ ὕψος τῶν ἱστίων ("the height of the curtains"), specifying "height" where the Hebrew simply states the cubit measurement without naming which dimension (height, length) is meant. The LXX also adds τῷ ἑνί ("the one"), making explicit "the one side," whereas the Hebrew la-katef uses only the definite article without an explicit numeral "one." The Vulgate's lateri uno ("to one side") similarly supplies "one," paralleling the LXX's addition rather than the bare Hebrew phrasing.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.