Exodus 27:15
וְלַכָּתֵף הַשֵּׁנִית חְמֵשׁ עֶשְׂרֵה קְלָעִים עַמֻּדֵיהֶם שְׁלֹשָׁה וְאַדְנֵיהֶם שְׁלֹשָֽׁה׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וְלַכָּתֵף֙ הַשֵּׁנִ֔ית חְמֵ֥שׁ עֶשְׂרֵ֖ה קְלָעִ֑ים עַמֻּדֵיהֶ֣ם שְׁלֹשָׁ֔ה וְאַדְנֵיהֶ֖ם שְׁלֹשָֽׁה׃
καὶ τὸ κλίτος τὸ δεύτερον, δέκα πέντε πηχῶν τῶν ἱστίων τὸ ὔψος· στύλοι αὐτῶν τρεῖς, καὶ αἱ βάσεις αὐτῶν τρεῖς.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
et in latere altero erunt tentoria cubitos obtinentia quindecim, columnæ tres, et bases totidem.
Al otro lado también habrá cortinas a lo largo de casi siete metros, colgadas de tres postes sobre tres bases.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Al otro lado quince codos de cortinas; sus columnas tres, con sus tres basas.
and the curtains on the other side fifteen cubits long, with three posts and three bases.
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse describes the second side of the courtyard structure: it required fifteen ke.la.'Im ("curtains", H7050B), supported by three pillars, each pillar resting on its own base.
Key words
- ka.Tef ("side", H3802) — feminine singular noun with prepositional prefix la. ("in the", H9005), marking the location being described, here modified by "the second" to distinguish it from a previously mentioned side.
- she.Nit ("second", H8145) — feminine singular ordinal agreeing with ka.Tef, confirming this verse continues a sequence of sides being enumerated.
- che.Mesh ("fif-", H2568) — construct form of the cardinal number, joined to 'es.Reh ("ten", H6240) to form the compound numeral "fifteen," governing ke.la.'Im.
- 'a.mu.dei. ("pillars", H5982G) — masculine plural construct noun, "pillars of," bound to the suffix Hem ("their", H9028), producing "their pillars" — i.e., the pillars belonging to that set of curtains.
- 'ad.nei. ("bases", H0134) — masculine plural construct noun, "bases of," likewise bound to Hem, producing "their bases," paralleling the structure used for the pillars.
What the text says
The Hebrew sentence is built as a list of measurements and components rather than a full independent clause with a stated verb: it opens with the prepositional phrase ve.la.Ka.Tef ha.she.Nit ("and for the second side"), which sets the topic, followed by the numeral phrase che.Mesh 'es.Reh ke.la.'Im ("fifteen curtains") stating the quantity of curtains for that side. The compound number che.Mesh ("five", construct) plus 'es.Reh ("ten") together yield "fifteen," a standard Hebrew method of forming numbers in the teens by combining the units digit in construct with the word for "ten."
The following two clauses use a parallel construct-plus-suffix pattern: 'a.mu.dei Hem she.lo.Shah ("their pillars, three") and ve.'ad.nei Hem she.lo.Shah ("and their bases, three"). In both cases the construct noun ('a.mu.dei, "pillars of"; 'ad.nei, "bases of") is joined to the pronominal suffix Hem ("their"), referring back to the curtains or the side just mentioned, and the cardinal number she.lo.Shah ("three", H7969) follows as a predicate-like statement rather than a normal adjective preceding the noun. This produces a terse, list-like structure: side — curtain count — pillar count — base count, without connecting verbs, typical of technical/architectural description in this section of the text.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders ka.Tef ("side") as κλίτος ("side/region") and gives the measurement as "fifteen cubits" (δέκα πέντε πηχῶν) explicitly adding "cubits" and "height" (τὸ ὔψος) terms not present as separate words in the Hebrew numeral phrase, where the Hebrew simply states "fifteen curtains" without repeating "cubits" in this verse. The Vulgate similarly specifies "cubitos... quindecim" ("fifteen cubits"), aligning with the LXX's explicit unit marker rather than the Hebrew's bare count of curtains.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.