Exodus 27:16
וּלְשַׁעַר הֶֽחָצֵר מָסָךְ׀ עֶשְׂרִים אַמָּה תְּכֵלֶת וְאַרְגָּמָן וְתוֹלַעַת שָׁנִי וְשֵׁשׁ מָשְׁזָר מַעֲשֵׂה רֹקֵם עַמֻּֽדֵיהֶם אַרְבָּעָה וְאַדְנֵיהֶם אַרְבָּעָֽה׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וּלְשַׁ֨עַר הֶֽחָצֵ֜ר מָסָ֣ךְ׀ עֶשְׂרִ֣ים אַמָּ֗ה תְּכֵ֨לֶת וְאַרְגָּמָ֜ן וְתוֹלַ֧עַת שָׁנִ֛י וְשֵׁ֥שׁ מָשְׁזָ֖ר מַעֲשֵׂ֣ה רֹקֵ֑ם עַמֻּֽדֵיהֶם֙ אַרְבָּעָ֔ה וְאַדְנֵיהֶ֖ם אַרְבָּעָֽה׃
καὶ τῇ πύλῃ τῆς αὐλῆς κάλυμμα, εἴκοσι πηχῶν τὸ ὔψος, ἐξ ὑακίνθου καὶ πορφύρας καὶ κοκκίνου κεκλωσμένου καὶ βύσσου κεκλωσμένης τῇ ποικιλίᾳ τοῦ ῥαφιδευτοῦ· στύλοι αὐτῶν τέσσαρες, καὶ αἱ βάσεις αὐτῶν τέσσαρες.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
In introitu vero atrii fiet tentorium cubitorum viginti ex hyacintho et purpura, coccoque bis tincto, et bysso retorta, opere plumarii: columnas habebit quatuor, cum basibus totidem.
La entrada del patio tendrá una cortina de nueve metros de largo, hecha de lino fino torcido, de color azul, púrpura y escarlata, finamente bordada. Estará colgada de cuatro postes sobre cuatro bases.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y á la puerta del atrio habrá un pabellón de veinte codos, de cárdeno, y púrpura, y carmesí, y lino torcido, de obra de bordador: sus columnas cuatro, con sus cuatro basas.
The gate of the courtyard shall be twenty cubits long, with a curtain embroidered with blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and finely spun linen. It shall have four posts and four bases.
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse specifies the screen for the gate of the courtyard: a twenty-cubit hanging made of violet, purple, and scarlet dyed material combined with twisted fine linen, produced by an embroiderer, and supported by four pillars set on four bases.
Key words
- sha'ar ("gate of", H8179G) — construct form linking to he-chatzer ("the courtyard", H2691A), marking this as the entrance screen of the enclosure, distinct from the tent's own entrance (Exodus 26:36).
- masakh ("a screen", H4539) — the noun naming the object being described, the same term used for the tabernacle entrance covering, indicating a comparable type of hanging structure.
- mashezar ("twisted", H7806) — hophal passive participle describing shesh ("fine linen", H8336B) as having undergone a twisting process; the passive form indicates the material's finished state rather than an action performed by an agent named in the clause.
- ma'aseh roqem ("work of a worker in colors", H4639G + H7551) — construct chain where roqem is a qal participle ("the one doing/embroidering") functioning as a noun for the craftsman; together the phrase specifies the technique used to produce the screen, distinguished elsewhere in Exodus from ma'aseh choshev ("work of a designer").
- arba'ah ("four", H0702) — cardinal number repeated for both ammudei-hem ("their pillars", H5982G) and adnei-hem ("their bases", H0134), each in construct with a third-person plural suffix referring back to the pillars/bases as a set.
What the text says
The Hebrew sentence opens with a construct chain, u-le-sha'ar he-chatzer ("and for the gate of the courtyard"), establishing the location before naming the object, masakh ("a screen"). The measurement esrim ammah ("twenty cubits") follows directly, then a list of materials — tekhelet ("violet stuff"), argaman ("purple"), tola'at shani ("scarlet stuff of scarlet", a construct pairing naming the dye source and its color), and shesh mashezar ("fine linen, twisted"). The construct phrase ma'aseh roqem ("work of a worker in colors") specifies the production technique as belonging to the embroiderer's craft, syntactically the same construction used elsewhere for the tabernacle's inner curtains.
The final clause uses two parallel construct-plus-suffix-plus-number structures: ammudei-hem arba'ah ("their pillars, four") and adnei-hem arba'ah ("their bases, four"). The number follows the noun in each case, a common Biblical Hebrew numeral placement, and the suffix -hem ("their") ties both pillars and bases back to the screen just described.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders masakh as κάλυμμα ("covering") and adds τὸ ὔψος ("the height") explicitly, specifying that the twenty units measure height, whereas the Hebrew esrim ammah leaves the dimension unspecified for length or height. The LXX also renders tola'at shani as κοκκίνου κεκλωσμένου ("twisted scarlet"), applying "twisted" to the scarlet material, while the Hebrew construction mashezar ("twisted") grammatically modifies only shesh ("fine linen"). The Vulgate's coccoque bis tincto ("scarlet dyed twice") interprets shani with an added notion of double-dyeing not present in the Hebrew wording itself.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.