Exodus 27:19

Summary

Exodus 27:19 closes the specifications for the tabernacle's courtyard by stating that all its equipment — including every implement used in its service, its tent pegs, and the tent pegs of the courtyard — must be made of bronze.

Key words

• khol ("all", H3605) — appears four times in construct form, each time governing a following noun ("all of X"), creating a chain of totalizing phrases that stresses completeness of coverage.
• keLei ("articles/utensils of", H3627) — masculine plural construct, meaning it cannot stand alone grammatically but requires "the tabernacle" to complete its sense: "the utensils of the tabernacle."
• mishKan ("tabernacle", H4908) — masculine singular with the definite article ha (H9009), marking it as the specific, already-known structure.
• avodaTo ("its service", H5656H + suffix H9023) — feminine singular construct plus 3rd person pronominal suffix, indicating the service belongs to a previously mentioned entity (the tabernacle).
• yitDot ("tent pegs of", H3489) — feminine plural construct, appearing twice: once with a pronominal suffix ("its pegs") and once governing hechaTzer ("the courtyard", H2691A), distinguishing two sets of pegs.
• neChoshet ("bronze", H5178A) — feminine singular noun, placed at the end of the sentence as the predicate describing the material for everything listed before it.

What the text says

The verse is built as a long chain of construct phrases, each introduced by khol ("all"), piling up categories of objects before the final predicate neChoshet ("bronze") appears at the very end of the sentence. This word order is typical of Biblical Hebrew lists: the subject material accumulates through several construct chains — "all the utensils of the tabernacle," "in all its service," "all its tent pegs," "all the tent pegs of the courtyard" — before the single predicate nominative "bronze" retroactively applies to the entire list.

The repeated use of khol with construct nouns (keLei, yeteDotav, yitDot) creates a rhetorical effect of comprehensiveness: nothing belonging to the tabernacle's structure or service is excluded from the bronze specification. The text also distinguishes two sets of pegs through the pronominal suffix pattern: yeteDotav ("its pegs," referring back to the tabernacle) versus yitDot hechaTzer ("the pegs of the courtyard"), a distinction based on construct-plus-suffix versus construct-plus-noun-phrase.

Differences between versions

The LXX (Septuagint) renders the phrase differently in structure, using κατασκευή ("construction/equipment") and ἐργαλεῖα ("tools") rather than a direct equivalent to keLei... avodaTo ("utensils... its service"), and it does not explicitly repeat "tent pegs" as two separate items tied to two different possessors (tabernacle vs. courtyard) as clearly as the Hebrew construct chain does. The Vulgate uses cæremonias ("ceremonies/rites") to render what the Hebrew states as avodaTo ("its service"), introducing a term with ritual connotations not explicit in the Hebrew noun itself.