Exodus 28:16

Summary

Exodus 28:16 describes the shape and measurements of an object (the priestly breastpiece, implied from context): it will be square, folded double, and will measure one zeret ("span") in length and one zeret in width. The verse uses stative/passive verbal forms rather than an active command to "make" something.

Key words

• ra.Vu.a' ("square", H7251) — qal passive participle, masculine singular. It describes a resulting state (already squared) rather than an action being performed.
• yih.Yeh ("it will be", H1961) — qal imperfect. This is the only finite verb in the clause; it governs both participles (ra.Vu.a' and ka.Ful) as predicate adjectives of a stative sentence, with no explicit subject expressed by a separate noun.
• ka.Ful ("folded double", H3717) — qal passive participle, masculine singular, paired with ra.Vu.a' to jointly qualify the subject before the verb.
• Ze.ret ("span", H2239) — feminine singular noun, repeated twice (once for length, once for width) with no numeral attached, functioning as the unit of measurement.
• 'a.re.K ("length", H0753) and ra.che.B ("breadth", H7341) — both masculine singular nouns in the construct state ("length of," "breadth of"), each taking the pronominal suffix -o ("its") to specify whose length and breadth are meant.

What the text says

The Hebrew clause opens with two passive participles, ra.Vu.a' ("square") and ka.Ful ("folded double"), placed before the finite verb yih.Yeh ("it will be"). This front-loading of descriptive participles is a marked word order: rather than saying "it will be square" as a simple predicate, the text presents the qualities first, then confirms them with the imperfect verb. No explicit subject noun appears in this verse; the referent (the object being described) is carried over from the preceding context.

The second half of the verse gives the measurements using Ze.ret ("span") twice — once for 'a.re.K ("length") and once for ra.che.B ("breadth"), each in construct form with the suffix -o ("its"). The repetition of the same unit, Ze.ret, for both dimensions without any numeral itself reinforces the notion of "square" already stated by ra.Vu.a': length and width use the identical unit of measure.

Differences between versions

The LXX begins with ποιήσεις ("you shall make"), an active second-person verb with an implied addressee, where the Hebrew has no imperative or address to "you" — only the stative yih.Yeh ("it will be"). The Vulgate's "Quadrangulum erit et duplex" mirrors the Hebrew's stative construction more closely, using "erit" ("it will be") without introducing an active subject of making.