Exodus 28:20

Summary

Exodus 28:20 describes the fourth row of stones set into the priestly breastplate. The Hebrew names three stones — tarshish, shoham, and yashpeh — and states that all the stones (across the rows) are mounted in gold settings.

Key words

• Tur ("row", H2905) — masculine singular noun, paired with the ordinal revi'i ("fourth", H7243) to mark this as the last of four rows of stones described in sequence.
• tarshish ("chrysolite", H8658) — masculine singular noun naming the first stone of this row; the exact mineral referent behind this term is not specified by the grammar itself.
• meshubbatzim ("set", H7660) — pual (intensive passive) participle, masculine plural, agreeing with the stones as a group; it describes them as being "set" or "enclosed" without naming an agent — the passive voice leaves the one who does the setting unstated.
• yihyu ("they will be", H1961) — qal imperfect, third person masculine plural, functioning as the main verb of the clause; the imperfect aspect can carry ongoing or future/instructive force.
• miluotam ("their settings", H4396) — feminine plural construct noun with third-person masculine plural suffix ("their"), indicating the settings belong specifically to these stones.

What the text says

The verse opens with a construct-like naming pattern already established earlier in the chapter: ve-ha-Tur ha-revi'i ("and the fourth row") followed simply by the names of three stones in apposition — tarshish, shoham, yashpeh — with no verb needed to identify them, since Hebrew allows nominal sentences. The predicate comes only in the second half of the verse, where meshubbatzim ("set") and zahav ("gold", H2091) combine with yihyu ("they will be") to form the clause "they will be set [in] gold in their settings." The pual participle meshubbatzim is passive and impersonal — it states the condition of the stones (enclosed, fixed) without indicating who performs the setting, a nuance not always visible when translations render this as an imperative like "mount these stones."

The final phrase, be-miluotam ("in their settings"), uses a construct plural noun with a possessive suffix, tying the settings directly and exclusively to the stones of this row (and, by extension, the whole breastplate as described across the chapter).

Differences between versions

The Hebrew names tarshish, shoham, yashpeh for this row. The LXX (Swete) gives chrysolithos, bēryllion, onychion — a different set of three terms in different order. The Vulgate reads chrysolithus, onychinus, beryllus, matching the LXX's stone set but in yet another order. The Hebrew's passive, agentless meshubbatzim... yihyu ("they will be set") is rendered in BSB as an imperative, "Mount these stones," shifting from a stated condition to a direct command not grammatically present in the Hebrew text itself.