Exodus 28:37

Summary

The verse instructs that a previously mentioned object be fastened with a pe.Til ("cord of", H6616) of te.Khe.let ("violet stuff", H8504) and placed so that it rests upon the mitz.Na.fet ("turban", H4701) — specifically positioned at the front, facing the front of that same turban.

Key words

• sam.Ta ("you will put", H7760H) — qal sequential perfect, continuing a chain of instructions begun earlier in the passage; the subject is second-person masculine singular.
• pe.Til ("cord of", H6616) — masculine singular construct, grammatically bound to te.Khe.let, forming the phrase "a cord of violet stuff."
• ha.Yah ("it will be", H1961) — qal sequential perfect, third-person masculine, describing the resulting state after the action of fastening.
• mul ("front of", H4136) — masculine singular construct, chained to pe.nei ("face of", H6440G), itself construct to ha-mitz.Ne.fet, creating a triple construct chain specifying exact spatial position.
• yih.Yeh ("it will be", H1961) — qal imperfect, closing the verse with a durative/future nuance distinct from the earlier perfect ha.Yah.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a chain of three clauses linked by the narrative vav (H9001), each advancing the instruction: first the action (sam.Ta, "you will put"), then an initial statement of result (ha.Yah, "it will be... on the turban"), then a final specification of position (yih.Yeh, "it will be") using a stacked construct chain — mul pe.nei ha-mitz.Ne.fet, literally "front of the face of the turban." This triple-construct structure is a way Biblical Hebrew achieves precise spatial description without prepositional adjectives; each noun narrows the location further, ending on the same word for turban repeated with slightly different vocalization (mitz.Na.fet / mitz.Ne.fet), pointing to the same object mentioned twice for emphasis on placement.

The pronominal suffix on 'o.T-o ("it", H0853+H9033) refers to an object introduced earlier in the source passage, not named within this verse itself — the Hebrew here assumes the reader already knows what is being fastened.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate text supplied is truncated, giving only "Ligabisque eam vitta hyacinthina, et erit super tiaram," corresponding to the first two Hebrew clauses but omitting the final clause about the position "toward the front of the turban."

The LXX text supplied (Ἀαρὼν τὸν ἀδελφόν σου...) does not correspond in content to the Hebrew of this verse; it describes clothing, anointing, and consecrating Aaron and his sons, a different subject matter than the cord-and-turban instruction in the Hebrew text given.