Exodus 28:7
שְׁתֵּי כְתֵפֹת חֹֽבְרֹת יִֽהְיֶה־לּוֹ אֶל־שְׁנֵי קְצוֹתָיו וְחֻבָּֽר׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
שְׁתֵּ֧י כְתֵפֹ֣ת חֹֽבְרֹ֗ת יִֽהְיֶה־לּ֛וֹ אֶל־שְׁנֵ֥י קְצוֹתָ֖יו וְחֻבָּֽר׃
δύο ἐπωμίδες συνέχουσαι ἔσονται αὐτῷ ἑτέρα τὴν ἑτέραν, ἐπὶ τοῖς δυσὶ μέρεσιν ἐξηρτισμένοι·
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Duas oras junctas habebit in utroque latere summitatum, ut in unum redeant.
Tendrá dos tirantes unidos a sus esquinas para poder sujetarlo.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Tendrá dos hombreras que se junten á sus dos lados, y se juntará.
It shall have two shoulder pieces attached at two of its corners, so it can be fastened.
✦ What the text says
Summary
Exodus 28:7 describes the construction of the ephod's shoulder pieces: two khitfot ("shoulder-pieces", H3802) are to be joined together and attached at the two ends of the garment. The verse combines a descriptive present-future state with a concluding passive action confirming the joining.
Key words
khe.te.Fot ("shoulder-pieces", H3802) — feminine plural noun naming the two structural pieces of the ephod that will be joined.
choe.Rot ("joined", H2266) — qal participle, feminine plural, agreeing with khitfot; describes an ongoing state ("the ones joining/joined") rather than a completed action.
yih.yeh- ("it will be", H1961) — qal imperfect of the verb "to be," third person masculine singular, referring to the ephod; combined with the preceding participle it forms a periphrastic construction describing the piece's designed state.
ke.tzo.Ta ("ends of", H7098) — feminine plural construct noun, marking the two extremities where the shoulder-pieces attach.
chu.Bar ("it will be joined together", H2266) — pual (intensive passive) form of the same root as choverot, in sequential perfect; it closes the sentence by restating the joining action in a summarizing, passive form.
What the text says
The sentence opens with the cardinal number she.Tei ("two", H8147) in construct with khitfot, establishing the count and grammatical link ("two of shoulder-pieces"). The participle choverot modifies this noun, functioning almost adjectivally: it does not narrate a discrete event but portrays the shoulder-pieces as being in a state of "joining." This participle is paired with the imperfect yihyeh, a common Biblical Hebrew construction that expresses a durative or characteristic condition — "it will be [in a state of] joined" — rather than a single completed act.
The phrase el-shenei ketzotav uses the preposition 'el ("to", H413) with the construct ke.tzo.Ta ("ends of") plus a third-person suffix, specifying the two ends where the joining occurs. The verse then shifts verbal form: vechubar uses the pual stem of the same root (Ḥ-B-R) as choverot, but now in a sequential perfect construction introduced by the narrative vav (H9001). This creates a two-stage grammatical picture — first a participial description of the piece's structural design, then a passive perfect confirming the joining as an accomplished result within the narrative sequence.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders the Hebrew participle-imperfect construction with δύο ἐπωμίδες συνέχουσαι ἔσονται ("two shoulder-pieces holding-together will be"), using a present participle συνέχουσαι that shifts the sense from "joined" toward "holding together." The Vulgate's "Duas oras junctas habebit" ("It will have two joined edges") uses oras ("edges/borders") rather than "shoulder-pieces," diverging from both the Hebrew khitfot and the LXX's ἐπωμίδες.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.