Exodus 30:23

Summary

The verse opens the instructions for the anointing oil, addressing Moses directly and commanding him to take a specific set of aromatic substances: myrrh, cinnamon, and aromatic cane, each in a specified quantity. The Hebrew lists the spices using construct chains and numbers without stating an explicit unit of measure.

Key words

• 'a.Tah ("you", H0859A) — an independent personal pronoun placed before the imperative, adding emphasis on the addressee (Moses) rather than being grammatically required.
• kach ("take", H3947G) — qal imperative, masculine singular, the command form directing the action.
• roSh ("[the] best", H7218I) — masculine singular construct, literally "head of," here functioning to mark besamim ("spices") as the "chief" or "top-quality" spices.
• mor deror ("myrrh of flowing", H4753 + H1865) — a construct pair; deror modifies mor to specify a particular quality or state of the myrrh (rendered "flowing" here), not merely "myrrh" alone.
• machatzito ("half of it", H4276 + H9023) — the construct noun machatzit with a third-person masculine singular suffix, meaning the following cinnamon quantity is defined as half of the previously stated amount (of myrrh).

What the text says

The sentence begins with ve'atah ("and you"), combining the conjunction with an emphatic pronoun before the imperative kach ("take"), followed by the prepositional phrase lekha ("for yourself"). This construction singles out the addressee before listing the ingredients. The spices are introduced by the plural noun besamim ("spices") followed by the construct rosh ("best of"), forming the phrase "the best of spices," which sets the overall quality of what follows.

Each spice is named through a construct chain: mor deror ("myrrh of deror"), kinnemon-besem ("cinnamon of spice"), and keneh-vosem ("cane of spice"), each followed by a numeral in construct form (chamesh me'ot, "five hundred"; chamishim u-matayim, "fifty and two hundred"). The numerals appear without any explicit noun for "shekel" or other unit — the amount stands alone attached to the substance. The phrase machatzito ("half of it") explicitly ties the cinnamon quantity to half the myrrh quantity already stated, a grammatical link that some translations spell out as a separate clause ("that is, 250") rather than as a possessive construction built into the noun itself.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew states quantities as bare numerals (e.g., chamesh me'ot, "five hundred") without naming a unit of measure. The LXX adds σίκλους ("shekels") explicitly, and the Vulgate likewise adds "siclos." The Hebrew rosh ("best/head of") is rendered by the LXX as ἄνθος ("flower"), a different image for the same construct relationship. The Hebrew mor deror ("myrrh of flowing/freedom") is rendered by the LXX as σμύρνης ἐκλεκτῆς ("choice myrrh") and by the Vulgate as "primae myrrhae et electae" ("of the first and select myrrh"), both interpreting deror as a qualitative term rather than literally as "flowing."