Exodus 30:28

Summary

This verse continues a list of items to be anointed with sacred oil, naming the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the laver together with its base. The sentence is a sequence of noun phrases, each marked as a direct object, without a verb of its own in this verse.

Key words

• mizBach ("altar of", H4196) — masculine singular noun in construct state, linking it to ha'olah to form "altar of the burnt offering."
• 'olah ("burnt offering", H5930A) — feminine singular noun, the item that defines the altar's function.
• kol ("all", H3605) — construct form meaning "all of," governing the following noun kelav.
• kelav ("its articles/vessels", H3627) — masculine plural construct noun with a 3rd person masculine singular pronominal suffix (-o, H9023), meaning "its utensils," referring back to the altar.
• kiyor ("laver", H3595) — masculine singular noun, a distinct object introduced by its own direct object marker 'et (H0853).
• kano ("its base", H3653 + H9023) — construct noun with pronominal suffix, "its base," referring to the laver.

What the text says

The Hebrew text presents four items, each introduced by the direct object marker 'et (H0853), which has no independent translation but signals that each noun phrase is a grammatical object of a verb located earlier in the sentence (outside this verse). The structure alternates between construct chains: mizbach ha'olah ("altar of the burnt offering") uses construct state to specify the altar's designated use, while kol kelav ("all its utensils") uses kol in construct with kelav, itself bearing a pronominal suffix pointing back to the altar. The same pattern repeats with hakiyor ("the laver") and kano ("its base"), where the suffix on kano ties the base grammatically to the laver just named.

This construction allows Hebrew to build a compact list of paired items (altar/utensils, laver/base) using possessive suffixes rather than repeating full nouns, a feature not always visible in translations that render the suffixes as separate possessive pronouns ("its utensils," "its stand").

Differences between versions

The LXX (Swete) inserts additional items not present in this Hebrew verse — καὶ τὴν τράπεζαν καὶ πάντα τὰ σκεύη αὐτῆς ("and the table and all its vessels") — before mentioning τὸν λουτῆρα ("the laver"), and does not include a separate phrase corresponding to kano ("its base"). The Vulgate (Clementine) renders the verse much more compactly as "et holocausti, et universam supellectilem quæ ad cultum eorum pertinet" ("and [the altar] of the burnt offering, and all the furnishings pertaining to their service"), collapsing the distinct items (kelav, kiyor, kano) into a general phrase rather than listing them individually as the Hebrew does.