Exodus 30:36

Summary

The verse instructs that some of the incense mixture be ground fine and placed before the testimony in the tent of meeting, the place where the speaker will meet the addressee. The substance is then declared to be "holiness of holinesses" for the people addressed.

Key words

• sha.chak.Ta ("you will beat fine", H7833) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the chain of instructions begun earlier in the passage; addressed to a singular "you" (masculine).
• ha.Dek ("finely ", H1854) — hiphil infinitive, paired with the verb above to intensify the action of grinding into powder.
• 'e.Dut ("testimony", H5715) — feminine singular noun, the object before which the substance is placed; no possessive suffix is present in the Hebrew, only the definite article on the preceding word.
• 'i.va.'Ed ("I will meet", H3259) — niphal imperfect, first person; the niphal stem here carries a reflexive/passive-oriented sense often rendered "I will be met" or "I will meet myself known," describing an ongoing or future meeting.
• Ko.desh / ka.da.Shim ("holiness of" / "holinesses", H6944) — construct singular followed by plural of the same root, forming a superlative construct chain ("holiness of holinesses").

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence continues a sequence of instructions using two sequential perfect verbs, sha.chak.Ta ("you will beat fine", H7833) and na.ta.Tah ("you will put", H5414H), both marked with the narrative ve (H9001) that chains them to prior commands. The infinitive ha.Dek (H1854) intensifies the grinding action, producing a doubled expression for thorough pulverization. The location is specified through a construct chain: lif.Nei ("before", H6440G) + ha.'e.Dut ("the testimony", H5715), followed by be.'O.hel mo.'Ed ("in the tent of meeting", H0168G + H4150I).

The relative clause introduced by 'a.Sher ("where", H0834A) contains the niphal imperfect 'i.va.'Ed (H3259), a first-person verb form built on the same root as mo.'Ed ("meeting"), creating a wordplay between "tent of meeting" and "I will meet." The adverb Sha.ma ("there", H8033G) with the directional he suffix reinforces the locative sense ("toward there").

The final clause uses the construct pair Ko.desh qa.da.Shim (H6944, singular + plural of the same noun) — a Hebrew construction that intensifies meaning through repetition, here rendered "holiness of holinesses." The verb tih.Yeh ("it will be", H1961) is qal imperfect, third person feminine, agreeing with the implied feminine subject (the incense/substance previously described in the passage), directed la.Khem ("to you", plural, H9036).

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the Hebrew 'e.Dut ("testimony", H5715) with the plural τῶν μαρτυρίων ("the testimonies"), differing from the Hebrew singular. The LXX also reads ἐν τοῦ μαρτυρίου ("in the testimony") where the Hebrew has be.'O.hel mo.'Ed ("in the tent of meeting", H0168G + H4150I), omitting the word for "tent." The Vulgate adds thymiama ("incense") as the explicit subject of "erit vobis" ("it will be to you"), a word not present in the Hebrew clause itself, which leaves the subject implicit from context.