Exodus 35:17

Summary

This verse continues a list of materials and furnishings for the tabernacle courtyard, specifying the curtains of the courtyard, its pillars, its bases, and the screen for the courtyard's gate. The syntax is a straightforward enumeration using repeated direct object markers to introduce each item.

Key words

• kal'ei ("curtains of", H7050B) — masculine plural construct, linking directly to hechatzer ("the courtyard") as the object possessed.
• 'amudav ("pillars of", H5982G) — masculine plural construct with 3ms suffix "his/its," referring back to the courtyard's pillars.
• 'adaneiha ("bases of", H0134) — masculine plural construct with 3fs suffix "her/its," agreeing with the feminine noun chatzer ("courtyard").
• masakh ("screen of", H4539) — masculine singular construct, governing sha'ar ("gate of", H8179G) in a construct chain: "screen of the gate."
• 'et (H0853) — repeated four times, marking each direct object in the list without contributing independent meaning.

What the text says

The verse is built as a chain of four items, each introduced by the untranslated direct object marker 'et (H0853), all governed by an implied verb of bringing or contributing from the earlier context of the chapter. The first item, kal'ei hechatzer ("curtains of the courtyard"), uses a construct relationship where kal'ei directly depends on hechatzer ("the courtyard", H2691A), a common-gender noun that takes the definite article he (H9009).

The next two items, 'amudav ("its pillars") and 'adaneiha ("its bases"), do not repeat the noun "courtyard" but instead use pronominal suffixes attached to the construct nouns themselves. The suffix on 'amudav is masculine (-av, "his/its"), while the suffix on 'adaneiha is feminine (-eiha, "her/its"). This grammatical alternation reflects Hebrew's grammatical gender agreement with chatzer, which can function as either masculine or feminine noun in different constructions within this text, rather than indicating a change in referent — both suffixes point back to the courtyard.

The final item, masakh sha'ar hechatzer ("the screen of the gate of the courtyard"), forms a double construct chain: masakh is construct to sha'ar, which is itself construct to hechatzer. This nested structure produces the meaning "screen belonging to the gate belonging to the courtyard," a compact way of specifying a single object through cascading possession.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (cortinas atrii cum columnis et basibus, tentorium in foribus vestibuli) closely follows the Hebrew's four-part list, rendering each construct relationship explicitly. The LXX text provided here (καὶ τὸ θυσιαστήριον καὶ πάντα τὰ σκεύη αὐτοῦ, "and the altar and all its vessels") does not correspond to the Hebrew content of this verse at all — it names an altar and its vessels rather than courtyard curtains, pillars, bases, or a gate screen, reflecting a different arrangement of material in the LXX's version of this list.