Exodus 35:22

Summary

Exodus 35:22 describes men and women coming together to bring gold jewelry and ornaments as a contribution for the sanctuary. The verse specifies that everyone whose heart moved them to give also performed a "wave offering" (tenufah) of gold to Yehovah.

Key words

• nediv ("willing of", H5081G) — construct form paired with lev ("heart", H3820A), forming the phrase "willing of heart," describing the internal disposition that motivated the giving.
• hevi'u ("they brought", H0935P) — hiphil (causative) perfect, indicating a completed act of bringing objects, distinct from the plain qal verb yavo'u used for the people's arrival.
• heniф ("he waved", H5130B) — hiphil perfect of the same root as tenufah, describing a completed ritual action performed by "every man" (kol ish, H0376G).
• tenufat ("a wave-offering of", H8573) — construct noun, feminine singular, linked to zahav ("gold", H2091), naming the specific offering category.
• al ("with", H5921A) — preposition here connecting "the men" (ha'anashim) and "the women" (ha-nashim), rather than its more common meaning "upon" or "over."

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence unfolds in two movements marked by different verb forms. First, the qal narrative verb yavo'u ("they came", H0935G) reports the arrival of "the men" (ha'anashim, H0582) together with "the women" (ha-nashim, H0802G), joined by the preposition al used here in the sense of "along with." Immediately after, the phrase kol nediv lev ("every willing of heart") functions as the subject of a second verb, the hiphil perfect hevi'u ("they brought"), signaling completed action and shifting to the causative sense of "causing [items] to come" — i.e., delivering objects rather than simply arriving.

The list of brought items — chach ("nose ring", H2397), nezem ("earring", H5141), tabba'at ("finger ring", H2885), kumaz ("ornament", H3558) — is followed by the summarizing construct phrase kol keli zahav ("every article of gold," H3627+H2091). The verse then names a further category: kol ish asher heniф tenufat zahav laYHWH — "every man who waved a wave-offering of gold to Yehovah." The hiphil verb heniф shares its root with the noun tenufah, so the Hebrew explicitly marks this gold as belonging to the technical category of "wave offering," distinct from the general items brought earlier.

Differences between versions

The LXX (Swete) lists five items (σφραγῖδας, ἐνώτια, δακτυλίους, ἐμπλόκια, περιδέξια) where the Hebrew names four (chach, nezem, tabba'at, kumaz), reflecting different identifications of the specific ornament types. The LXX also renders the tenufah action generically as ἤνεγκαν ἀφαιρέματα χρυσίου ("they brought contributions of gold"), using ἀφαίρεμα rather than a term specific to "waving," where the Hebrew verb heniф and noun tenufat explicitly denote the wave-offering rite. The Vulgate lists four items (armillas, inaures, annulos, dextralia), matching the Hebrew's count but translating kumaz as "dextralia" (right-hand ornaments) rather than a general "ornament," and it likewise omits any verb corresponding to "waving," stating instead that the gold "was set apart" (separatum est) for the Lord's offerings.