Exodus 35:23

Summary

Exodus 35:23 describes how every person who possessed certain materials — dyed threads, animal hair, and treated hides — brought them as contributions. The verse lists seven distinct materials using a chain of construct nouns joined by ve ("and", H9002), ending with a single verb indicating the collective act of bringing.

Key words

• 'ish ("person", H0376G) — masculine singular noun, functioning as the subject head of the relative clause "every person who...".
• nimtza' ("it was found", H4672) — niphal perfect, a passive/reflexive form indicating the material was "found" with the person, i.e., in his possession, without naming an agent who put it there.
• me'adammim ("dyed red", H0119) — pual passive participle, plural, modifying 'eilim ("rams"); the pual stem intensifies the passive sense, marking the hides as having undergone a red-dyeing process.
• hevi'u ("they brought", H0935P) — hiphil perfect, plural. The hiphil is causative, so the verb literally means "they caused [these items] to come," i.e., "they brought them." This single final verb governs the entire preceding list of materials.
• shesh ("fine linen", H8336B) — construct singular noun, part of the chain of materials linked by ve.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as one long conditional-relative clause introduced by 'asher ("whom", H0834A) attached to kol 'ish ("every person", H3605 + H0376G): "every person with whom was found [material X, Y, Z...]." The verb nimtza' (niphal perfect) describes a state of possession rather than an action — the materials are said to have "been found" with the person, syntactically distancing the subject from actively acquiring them. The list itself — tekhelet, 'argaman, tola'at shani, shesh, 'izzim, 'orot 'eilim me'adammim, 'orot tekhashim — is a sequence of nouns, several in construct state (marked "X of..."), joined repeatedly by the conjunction ve. This construct chaining ties qualifying terms to their head nouns (e.g., 'orot 'eilim "hides of rams" further qualified by the participle me'adammim "dyed red").

Only after the entire list is stated does the main verb appear: hevi'u ("they brought", hiphil perfect, plural). The subject shifts from the singular 'ish to a plural verb, indicating that the individual instances of possession are being narrated as a collective action of bringing by many such persons. The perfect aspect of both nimtza' and hevi'u presents both the finding and the bringing as completed actions.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew lists seven items: tekhelet, 'argaman, tola'at shani, shesh, 'izzim, 'orot 'eilim me'adammim, and 'orot tekhashim. The LXX (Swete) gives a shorter list — byssos ("fine linen"), dermata hyakinthina ("blue-dyed skins"), and dermata krion erythrodanomena ("rams' skins dyed red") — omitting distinct terms for tekhelet, 'argaman, tola'at shani, and 'izzim as separate items, and rendering tekhelet as a quality of skins rather than a separate thread material. The Vulgate follows the Hebrew's sevenfold list closely, using hyacinthum, purpuram, coccum bis tinctum, byssum, pilos caprarum, pelles arietum rubricatas, and ianthinas (for tekhashim).