Exodus 35:24

Summary

Exodus 35:24 describes two groups of contributors to the sanctuary: those who brought a contribution of silver or bronze for Yehovah, and those who possessed acacia wood, who brought it for the work of the service. The verse uses two parallel clauses, each ending with the same verb of bringing.

Key words

• me.Rim ("[those who] contributed", H7311A) — hiphil participle, describing an ongoing/characteristic action: "the one who contributes/lifts up [an offering]." The participle form marks a class of people defined by this repeated action, not a single event.
• te.Ru.mat ("a contribution of", H8641) — feminine singular construct, linking to ke.sef ("silver", H3701G) and ne.Cho.shet ("bronze", H5178A); appears twice in the verse (also in position 9), each time in construct state governing the following noun.
• he.Vi.'u ("they brought", H0935P) — hiphil perfect, third person plural. This verb closes both halves of the verse (positions 7 and 24), marking completed action for each group.
• nim.Tza' ("it was found", H4672) — niphal perfect, passive/reflexive sense: wood is described as "found with him" rather than actively sought, differing grammatically from the active participle used for the metal-givers.
• 'a.Tzei ("wood(s) of", H6086G) — masculine plural construct, joined to shi.Tim ("acacia", H7848), forming the fixed phrase "acacia woods."

What the text says

The verse divides into two parallel structures, each culminating in the same finite verb he.Vi.'u ("they brought", H0935P). The first clause opens with kol ("all", H3605) plus the participle me.Rim ("[those who] contributed", H7311A), a grammatical construction that names a category of person by their action ("everyone who contributes") rather than narrating a single past event. This group brings te.Ru.mat ("a contribution of", H8641) ke.sef ("silver", H3701G) and ne.Cho.shet ("bronze", H5178A) — materials named directly, without the object marker, before the sentence restates the object explicitly with 'et (H0853) preceding te.ru.Mat Yehovah ("the contribution of Yehovah", H8641/H3068G).

The second clause shifts grammatical voice: instead of an active participle, it uses kol 'a.Sher nim.Tza' 'i.To ("all whom it was found with him") — a niphal (passive) perfect verb, H4672. This construction presents the wood not as something the person actively sought or brought forward on their own initiative in the same way, but as something already "found" in their possession. Both clauses converge again on the same verb, he.Vi.'u ("they brought", H0935P), producing a structural symmetry: two different kinds of possession (contributed vs. found-with) both end in the identical act of bringing.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (VULCLEM) compresses the verse, omitting the explicit repetition of "brought" for each clause and merging the material list ("argenti, ærisque metalla... lignaque setim") into a single flowing sentence attributing all to "Domino" ("to the Lord"), where the Hebrew names Yehovah only in the first clause. The LXX (LXXSWETE) contains an unusual reading, "τὰ ἀφαιρέματα Τυρίῳ" ("the contributions to Tyrian"), which does not correspond to any Hebrew term in this verse's word list, and the LXX also leaves the final clause partly untranslated ("εἰς πάντα τὰ ἔργα τῆς" without a completing noun), differing from the Hebrew's complete phrase le.khol me.Le.khet ha.'a.vo.Dah ("for all the work of the service").