Exodus 35:31

Summary

The verse states that God filled a person (referring to Bezalel, named earlier in the chapter) with the ruach ("spirit of", H7307) of Elohim ("God", H0430), equipping him with skill, understanding, knowledge, and ability for craftsmanship. The sentence lists four qualities joined by prepositions, culminating in "all workmanship."

Key words

• yemaLE ("he has filled", H4390) — Piel stem, which conveys intensive or completive action; narrative form continuing the story sequence ("and then he filled...").
• Ruach ("[the] spirit of", H7307) — construct form, meaning it must be linked to what follows ("spirit of God"), not a standalone noun.
• Elohim ("God", H0430) — grammatically plural in form but here functioning as the divine name/title in construct relationship with ruach.
• chokhmah ("skill", H2451), tevunah ("understanding", H8394), da'at ("knowledge", H1847) — three feminine singular nouns, each introduced by the preposition be ("with", H9003), forming a triad of qualities.
• kol-melakhah ("all workmanship", H3605 + H4399) — kol is in construct with melakhah, producing "all of workmanship" / "every kind of workmanship."

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built around a single main verb, yemale ("he has filled", H4390), in the Piel stem — a verbal pattern often used for intensive or causative action. The subject of this verb is implicit (understood as God from context), and the object is marked by oto ("him", H0853 + H9033), a direct object marker plus pronominal suffix referring back to the craftsman named earlier in the chapter.

What fills him is ruach Elohim ("spirit of God", H7307 + H0430), a construct chain where ruach cannot stand alone grammatically — it requires Elohim to complete its meaning. Following this, the text lists three abstract nouns — chokhmah ("skill", H2451), tevunah ("understanding", H8394), and da'at ("knowledge", H1847) — each preceded by the preposition be ("with", H9003), and each conjoined by ve ("and", H9002). This repetition of preposition-plus-conjunction creates a rhythmic, cumulative listing structure in Hebrew that is not always preserved when translated into flowing prose.

The final phrase, ve-vekhol-melakhah ("and with all workmanship", H9002+H9003+H3605+H4399), uses kol ("all", H3605) in construct with melakhah ("workmanship", H4399), extending the scope from internal qualities (skill, understanding, knowledge) to their practical application in every type of craft-work.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the Hebrew ruach Elohim ("spirit of God") as πνεῦμα σοφίας ("spirit of wisdom"), shifting the construct relationship from "God" to "wisdom" — the divine referent is replaced by an abstract quality. The Vulgate follows the Hebrew more closely with spiritu Dei ("spirit of God"). Additionally, where the Hebrew lists chokhmah, tevunah, and da'at as three distinct terms following ruach Elohim, the LXX folds "wisdom" into the construct phrase itself, then lists only two further items (σοφίας, συνέσεως, ἐπιστήμης — "wisdom, understanding, knowledge"), differing in how the four Hebrew nouns are distributed.