Exodus 35:5

Summary

Exodus 35:5 opens Moses' instructions for gathering materials for the sanctuary. The people are commanded to take a contribution for Yehovah, with the qualification that only those whose heart is willing should bring it, listing gold, silver, and bronze as the first materials.

Key words

• qechu ("take", H3947) — qal imperative plural, a direct command addressed to the whole community.
• terumah ("a contribution", H8641) — feminine singular noun, appearing twice in the verse (once absolute, once in construct as terumat), designating a set-apart offering.
• nedhiv ("willing one of", H5081) — masculine singular construct noun, forming a construct chain with libbo ("his heart", H3820+H9023), literally "willing one of his heart".
• yavi'eha ("let him bring it", H0935) — hiphil imperfect third person masculine singular with a feminine pronominal suffix (ha, "it/her"), referring back to the feminine noun terumah; the hiphil stem marks a causative sense, "cause to come/bring".
• 'et (H0853) — the direct object marker, grammatically required before terumat YHWH but with no independent gloss in translation.

What the text says

The verse divides into two commands built on the same root, terumah ("contribution"). The first, qechu me'ittekhem terumah laYHWH ("take from among you a contribution for Yehovah"), is a plural imperative addressed collectively. The second clause shifts to a distributive singular: kol nedhiv libbo yavi'eha ("every willing-of-heart-one, let him bring it"). Here nedhiv stands in construct with libbo, so the phrase does not simply mean "willing person" but "one whose heart is willing" — the heart is grammatically the possessed noun defining the type of willingness.

The verb yavi'eha is hiphil, the causative stem of the root meaning "to come" (H0935), so the sense is "cause it to come" rather than a simple "give." The attached suffix -ha is feminine, matching terumah, confirming that "it" refers specifically back to the contribution just named, not to the materials listed afterward. The object marker 'et before the repeated phrase terumat YHWH ("the contribution of Yehovah") marks this second occurrence of the noun as the explicit direct object of the verb, restating what is to be brought before the list of materials — zahav ("gold", H2091), khesef ("silver", H3701), and nechoshet ("bronze", H5178) — begins.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders terumah as aphairema ("offering," from a verb meaning "to set apart") in the first instance but shifts to aparchas ("first-fruits/first offerings") for the second occurrence of the same Hebrew word terumat, where the Hebrew uses one term consistently. The LXX also reads Tyriō ("to Tyre") where the Hebrew has laYHWH ("to Yehovah"), a divergence in the divine name/referent at that position. The Vulgate uses primitias ("first-fruits") for the first terumah and eas ("them," plural) for the object of offerat, where the Hebrew object suffix on yavi'eha is singular feminine ("it").