Exodus 36:10

Summary

The verse describes the joining of the tabernacle's linen curtains: five curtains were joined to one another in one set, and the remaining five curtains were joined to one another in a second set, producing two panels of five curtains each.

Key words

• va-y'chaBer ("and he joined", H2266) — piel verb with narrative vav, marking the next step in the construction sequence; the piel stem gives an intensive/factitive sense, "to join together firmly."
• chaMesh ("five of", H2568) — construct form, cardinal number tying directly to the following noun ha-yeri'ot, "the curtains," specifying the quantity of the first group.
• y'ri'Ot ("curtains", H3407) — feminine plural noun, the object being joined; appears twice, once with the definite article (first group) and once without it (second group).
• aChat 'el-eChat ("one to one", H0259 + H0413) — repeated idiomatic pairing of the feminine singular numeral with the preposition 'el ("to"), meaning "one to another," describing the manner of joining piece by piece.
• chiBar ("he joined", H2266) — same piel root as y'chaBer but in perfect tense without the narrative vav, used for the second clause describing the second set of five curtains.

What the text says

The verse is built as two parallel clauses sharing the same verb root, chaBar ("to join," H2266). The first clause uses the narrative form va-y'chaBer to continue the ongoing account of the tabernacle's construction, while the second clause uses the plain perfect chiBar, without the narrative vav, placing the object (chaMesh y'ri'ot, "five curtains") before the verb. This creates a mirrored structure: object-first in the second clause versus verb-first in the first, a common Hebrew technique for marking two comparable but distinct actions within the same larger action.

The phrase aChat 'el-eChat ("one to one" / "one to another") appears in both clauses to describe how the curtains within each group of five were attached — each single curtain joined to the next single curtain, rather than all five sewn simultaneously as a block. The definite article on ha-y'ri'ot in the first clause ("the curtains") points back to curtains already introduced earlier in the passage, whereas the second group, chamesh y'ri'ot without the article, is presented as a fresh, undefined set of five, distinguishing the two panels of five curtains each that together form the tabernacle's linen covering.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew text describes the joining of two sets of five curtains into two panels. The Vulgate (Conjunxitque cortinas quinque, alteram alteri, et alias quinque sibi invicem copulavit) follows this structure closely, rendering both clauses with parallel joining verbs. The Swete LXX text supplied here, however, describes a different action entirely — the cutting of gold plates into threads to be woven with blue, purple, scarlet, and fine linen thread — corresponding to material found elsewhere in the Exodus tabernacle account rather than to this verse's content on curtain-joining. This reflects the well-known divergence in the LXX's ordering and content for the tabernacle chapters (Exodus 35–39) compared to the Hebrew and Vulgate sequence.