Exodus 36:13

Summary

The verse describes the final step in assembling the inner tent-covering: fifty gold hooks are made, used to join the curtain panels to one another, and as a result the tabernacle structure becomes a single unified whole.

Key words

• va-yya'as ("he made", H6213) — qal verb with narrative vav, continuing the sequence of construction actions performed by the craftsman.
• qarsei ("hooks of", H7165) — masculine plural noun in construct state, linking directly to zahav ("gold", H2091) to specify the material.
• y-cha-ber ("he joined", H2266) — piel (intensive) stem, denoting an active, deliberate act of binding together, stronger than a simple qal "to join" would convey.
• achat el-achat ("one to one", H0259 twice) — a reciprocal construction meaning "each one to the other," describing how the curtain panels are paired.
• y-hi ("it was/became", H1961) — qal verb marking the resulting state, introducing the outcome clause "the tabernacle became one."

What the text says

The verse is built as three successive narrative clauses, each introduced by the vav-consecutive that chains actions in biblical Hebrew narrative: "and he made," "and he joined," "and it became." This chain presents the hooks not as an isolated detail but as the mechanism that produces a structural result — the transition from separate curtain panels to a unified tent-covering.

The construct phrase qarsei zahav ("hooks of gold") tightly binds material to object, a common Hebrew way of specifying composition without an adjective. The piel verb y'chaber intensifies the ordinary sense of joining, suggesting a fastening action with some force or effort, consistent with hooks pulling separate curtain-panels together. The phrase ha-y'ri'ot achat el-achat ("the curtains, one to one") uses the numeral achat ("one", H0259) twice in a reciprocal pattern typical of Hebrew for expressing "each to the other," describing the curtains being paired up as they are linked by the hooks named in ba-qqerasim ("with the hooks").

The closing clause, wayhi ha-mishkan echad ("and the tabernacle was one"), uses the same numeral echad ("one") now as a predicate adjective describing the resulting unity of the mishkan ("tabernacle", H4908) — the structure is no longer a set of separate panels but functions as a single covering.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew, the Vulgate, and the Spanish versions (RV1909, SBLIBRE) all describe the same action: fifty gold hooks joining curtain panels into one tabernacle. The Vulgate's unum tabernaculum directly mirrors the Hebrew mishkan echad ("one tabernacle"). The LXX text supplied here, however, speaks of two emerald stones engraved with the names of the sons of Israel — content matching a different passage (concerning the ephod's stones) rather than the hooks and curtains described in the Hebrew of Exodus 36:13. This is a divergence in content between the LXX text as given and the Masoretic Hebrew for this verse, not merely a difference in wording.