Exodus 36:14

Summary

Exodus 36:14 describes the making of goat-hair curtains intended to form a tent-covering over the tabernacle structure. The verse states the material and number of curtains: eleven in total, using a repetition of the verb "to make" to specify the count after first stating the general action.

Key words

• va-ya'as (i.Ya.'as, H6213) — narrative vav + qal verb, "and he made": opens the verse as a continuation of prior actions in the construction account.
• yeri'ot (ye.ri.'Ot, H3407) — feminine plural construct, "curtains of": appears twice, first governing 'izzim ("goat hair") and later standing alone before the second 'asah.
• 'izzim (H5795) — masculine plural noun, "goat hair," specifying the raw material of the curtains.
• 'ohel (H0168G) — masculine singular, "tent," the structure these curtains form, distinct from the mishkan ("tabernacle") they cover.
• 'ashtei-'esreh (H6249/H6240) — cardinal number, "eleven," combining the units "one" and "ten" as is typical of Hebrew numeral construction.

What the text says

The verse divides into two clauses joined by the repetition of the same verbal root, asah ("to make", H6213). The first clause — va-ya'as yeri'ot 'izzim le-'ohel 'al-ha-mishkan — states the action in narrative form (with the vav-consecutive prefix) and identifies the material ('izzim, "goat hair") and purpose (le-'ohel, "for a tent," placed 'al ha-mishkan, "over the tabernacle"). The second clause — 'ashtei-'esreh yeri'ot 'asah 'otam — repeats the noun yeri'ot ("curtains") now quantified by the number "eleven," and restates the verb asah, this time in the perfect form without the narrative vav, followed by the direct object marker 'et (H0853) with the third-person plural suffix -am ("them," H9038).

This resumptive repetition — stating the action once generally, then again with the exact count — is a common feature of Biblical Hebrew technical/descriptive prose, allowing the number to be appended as a kind of summary clause rather than integrated grammatically into the first sentence. The object pronoun 'otam ("them") at the end explicitly refers back to the curtains just mentioned, tying the two clauses together despite their separate verb forms.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew text specifies the curtains are for a tent 'al ha-mishkan ("over the tabernacle"), which the Vulgate renders as "ad operiendum tectum tabernaculi" ("for covering the roof of the tabernacle"), adding the concept of "roof" not present as a separate lexical item in the Hebrew. The LXX text supplied here describes a different content (stones on the shoulders of the ephod), and therefore does not correspond to this Hebrew verse's material about goat-hair curtains.