Exodus 36:31

Summary

The verse states that a craftsman made five beriche ("bars", H1280) of acacia wood, atzei shittim ("wood of acacia", H6086/H7848), intended for the qarshei ("frames", H7175) of one side of the tabernacle. It closes a series of construction reports concerning the wooden frame system of the mishkan ("tabernacle", H4908).

Key words

• va-yaas ("and he made", H6213H) — qal narrative verb, third person, continuing the sequence of construction actions from the preceding verses.
• beriche ("bars of", H1280) — masculine plural construct; grammatically bound to the following noun, indicating these are bars of something (acacia wood).
• atzei shittim ("woods of acacia", H6086/H7848) — construct chain naming the material; atzei is plural construct, showing the bars are made from this specific wood type.
• chamishah ("five", H2568) — cardinal number specifying the quantity of bars.
• qarshei tzela ha-mishkan ha-echat ("frames of the side of the tabernacle, the one") — a chain of construct nouns culminating in the definite article plus ha-echat ("the one", H0259), a feminine singular numeral agreeing with tzela ("side", H6763), which is feminine.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a single construct chain describing the object made and its purpose. The verb va-yaas opens the clause with narrative continuity, typical of the sequential reporting style used throughout this construction account. The object, beriche atzei shittim, is itself a double construct: "bars" bound to "woods of acacia," meaning the bars are made of acacia wood rather than merely associated with it.

The number chamishah ("five") stands appositionally to specify how many bars were made, followed by the preposition le- ("for") introducing the purpose clause: these bars are for the frames. The final phrase, qarshei tzela ha-mishkan ha-echat, stacks three nouns in construct relation — "frames of the side of the tabernacle" — with the definite article attached to "tabernacle" marking it as a specific, known structure. The concluding ha-echat ("the one"), feminine to agree with tzela ("side"), specifies that this entire construction applies to one particular side of the tabernacle, implying a matching set for the other side is described elsewhere.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (Fecit et vectes de lignis setim, quinque ad continendas tabulas unius lateris tabernaculi) and the Spanish translations (RV1909, SBLIBRE) closely follow the Hebrew structure, rendering beriche as "bars/travesaños" and preserving the five-bars-for-one-side framework. The LXX text supplied here (Swete) describes instead the hem of a tunic (περιστόμιον τοῦ ὑποδύτου), a passage unrelated in content to the Hebrew verse on tabernacle bars, reflecting a divergence in verse correspondence between the Greek and Hebrew textual traditions in this section of Exodus.