Exodus 36:9

Summary

This verse specifies the standard dimensions for each curtain used in constructing the tabernacle: each curtain measured 28 cubits in length and 4 cubits in width, and the text explicitly states that all the curtains shared this single measurement.

Key words

• 'Orekh ("length of", H0753) — construct-state noun opening the verse, setting up a "length of X" relationship with the following noun.
• sh'moNeh ... 'esRim ("eight" ... "twenty", H8083/H6242) — a compound cardinal number (28) built from two separate numeral words joined by ve ("and", H9002).
• ha.'aChat / ha.'eChat ("the one", H0259) — the feminine numeral "one" with the definite article, used twice with slightly different vocalization to refer distributively back to yeri'ah ("curtain", H3407), functioning like "each" rather than a simple count.
• miDah 'aChat ("one measure", H4060A/H0259) — noun plus numeral in apposition, stating that a single, uniform measurement applied.
• le.khol-ha.yeri'Ot ("to all the curtains", H3605/H3407) — construct chain with the definite plural noun, closing the verse by generalizing the measurement to every curtain.

What the text says

The verse is built as two parallel construct phrases: 'orekh ha-yeri'ah ha-'achat ("the length of the one curtain") followed by its numeral value, and rochav ("the breadth", H7341) followed by its own numeral value. In each case, the noun yeri'ah ("curtain") is feminine, and the numeral "one" ('achat/'echat) agrees with it in gender. This repeated phrase "the [dimension] of the one curtain" is a distributive construction — it does not mean only one specific curtain had these measurements, but that this measurement applies to any single curtain, i.e., "each curtain." The two instances of "one" (words 5 and 19) are pointed slightly differently ('aChat vs 'eChat), a phonetic variation tied to context and stress rather than a difference in meaning.

The numbers themselves are expressed as compound cardinals: "eight and twenty" (H8083 + H6242) for 28, and "four" (H0702) alone for the breadth, each followed by ba-'ammah ("by the cubit", H0520A), a distributive use of the preposition marking the unit of measure. The closing clause, middah 'achat le-khol ha-yeri'ot ("one measure for all the curtains"), uses the noun middah ("size/measure", H4060A) with the numeral "one" to state explicitly that this single set of dimensions governed every curtain in the group, reinforcing the distributive sense already carried by ha-'achat earlier in the verse.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (viginti octo cubitos... quatuor) and other cited translations (RV1909, BSB, SBLIBRE) render the Hebrew numerals directly as 28 and 4 cubits, matching the Hebrew text's content. The SBLIBRE version converts these into metric approximations ("trece metros" / "casi dos metros") not present in the Hebrew wording itself. The LXX text supplied here (LXXSWETE) does not correspond to this measurement statement at all; instead it describes the construction of the ephod (epōmida) from gold, blue, purple, scarlet, and linen thread — reflecting the fact that the Septuagint's ordering of material in Exodus 36–39 differs from the Masoretic Text's sequence at this point, rather than offering an alternate rendering of the same content.