Exodus 37:1

Summary

The verse reports that Bezalel constructed the ark using acacia wood, giving its three dimensions in cubits: two and a half cubits in length, a cubit and a half in width, and a cubit and a half in height. The sentence introduces the craftsman by name and moves directly into a technical specification of size.

Key words

• va.Ya'as ("he made", H6213H) — qal verb with narrative vav, marking the sequential, past-tense action that opens the account.
• 'et ("", H0853) — direct object marker, syntactically flagging ha'aron as the thing made, though it has no independent gloss.
• 'aMatayim ("[was] two cubits", H0520A) — feminine dual form of "cubit," inherently expressing the quantity "two" without a separate numeral word.
• 'areko ("length", H0753 + H9023) — construct noun 'orekh bound to the third-person suffix -o ("its"), literally "the length of it," referring back to the ark.
• rachbo / komato ("its breadth" / "its height", H7341 / H6967 + H9023) — same construct + suffix pattern as 'areko, each introducing one of the three measured dimensions.

What the text says

The clause opens with the narrative verb va.Ya'as ("he made"), followed by the subject Betzal'el and the object phrase 'et-ha'aron ("the ark"), specified by the construct pair 'atzei shitim ("wood of acacia"). After naming the material, the Hebrew shifts to a list of three measurements, each built the same way: a numeral expression ('amah "a cubit" plus va.chetzi "and a half," or the dual 'amatayim "two cubits" plus va.chetzi) stated first, followed by a construct noun with a third-person masculine singular suffix ('areko, rachbo, komato — "its length," "its width," "its height"). This construct-plus-suffix pattern ties each dimension explicitly back to the ark without repeating the noun ha'aron; the suffix -o ("his/its") does the work of the possessive. The dual form 'amatayim itself encodes "two" grammatically, rather than needing a separate cardinal number, a feature the English and Spanish translations render analytically as "two cubits."

Differences between versions

The LXXSWETE text supplied for this reference does not correspond to the ark's measurements; it reads "they made for the tent ten curtains," matching Exodus 36:9 in the Hebrew versification rather than 37:1 — a numbering divergence between the Greek and Hebrew traditions in this section of Exodus. The Vulgate (VULCLEM) adds a clause, "vestivitque eam auro purissimo intus ac foris" ("and he overlaid it with pure gold within and without"), which is not present in the Hebrew word list given for this verse. The SBLIBRE Spanish version converts the cubit measurements into metric units (meters, centimeters) rather than retaining the Hebrew unit 'amah ("cubit").