Exodus 37:13

Summary

This verse describes the casting of four gold rings and their attachment to the four corners of the table's legs. The action is presented as two sequential steps: first casting the rings, then fastening them at the specified location.

Key words

• va-yiTzok ("and he cast", H3332) — qal narrative verb (vav-consecutive), marking the first sequential action in the construction process.
• tabbe'ot ("rings of", H2885) — feminine plural construct, linking the rings to the material that follows (gold).
• zahav ("gold", H2091) — masculine singular noun, specifying the material of the rings.
• va-yiTten ("and he put", H5414) — qal narrative verb, the second sequential action, describing placement of the rings.
• pe'ot ("corners", H6285) — feminine plural noun, indicating the four locations where the rings were fixed, further specified as belonging to the "feet" (legs) of the object.
• ragLav ("its feet", H7272) — feminine dual construct with pronominal suffix, denoting the four legs to which the corners are related.

What the text says

The verse is built on two narrative verbs joined by the vav-consecutive construction typical of Biblical Hebrew narrative sequence: va-yiTzok ("and he cast") followed later by va-yiTten ("and he put"). This grammatical chaining presents the casting of the rings and their placement as two distinct, sequential actions rather than a single simultaneous event.

The phrase arba' tabbe'ot zahav ("four rings of gold") uses the construct state on tabbe'ot ("rings of", H2885), directly binding the count of rings to the material gold. Later, the same word tabbe'ot reappears with the definite article (ha-tabba'ot, "the rings"), referring back to the rings just introduced, now with the object marker 'et preceding it to mark it explicitly as the direct object of "putting."

The location is described through a chain of construct and relative constructions: arba' ha-pe'ot ("four of the corners") is further qualified by the relative particle 'asher ("which", H0834A) plus le- ("to"), introducing a possessive-like clause: "which belong to four legs of it" (arba' ragLav). The dual form of ragLav ("its feet/legs", H7272) reflects the paired nature of legs as anatomical or structural terms in Hebrew, even though here it refers to four legs total, construct-linked with "four" to specify the total count on the object being described.

Differences between versions

The Septuagint text (LXXSWETE) provided for this reference does not correspond in content to the Hebrew verse: it describes pillars and bases related to a courtyard gate, not rings for a table. The Vulgate (VULCLEM) and the Hebrew agree closely in content, both describing the casting of four gold rings placed at the four corners corresponding to the table's legs, though the Vulgate uses mensae ("of the table") explicitly, a referent that in the Hebrew must be inferred from the surrounding context since verse 13 itself does not name "table" directly.