Exodus 37:16

Summary

Exodus 37:16 lists the accessory vessels that Bezalel made for the table described earlier in the chapter: the dishes, pans, bowls and jugs used for the drink offerings. The verse closes by specifying that all these objects were made of pure gold.

Key words

• va-ya'as ("and he made", H6213H) — qal wayyiqtol (narrative past), 3rd person masculine singular; opens the verse as the main narrative action continuing the account of Bezalel's work.
• ha-kelim ("the articles/utensils", H3627) — masculine plural noun with definite article; a general term for "vessels" that the following words specify individually.
• qe'arotav / kapotav / menaqqiyotav ("its dishes" / "its pans" / "its bowls", H7086 / H3709I / H4518) — feminine plural nouns in construct form, each carrying a 3rd person masculine singular pronominal suffix referring back to "the table" (ha-shulchan, H7979); the construct + suffix structure ties each vessel type possessively to the table.
• yussakh ("it was poured out", H5258A) — hophal (causative passive) imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular; describes the ongoing or intended function of the qesavot ("jugs", H7184) — liquid is poured out through/from them, without naming an agent.
• zahav tahor ("pure gold", H2091 + H2889) — noun followed by adjective in apposition, placed at the very end of the verse; it functions as a summary qualifier for all the vessels just listed, rather than being attached to any single item.

What the text says

The verse is built as one long direct-object chain governed by the single verb va-ya'as ("and he made") at the beginning. After the general object ha-kelim ("the articles") introduced by the relative clause "'asher 'al ha-shulchan" ("which were on the table"), the text enumerates four specific vessel types, each introduced by the object marker 'et and each bearing a construct form with a 3rd person masculine singular suffix ("its dishes," "its pans," "its bowls," "its jugs"), all referring back to "the table." This repeated construct+suffix pattern is a feature of Hebrew that ties each item grammatically to its owner without needing a separate possessive phrase; English and other translations render this with "its" or "the," but the structural link to ha-shulchan is explicit only in the Hebrew morphology.

The last vessel, ha-qesavot ("the jugs," H7184), receives its own relative clause, 'asher yussakh bahen ("which is poured out in/by them"), using the hophal form yussakh — a passive causative that indicates the pouring action is performed on or through these vessels, without stating who performs it. Only after this full list does the sentence attach zahav tahor ("pure gold") at the very end, functioning as a single material description applying to the entire preceding list of vessels rather than to one item alone.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew text of this verse concerns the dishes, pans, bowls and jugs for the table. The Vulgate (VULCLEM) lists similar items — acetabula, phialas, cyathos, thuribula — using Latin vessel names that do not correspond one-to-one with the Hebrew terms qe'arot, kapot, menaqqiyot, and qesavot. The Greek text (LXXSWETE) supplied here does not correspond to this verse at all; it describes a curtain (katapetasma) for the court gate, reflecting the different arrangement and numbering of the Tabernacle construction chapters between the Hebrew and Greek textual traditions of Exodus 36–39.