Exodus 37:21

Summary

The verse describes the decorative knobs (kaphtor) of the lampstand, stating three times that a bulb sits beneath a pair of branches emerging from the central shaft. It closes with a summary clause noting that six branches in total extend from the lampstand.

Key words

• kaphtor ("a bulb", H3730) — repeated three times as an unmarked singular noun, naming the ornamental knob at each branch-pair.
• tachat ("under of", H8478G) — construct form of "under," syntactically binding the bulb to the branches beneath which it sits ("a bulb, [that] of under two of the branches").
• shenei ("two of", H8147) — dual construct form, marking each pair of branches as a bound unit rather than two separate items.
• qanim ("branches", H7070G) — plural absolute noun (definite via the article ha, H9009), referring to the arms of the lampstand.
• mimmennah ("from it", H4480A + H9034) — preposition plus 3rd-person feminine singular suffix, referring back to the lampstand (a feminine noun in Hebrew), repeated after each bulb-clause and again at the end.
• yotze'im ("[the ones] going out", H3318L) — qal participle plural, describing the branches as continuously "coming forth" from the shaft, a durative/descriptive rather than a completed-action verb form.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built from three near-identical clauses, each following the pattern: ve-kaphtor tachat shenei ha-qanim mimmennah ("and a bulb [is] under two of the branches, from it"). The construct chain tachat shenei ha-qanim ("under of two of the branches") links the bulb directly to a specific pair of branches, and mimmennah anchors each pair back to the lampstand's central body. This triple repetition, rather than a single generalized statement, mirrors the physical structure: three bulb-and-branch-pair units positioned along the shaft.

The final clause, le-sheshet ha-qanim ha-yotze'im mimmennah ("for the six branches, the ones going out from it"), functions as a summary using the cardinal sheshet ("six", H8337) in construct with qanim, tying the three pairs into a single total. The participle yotze'im frames the branches as an ongoing feature of the object's design, not as something that once happened, which is a nuance flattened by finite-verb translations like "extended" or "came out."

Differences between versions

The Greek text supplied for this reference (LXXSWETE) contains an unrelated statement about Eliab the craftsman, not a rendering of the bulb-and-branch description; this reflects a difference in content/verse arrangement in the Greek tradition for this section of the tabernacle-construction material, rather than a translation choice for this specific Hebrew clause. The Vulgate (VULCLEM) compresses the threefold repetition into "per loca tria" ("in three places"), stating structurally what the Hebrew states through triple restatement, and renders kaphtor as "sphaerulae" ("little spheres") rather than "bulb" or "knob."