Exodus 37:22

Summary

The verse describes the lampstand's decorative bulbs and branches as being made from the same single mass of material, entirely hammered work of pure gold. It emphasizes the structural unity and material purity of the object described.

Key words

• kaftorei ("bulbs of", H3730) — masculine plural construct with pronominal suffix hem ("their", H9028), indicating the bulbs belong to the object previously described.
• qenotam ("branches of their", H7070G) — feminine plural construct with suffix m ("their", H9028), paired with the bulbs as the two decorative elements in view.
• mimenah ("from it", H4480A + H9034) — preposition with feminine singular suffix "her", pointing back to a feminine antecedent (the lampstand) as the single source material.
• hayu ("they were", H1961) — qal perfect, third person plural, marking completed state: the bulbs and branches already existed as part of that single source.
• miqshah ("hammered work", H4749) — feminine singular noun describing the technique of manufacture, modified by achat ("one", H0259) to stress singularity of piece.
• tahor ("pure", H2889) — masculine singular adjective qualifying zahav ("gold", H2091), specifying the metal's quality.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence structure places the subjects — kaftorei-hem ("their bulbs") and u-qenotam ("and their branches") — before the verb hayu ("they were"), a common Biblical Hebrew pattern for topicalization. The prepositional phrase mimenah ("from it/her") uses a feminine suffix, which grammatically points to a feminine noun as the source — consistent with the lampstand (a feminine noun in Hebrew) mentioned in the surrounding context, though the lampstand itself is not repeated in this verse.

The second clause, kullah miqshah achat zahav tahor ("all of it one hammered work, pure gold"), uses kullah ("all of it", H3605 + H9024) with a feminine suffix to summarize the whole object as a single unit. The noun miqshah ("hammered work") combined with achat ("one") reinforces that the piece was not assembled from separate parts but forged as one continuous mass. The final phrase zahav tahor ("pure gold") specifies the material without a verb, functioning as an appositional description attached to miqshah achat.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders miqshah achat ("one hammered work") as universa ductilia ("all of it forged/malleable"), using a plural adjective (ductilia) where the Hebrew has a singular construction (miqshah achat, "one hammered-work"). The BSB and SBLIBRE both add "lampstand" explicitly ("of one piece with the lampstand" / "con el candelabro"), supplying the antecedent that the Hebrew mimenah ("from it") leaves implicit through the feminine suffix alone.