Exodus 37:28

Summary

The verse describes the making of the carrying poles for a sacred object: they were constructed from acacia wood and then covered entirely with gold. Two sequential actions are narrated — fabrication and overlaying.

Key words

• va-ya'as ("and he made", H6213H) — qal narrative verb, marking the first sequential action in the story; the subject "he" is implied in the verb form.
• ha-baddim ("the poles", H0905G) — masculine plural noun with definite article, identifying the specific object being fabricated.
• 'atzei ("wood of", H6086G) — masculine plural noun in construct state, linking directly to the following word to form "wood of acacia."
• shittim ("acacia", H7848) — masculine plural noun specifying the wood type.
• va-yetzaf ("and he overlaid", H6823) — piel narrative verb, the intensive stem indicating a thorough or effective action of covering, chained to the previous verb.

What the text says

The verse is built on two narrative verbs joined by the vav-consecutive construction: va-ya'as ("and he made", H6213H) and va-yetzaf ("and he overlaid", H6823). This chaining structure is typical of Biblical Hebrew narrative sequence, presenting the two actions as consecutive steps in a single process rather than isolated events.

The object of the first verb is ha-baddim ("the poles", H0905G), marked by the direct object particle 'et (H0853) and the definite article, indicating these are specific, previously known poles. The material is expressed through a construct chain: 'atzei shittim ("wood of acacia", H6086G + H7848), where the plural construct noun "woods of" is directly bound to "acacia" to form the compound phrase "acacia wood."

The second verb, va-yetzaf ("and he overlaid", H6823), is in the piel stem, which in Biblical Hebrew often carries an intensive or resultative nuance compared to the simple qal stem. This suggests a thorough application of the gold covering rather than a partial or simple action. The object is marked again by 'et (here appearing as 'otam, "them", combining the object marker with the third-person masculine plural suffix H9038), referring back to the poles. The final word, zahav ("gold", H2091), stands as a noun without a preposition, functioning adverbially to indicate the material used to overlay the poles.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders va-yetzaf ("and he overlaid") as operuit laminis aureis ("he covered with golden plates/sheets"), introducing the specific detail of "plates" (laminis) not explicitly present in the Hebrew verb tzafah (H6823), which simply means "to overlay" or "to cover" without specifying the form of the gold application.