Exodus 38:14

Summary

Exodus 38:14 gives the measurements for the curtains on one side of the courtyard entrance: fifteen cubits long, supported by three pillars and their three bases. The verse consists of two parts — the curtain length, and a numerical inventory of the pillars and bases holding it.

Key words

• qela'im ("curtains", H7050B) — masculine plural noun, the fabric panels whose length is being specified.
• chamesh ("five", H2568) construct form paired with 'esreh ("teen", H6240) — together forming "fifteen," modifying 'ammah ("cubit", H0520A) as a unit of measure.
• katef ("side", H3802) — feminine singular noun with the definite article ha (H9009), literally "shoulder," used here architecturally to mean the flank of the entrance.
• 'ammudei ("pillars of", H5982G) — masculine plural construct, bound to the suffix hem ("their", H9028), forming "their pillars."
• 'adnei ("bases of", H0134) — masculine plural construct, likewise bound to hem ("their", H9028), forming "their bases."

What the text says

The verse opens with qela'im ("curtains") as its subject, followed immediately by the measurement phrase chamesh-'esreh 'ammah ("fifteen cubit"), a construct numeral phrase functioning adverbially to state length. The phrase 'el-hakatef ("to the side") specifies location — the curtains belong to one particular side (katef, literally "shoulder") of the entrance structure, rather than describing the whole courtyard.

The second half of the verse shifts to a possessive construction repeated twice: 'ammudei-hem sheloshah ("their pillars, three") and ve'adnei-hem sheloshah ("and their bases, three"). In both cases, the construct noun ('ammudei, 'adnei) takes the third-person masculine plural suffix hem ("their"), referring back to the curtains just mentioned, and the cardinal number sheloshah ("three") follows as a predicate rather than preceding the noun — a common Hebrew numeral pattern when the count is given as a summary statement after the item is named. This creates a parallel, almost tabular structure: noun+suffix, then number — first for pillars, then for bases, joined by the conjunction ve ("and", H9002).

Differences between versions

The Hebrew text specifies curtains of fifteen cubits with three pillars and three bases on one side of the entrance. The Vulgate (VULCLEM) reorders the information, stating "quindecim cubitos columnarum trium... unum tenebat latus" ("fifteen cubits of three columns... one side held"), placing the column count grammatically closer to the cubit measurement than the Hebrew construct pattern does. The LXX text supplied (LXXSWETE) does not correspond to this content at all — it describes a "solid shaft" (καυλόν) and "reeds" (καλαμίσκους) "from both sides," language associated with lampstand construction elsewhere in Exodus, indicating the LXX passage cited here addresses different subject matter than the Hebrew verse under analysis.