Exodus 38:19

Summary

The verse describes the construction details of four pillars used in the tabernacle's court entrance: their number, the material of their bases, and the silver fittings (hooks, overlay, and bands) attached to their tops.

Key words

• 'a.mudeihem ("pillars", H5982G) — masculine plural construct noun with 3rd person plural suffix ("their"), referring to a previously mentioned structure (the pillars belonging to it).
• 'ar.ba'ah ("four", H0702) — cardinal number repeated twice (for pillars and for bases), fixing the exact count of each item.
• ne.choshet ("bronze", H5178A) — feminine singular noun functioning predicatively, stating the material of the 'adneihem ("their bases", H0134).
• va.veihem ("their hooks", H2053) — masculine plural construct noun with suffix, followed by kesef ("silver", H3701G) as predicate, naming the material of the hooks.
• cha.shuqeihem ("their bands", H2838) — masculine plural construct noun with suffix, the final item in the list, again predicated by kasef ("silver", H3701G).

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a chain of construct-noun-plus-suffix phrases, each followed by a material term functioning as predicate without a copula (a common feature of Biblical Hebrew nominal clauses). The structure is: [item + "their"] + [number or material]. This creates a rapid inventory list: pillars (four), bases (four, bronze), hooks (silver), overlay of the tops (implied silver, continued from the next item), and bands (silver). The repeated 3rd person masculine plural suffix -hem ("their") on each noun ties every component back to the pillars introduced at the start, showing that all these parts belong to the same set of four pillars.

The noun tzi.Pui ("overlay of", H6826) is in construct with ra.shei ("tops", H7218I), itself in construct with the suffix -hem, producing a chain "the overlay of the tops of them" — a triple construct construction that Hebrew allows without additional words, but which translations must expand into prepositional phrases ("the overlay of their tops"). The final kasef ("silver", H3701G) at the end of the verse grammatically applies to the immediately preceding item, cha.shuqeihem ("their bands"), though translations differ on whether it also extends back to cover the tzi.Pui ("overlay").

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (VULCLEM) renders the list more compactly, combining "capiteha earum et cælaturæ argenteæ" ("their heads and engravings were silver") without preserving the separate Hebrew terms for "overlay" (tzi.Pui) and "bands" (cha.shuqei) as distinct items. The LXX (Swete) text provided for this verse describes rings (krikous) of gold and bronze for the tent and court, which corresponds to different material (rings, not pillar-fittings) than the Hebrew text of Exodus 38:19 — reflecting a structural divergence in versification/content between the Greek and Hebrew textual traditions at this point. The Spanish translations (RV1909, SBLIBRE) both extend "de plata" ("silver") across "overlay" and "bands," making explicit an inference not overtly repeated in the Hebrew, which states kasef only once at the end.