Exodus 38:2

Summary

The verse describes the construction of the horns on the bronze altar: horns were made on its four corners, formed as one piece with the altar itself, and the entire structure was then overlaid with bronze.

Key words

• va-i.Ya.'as ("and he made", H6213H) — qal narrative verb, marking the next sequential action in the construction account; the subject "he" refers to the craftsman (Bezalel, per context).
• kar.no.Ta ("horns", H7161A) — feminine plural construct noun, appearing twice with the pronominal suffix -o ("its"); construct form links it to what follows ("horns of its corners").
• pi.no.Ta ("corners", H6438H) — feminine plural construct, paired with 'ar.Ba' ("four", H0702), also in construct form, giving the phrase "four corners of it."
• mi.Me.nu ("from it", H4480A + H9033) — preposition with suffix, indicating material/source continuity: the horns come "from it," i.e., from the same body as the altar.
• y.Tzaf ("he overlaid", H6823) — piel narrative verb, denoting an intensive/thorough covering action, distinct from the simple qal used for "he made."

What the text says

The verse has two main clauses joined by the narrative va- ("and") chains typical of Biblical Hebrew narrative sequence. The first clause, va-i.Ya.'as kar.no.Ta 'al 'ar.Ba' pi.no.Ta, states literally "and he made its horns on the four of its corners" — the construct chains (kar.no.Ta, 'ar.Ba', pi.no.Ta) stack modification: horns, belonging to it, upon four, belonging to the corners, belonging to it. This piling of construct forms with repeated suffixes (-o, "its/his") ties every element back to the altar as a single referent.

The middle clause, mi.Me.nu ha.Yu kar.no.Ta, "from it were its horns," uses the qal perfect ha.Yu ("they were") to assert a completed state: the horns did not exist as separate attached pieces but originated mi.Me.nu, "from it" — from the same substance/structure as the altar body. This grammatical construction (source preposition + perfect "to be") is what conveys the one-piece quality that translations render as "of one piece" or "the same piece," though the Hebrew itself does not use a word meaning "piece"; it states origin/continuity through the preposition min ("from").

The final clause switches to piel y.Tzaf ("he overlaid"), with the direct object marker 'et attached to the suffix -o ("it"), followed by ne.Cho.shet ("bronze", H5178A) as an unmarked accusative of material — "he overlaid it, bronze," without an intervening preposition, a common Hebrew pattern for describing covering with a specified substance.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew and Vulgate correspond closely: the Vulgate's cujus cornua de angulis procedebant ("whose horns proceeded from the corners") mirrors the Hebrew's mi.Me.nu ("from it") logic, and operuitque illum laminis æneis ("and he covered it with bronze plates") matches va-y.Tzaf 'o.to ne.Cho.shet. The LXX text supplied here (κατεχρύσωσεν ... χρυσῷ καθαρῷ, "he gilded with pure gold inside and outside") does not correspond to this Hebrew verse's content about bronze horns and corners; it describes gilding with gold rather than overlaying with bronze, reflecting the LXX's differing arrangement of the tabernacle-construction material in this section of Exodus.