Exodus 38:30

Summary

The verse reports that from the bronze collected (referred to by the pronoun "with it"), the craftsman made the bases for the entrance of the tent of meeting, the bronze altar, its bronze grating, and all the utensils of the altar.

Key words

• va-ya'as ("and he made", H6213H) — qal narrative verb: continues the sequential storyline of construction, "and then he made."
• 'adnei ("bases of", H0134) — masculine plural construct: grammatically bound to "the entrance of the tent of meeting," indicating these bases belong to that structure.
• mizbach ("altar of", H4196) — masculine singular construct, appearing twice (lines 12 and 28): first bound to "the bronze" (the altar itself), later bound to "the utensils" (the altar's vessels).
• mikhbar ("grating of", H4345) — masculine singular construct: linked to "the bronze," specifying a bronze grating as a distinct component.
• 'asher-lo ("which to it/his", H0834A + H9033) — relative particle plus pronominal suffix: creates the clause "which belonged to it," clarifying that the grating is associated specifically with the altar just mentioned.

What the text says

The verse is built as a chain of objects governed by the single verb va-ya'as ("and he made", H6213H), each introduced by the direct object marker 'et (H0853), which itself carries no independent meaning but marks each following noun phrase as a direct object of the verb. The pronoun bah ("with it", H9034), attached to the preposition ba (H9003), refers back to material mentioned earlier in the passage (grammatically feminine, matching nechoshet, "bronze", H5178A), so the sentence's grammatical subject of the action is the craftsman, while the implicit material source is the bronze.

The construct chains are the main structural device: 'adnei petach 'ohel mo'ed ("bases of the entrance of the tent of meeting") stacks three nouns in a construct relationship, each dependent on the next, producing a single compound phrase in Hebrew where English or Spanish must use multiple prepositions ("bases for the entrance of the Tent of Meeting"). Similarly, mizbach ha-nechoshet ("altar of the bronze") and mikhbar ha-nechoshet ("grating of the bronze") both use construct nouns bound to the same absolute noun nechoshet ("bronze", H5178A), marking material composition rather than possession. The clause asher-lo ("which belonged to it", H0834A + H9033) uses a relative particle with a suffixed preposition to tie the grating back to the altar just named, clarifying it as the altar's own grating and not an independent item. The final phrase kol-kelei ha-mizbe'ach ("all the articles of the altar") uses kol (H3605) in construct with kelei (H3627), itself in construct with the definite noun ha-mizbe'ach, forming a totalizing expression, "all the utensils of the altar."

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (VULCLEM) opens with "ex quibus fusæ sunt bases" ("from which the bases were cast"), introducing a passive construction and the verb "cast," which is not present in the Hebrew wording of this verse; the Hebrew simply uses the active verb ya'as ("he made", H6213H) without specifying a casting technique here. The Spanish and English versions (RV1909, BSB, SBLIBRE) follow the Hebrew's active structure with "he made" or "were made."