Exodus 38:6

Summary

The verse describes the construction of the carrying poles for an altar (likely the bronze altar based on context): they were made of shittim wood and then overlaid with bronze. Two sequential actions are reported — making the poles, then coating them in metal.

Key words

• va-Ya'as ("and he made", H6213H) — qal verb with narrative vav, marking the first sequential action in the construction report.
• ba-Dim ("the poles", H0905G) — masculine plural noun with the definite article, referring to previously established objects (the poles).
• 'atzei ("woods of", H6086G) — masculine plural noun in construct state, linking directly to shittim to specify the material.
• shittim ("acacia", H7848) — the specific wood type, appearing in construct-governed position.
• va-yTzaf ("and he overlaid", H6823) — piel verb with narrative vav, denoting an intensive or applicative action (covering/coating), the second step in the sequence.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence follows a two-clause narrative structure, each clause opened by the narrative vav attached to a verb: va-Ya'as ("and he made") and va-yTzaf ("and he overlaid"). This construction presents the two actions as sequential steps in a single construction process rather than as parallel or simultaneous events.

The object of the first verb is ha-Badim ("the poles"), marked by the definite article and preceded by the direct object marker 'et. The material is specified through a construct chain: 'atzei shittim ("woods of acacia"), where the plural noun 'atzei is grammatically bound to shittim, producing the sense "acacia-wood poles" rather than treating "wood" and "acacia" as separate descriptors.

The second clause uses the piel stem for yTzaf ("he overlaid"), a verbal form associated with intensive or resultative action — here indicating the applied action of covering with metal. Its object is marked by 'otam ("them"), a pronominal suffix referring back to the poles, followed by nechoshet ("bronze"), a feminine singular noun functioning as the material into which the poles were covered. The bronze is not marked with the object marker, appearing instead as an adverbial/material complement to the covering action.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew text specifies badim ("poles") as the object being made and covered in bronze. The Vulgate (quos et ipsos fecit de lignis setim, et operuit laminis aeneis) renders this with a relative construction ("which he also made of acacia wood, and covered with bronze plates"), adding the detail of "plates" (laminis) not explicitly present in the Hebrew noun nechoshet ("bronze") alone. The LXX text supplied here (καὶ τοὺς δύο χερουβεὶμ χρυσοῦς, "and the two golden cherubim") does not correspond to the content of the Hebrew verse as given; it describes cherubim rather than poles, reflecting a divergence in content or verse alignment between the Hebrew and this LXX excerpt at this location.