Exodus 38:8

Summary

The verse states that a craftsman made the bronze kiyor ("laver", H3595) and its bronze kan ("base", H3653), using the bronze mirrors belonging to the women who served at the entrance of the 'ohel mo'ed ("tent of meeting", H0168G/H4150I).

Key words

• va-Ya'as ("and he made", H6213H) — narrative vav + qal verb, marking a sequential completed action in the construction account.
• kiyor ("laver", H3595) — masculine singular noun, the object being fabricated, marked as definite by the preceding article ha.
• kano ("its base", H3653 + H9023) — construct noun with pronominal suffix "its," linking the base directly to the laver just named.
• mar'ot ("mirrors of", H4759B) — feminine plural construct, syntactically bound to the following phrase, indicating the material source.
• ha-tzove'ot ... tzave'u ("the serving [women] ... they served", H6633) — the root appears twice, first as a feminine plural participle (ongoing/characteristic action, "the ones serving") and then as a perfect verb (completed action, "they served"), reinforced by the relative particle asher ("who", H0834A).

What the text says

The sentence follows a simple narrative chain introduced by va-Ya'as, structured as a single main clause with two direct objects marked by 'et (H0853): the kiyor and kano, both specified as nechoshet ("bronze", H5178A) — the material noun follows each object rather than functioning as an adjective, a common Hebrew apposition pattern for indicating material. The phrase be-mar'ot ha-tzove'ot ("with the mirrors of the serving [women]") introduces the source material via the preposition be (H9003), placing the mirrors in construct relation with the participle ha-tzove'ot.

The doubling of the root tzava (H6633) — first as a participle describing the women generically as those "serving," then as a perfect verb tzave'u describing a specific completed period of service — creates a relative clause (asher tzave'u, "who served") that specifies the location of this service: petach 'ohel mo'ed, the construct chain "entrance of the tent of meeting." The construct chain petach 'ohel mo'ed stacks three nouns in sequence without additional prepositions, a typical Hebrew method for expressing nested possession/location.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (speculis mulierum, quæ excubabant) and Hebrew both refer to mirrors belonging to women who served/kept watch at the entrance, aligning closely with the Hebrew construction. The LXX text supplied here (σκιάζοντα ταῖς πτέρυξιν αὐτῶν ἐπὶ τὸ ἱλαστήριον, "overshadowing with their wings the mercy seat") does not correspond to the content of the Hebrew verse; it describes wings over a hilasterion ("mercy seat"), a phrase belonging to a different section of the tabernacle description rather than to the laver and mirrors described in the Hebrew of Exodus 38:8.