Exodus 38:9

Summary

This verse describes the construction of the tabernacle's courtyard, specifically its south-facing side. The curtains enclosing this side were made of twisted fine linen and measured one hundred cubits in length.

Key words

• vaYYa'as ("he made", H6213H) — qal verb with narrative vav, continuing the sequential account of construction actions ("and then he made...").
• chaTzer ("courtyard", H2691A) — common gender singular noun, appearing twice in the verse (lines 5 and 13), first as the object built, then in construct with "curtains of."
• pe'At Negev teimaNah ("side of south, southward", H6285/H5045H/H8486) — a construct chain doubling south-terminology (negev + teimanah) reinforced by the directional he (H9011) suffix, specifying orientation with technical redundancy.
• qal'Ei ("curtains of", H7050B) — masculine plural construct noun, linking the curtains directly to "the courtyard" that follows.
• masheZar ("twisted", H7806) — hophal (causative-passive) participle, indicating the linen was twisted by a process rather than performing the twisting itself.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative verb vaYYa'as ("he made"), continuing the chain of construction actions typical of this section of Exodus. The object is chaTzer ("courtyard"), marked with the direct object particle 'et and the definite article he. The phrase pe'At Negev teimaNah stacks two words for "south" — negev and teimanah — with the directional he suffix on the second, producing a technical geographic expression meaning "toward the south side" rather than a simple single-word direction.

The second half of the verse shifts to describing the curtains themselves: qal'Ei hachaTzer ("curtains of the courtyard") is a construct chain meaning "the curtains belonging to the courtyard." The material is given as shesh ("fine linen") qualified by the passive participle masheZar ("twisted"), indicating a manufactured twisted-linen thread rather than raw fiber. The measurement me'Ah ba'aMah ("one hundred by the cubit") specifies the length using the cubit as the counting unit, with the preposition ba ("in the") attached to 'aMah ("cubit") functioning as a measurement marker.

Differences between versions

The Septuagint text supplied (Καὶ ἐποίησεν τὴν τράπεζαν τὴν προκειμένην ἐκ χρυσίου καθαροῦ — "And he made the table that is set before, of pure gold") describes an entirely different object (a golden table) rather than the courtyard curtains found in the Hebrew. This reflects a difference in content ordering between LXX and Hebrew textual traditions in this section of Exodus, where material corresponding to Hebrew Exodus 38 appears in a different sequence in the Greek. The Vulgate (Fecit et atrium... cubitorum centum) closely follows the Hebrew structure, rendering the "hundred cubits" measurement and the "south side" location consistently with the Hebrew text.