Exodus 39:10

Summary

Exodus 39:10 describes the placing of gemstones into the four rows mounted on a setting (probably the high priest's breastpiece). The verse specifies the content of the first row: a ruby, a topaz, and a beryl, closing with a phrase that identifies this row as "the one" — i.e., the first of the four.

Key words

• yemal'u ("they filled", H4390) — Piel plural verb continuing the narrative chain; the intensive Piel stem here conveys the completed act of "filling in" or setting stones into sockets, not merely placing them.
• 'arba'ah ("four", H0702) — cardinal number governing ture 'aven ("rows of stone"), establishing the total count of rows before any row is described individually.
• tur ("row of", H2905) — appears twice as a masculine singular construct noun: once governing 'aven ("stone") to form "rows of stone," and once governing 'odem ("ruby") to introduce the first row specifically.
• 'odem ("a ruby", H0124), pitdah ("a topaz", H6357), vareqet ("a beryl", H1304A) — three feminine singular nouns naming the stones; only the first ('odem) is bound in construct to tur, while the other two are joined by the conjunction u- ("and"), showing that all three belong to a single row rather than each opening a new one.
• ha'echad ("the one", H0259) — feminine singular cardinal with the article, combined with ha-tur ("the row") to form the phrase "the row, the one," functioning as an ordinal marker for "the first row."

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative verb yemalu attached to bo ("in it," from be- + suffix -o), meaning "and they filled it" — referring back to a setting mentioned in the preceding verses. The object is 'arba'ah ture 'aven, "four rows of stone," a construct chain stating the total structure before any single row is detailed.

The Hebrew then names the content of the first row using a construct phrase, tur 'odem, literally "a row of ruby," and adds pitdah and vareqet joined by the conjunction u- without repeating the word tur. This syntax shows that all three stones — ruby, topaz, and beryl — sit together in one row, not three separate rows. The verse closes with ha-tur ha-'echad, "the row, the one," a construction using the definite article with the cardinal 'echad to mean "the first row," anticipating that further rows will be numbered in subsequent verses.

Differences between versions

The Greek text (LXXSWETE) supplied here does not correspond to the Hebrew content of this verse; it speaks instead of the altar's bronze grating and vessels, reflecting the well-known divergence in the Septuagint's ordering and content of the tabernacle construction chapters relative to the Masoretic Hebrew. The Vulgate (VULCLEM) and Hebrew agree on the three stones of the first row — sardius/'odem, topaz/pitdah, and smaragdus (emerald)/vareqet — though "smaragdus" and "emerald" render vareqet differently from "beryl" used in BSB and SBLIBRE.