Exodus 39:13

Summary

This verse describes the fourth row of stones set into a garment (the high priest's breastpiece, per the wider context), naming three gemstones — tarshish ("chrysolite", H8658), shoham ("onyx", H7718), and yashpheh ("jasper", H3471) — and stating that they were mounted in gold filigree settings.

Key words

• ha-Tur ("the row", H2905) — masculine singular noun with definite article, identifying this as one row among several described in the passage's larger list.
• re.vi.'i ("fourth", H7243) — masculine singular ordinal number, agreeing with tur to specify which row is meant.
• tarshish ("chrysolite", H8658) — masculine singular noun in construct form, functioning as the first stone name in a list without an explicit "and."
• mu.sa.Bot ("surrounded", H5437H) — hophal (causative-passive) passive participle, feminine plural, agreeing with the stones (implied feminine plural referents) and indicating that something else acts to enclose them.
• mi.lu.'o.Tam ("their settings", H4396 + H9028) — feminine plural construct noun with third-person masculine plural suffix, meaning "the settings/fillings belonging to them," referring back to the stones.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with ve-ha-Tur ha-re.vi.'i ("and the fourth row"), establishing the subject before listing three stone names in apposition: tarshish, shoham, and ve-yashpheh — the last joined by the conjunction ve ("and"), while the first two stand side by side without a conjunction between them. This asyndetic listing pattern (no "and" between the first two names) is typical of enumerated items in construct-style lists.

The final clause, mu.sa.Bot mish.be.Tzot za.Hav be.mi.lu.'o.Tam, describes how the stones are physically held: the passive participle mu.sa.Bot ("surrounded") indicates that the stones are enclosed by something, specified as mish.be.Tzot za.Hav ("filigree settings of gold") — a construct chain meaning "settings made of gold." The final word, be.mi.lu.'o.Tam ("in their settings"), uses a suffixed construct noun to reiterate that these gold settings are specifically the receptacles into which the stones are inserted, with the third-person plural suffix pointing back to the stones themselves.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate identifies the three stones as chrysolithus, onychinus, and beryllus, while the BSB and RV1909 render the third stone as "jasper" rather than the Vulgate's "beryl." This means the term corresponding to Hebrew yashpheh (H3471) is translated as beryllus in the Vulgate but as "jasper" in the BSB and SBLIBRE, showing divergence in how translators identify this specific gemstone.

The LXX text supplied for this reference does not correspond to the Hebrew content of this verse; it describes garments and colored fabrics (hyacinth, purple, scarlet) rather than the fourth row of stones, indicating a difference in verse correspondence between the Greek and Hebrew textual traditions at this point in Exodus 39.