Exodus 39:18

וְאֵת שְׁתֵּי קְצוֹת שְׁתֵּי הָֽעֲבֹתֹת נָתְנוּ עַל־שְׁתֵּי הַֽמִּשְׁבְּצֹת וַֽיִּתְּנֻם עַל־כִּתְפֹת הָאֵפֹד אֶל־מוּל פָּנָֽיו׃

Hebrew interlinear

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The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וְאֵ֨ת שְׁתֵּ֤י קְצוֹת֙ שְׁתֵּ֣י הָֽעֲבֹתֹ֔ת נָתְנ֖וּ עַל־שְׁתֵּ֣י הַֽמִּשְׁבְּצֹ֑ת וַֽיִּתְּנֻ֛ם עַל־כִּתְפֹ֥ת הָאֵפֹ֖ד אֶל־מ֥וּל פָּנָֽיו׃

Greek (Septuagint)

καὶ τὴν τράπεζαν τῆς προθέσεως καὶ πάντα τὰ αὐτῆς σκεύη καὶ τοὺς ἄρτους τοὺς προκειμένους,

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Hæc et ante et retro ita conveniebant sibi, ut superhumerale et rationale mutuo necterentur,

Spanish

Los otros dos extremos de las cadenas los sujetaron a los dos engastes, y los fijaron a la parte delantera de los tirantes del efod.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Y fijaron los dos cabos de las dos trenzas en los dos engastes, que pusieron sobre las hombreras del ephod, en la parte delantera de él.

English

and they fastened the other ends of the two chains to the two filigree settings, attaching them to the shoulder pieces of the ephod at the front.

What the text says

Summary

The verse describes the second stage of attaching the gold cords to the high priest's ephod: the two loose ends of the twisted cords are fixed into two filigree settings, and these settings are then fastened to the shoulder-pieces of the ephod, on its front side.

Key words

  • qetzot ("ends of", H7098) — feminine plural construct, indicating the two extremities of the cords being joined to something else.
  • avotot ("cords", H5688) — feminine plural noun with the definite article ha (H9009), referring back to the twisted chains already mentioned in the preceding narrative.
  • natnu ("they put", H5414H) — qal perfect, 3rd person plural, marking a completed action: the ends were placed/fixed into the settings.
  • mishbetzot ("filigree settings", H4865) — feminine plural noun, the metal mountings into which the cord-ends are inserted.
  • vayyittenum ("and they put them", H5414H + H9038) — qal narrative form with 3rd person masculine plural suffix "them," continuing the story with a second act of placement, now onto the ephod's shoulder-pieces.

What the text says

The sentence is built on two parallel verbs from the same root natan ("to put/give", H5414H): first natnu ("they put") describes fixing the qetzot ("ends") of the avotot ("cords") into the mishbetzot ("settings"), and second vayyittenum ("and they put them"), introduced by the narrative vav (H9001), describes a subsequent action — placing those same settings onto the kitfot ("shoulder-pieces", H3802 construct) of the efod ("ephod", H0646). The repetition of the construct pair shtei ("two of", H8147) three times in the verse (for the ends, the cords, and the settings) emphasizes the doubled, symmetrical construction of the assembly — two cords, two ends, two settings, two shoulder-pieces. The closing phrase el-mul panav ("to the front of its face") uses mul ("front of", H4136) in construct with panav ("its face", H6440G plus possessive suffix H9023) to specify that the settings were attached to the front side of the ephod's shoulder-pieces, not the back.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew (TAHOT) describes the placement of cord-ends into settings and their attachment to the ephod's front shoulder-pieces. The LXX text supplied here corresponds instead to a passage about the table of the presence and its vessels and the bread set upon it, showing no lexical overlap with the Hebrew verse. Similarly, the Vulgate text supplied describes the mutual fastening of the superhumerale ("ephod") and rationale ("breastpiece") front and back, a related but distinct construction detail. Both the LXX and Vulgate texts given align with different verses in their respective versification systems rather than offering a direct rendering of this Hebrew verse.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.