Exodus 39:30

Summary

Exodus 39:30 describes the making of a gold plate for the holy crown (or "diadem") and its engraved inscription. The Hebrew states that the plate was made of zahav ("gold", H2091) tahor ("pure", H2889), and that an inscription reading qodesh ("holiness", H6944) la-Yehovah ("to Yehovah", H3068) was engraved on it in the manner of a seal.

Key words

• tzitz ("plate of", H6731) — masculine singular construct noun, linking this item to the following word as "plate of [the crown]."
• nezer-ha-qodesh ("crown of the holiness", H5145/H6944) — construct chain with a definite article on the second noun, producing "the crown of holiness," i.e., the crown is qualified by qodesh.
• va-yikhtevu ("and they inscribed", H3789) — qal narrative verb, third person masculine plural, continuing the sequence of actions begun with va-ya'asu ("and they made", H6213).
• pituchei chotam ("engravings of a seal", H6603/H2368) — construct noun followed by an absolute noun, describing the manner of the inscription: engraving work like that of a seal.
• qodesh la-Yehovah ("holiness to Yehovah", H6944/H3068) — the inscribed text itself, a noun followed by a prepositional phrase with la ("to", H9005) attached to the divine name.

What the text says

The verse is built on two narrative verbs joined by the vav conjunctive (H9001): va-ya'asu ("and they made") and va-yikhtevu ("and they inscribed"), marking two sequential actions — fabrication of the plate, then engraving of its text. The object of the first verb is introduced by the untranslated marker 'et (H0853) and consists of a chain of construct nouns: tzitz nezer-ha-qodesh, literally "plate of the crown of the holiness," describing the object by successive genitive-like attachments rather than by adjectives. The material description zahav tahor ("pure gold") follows without a conjunction, functioning as an appositional description of the tzitz.

The second clause shifts to the engraving. The preposition 'alav ("on it", H5921 + suffix H9033) specifies the surface receiving the inscription. The phrase mikhtav pituchei chotam uses two stacked construct forms — "inscription of the engravings of a seal" — to describe the technique of engraving, comparing it to seal-cutting rather than to writing with ink. The inscribed content itself, qodesh la-Yehovah, is a short nominal phrase with no verb, functioning as a label or title rather than a full sentence.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate text supplied here corresponds to a different part of the crown-making narrative (mention of a mitra and hyacinth cord) and does not parallel the Hebrew of this verse, so no word-level comparison is possible from the data given. The Hebrew nezer-ha-qodesh ("crown of the holiness") is rendered by BSB as "the holy crown" and by SBLIBRE as "sagrado distintivo" ("sacred emblem"), both shifting the construct-genitive structure into an adjectival one. The inscription qodesh la-Yehovah appears as "HOLY TO THE LORD" (BSB) and "CONSAGRADO A YEHOVÁ" (SBLIBRE), differing in whether qodesh is rendered as an adjective ("holy") or a participial form ("consecrated").