Exodus 39:31

Summary

The verse describes the attachment of a cord of violet material to a plate or ornament, so that it could be mounted above the turban, in fulfillment of what Yehovah had commanded Moses. It closes a section of the tabernacle construction narrative with a formula of compliance.

Key words

• yitnu ("they put/gave", H5414) — qal narrative verb, 3rd person masculine plural; continues the sequential "and then" narrative chain describing the craftsmen's actions.
• petil ("cord of", H6616) — masculine singular noun in construct state, meaning it is grammatically bound to the following word tekhelet, forming "a cord of violet [material]."
• tekhelet ("violet stuff", H8504) — feminine singular noun naming the dyed material; here it specifies what the cord is made of.
• mitznefet ("turban", H4701) — feminine singular noun, the headgear to which the cord-and-plate assembly is fastened "from above" (mi-le-ma'la, H4605 + directional he).
• tzivvah ("he had commanded", H6680) — piel perfect, 3rd masculine singular; the piel stem intensifies the verb "to command," and the perfect aspect marks the command as a completed prior act, setting up the closing comparative clause ka'asher ("as", H0834D).

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with the narrative vav attached to yitnu, continuing a chain of similar verbs used throughout this chapter to describe the sequential fabrication of priestly garments. The object placed is petil tekhelet, a construct phrase literally "a cord of violet-stuff," followed by an infinitive clause latet ("to put/to give", H5414 in infinitive form) explaining the purpose: to fasten it al ha-mitznefet ("on the turban"). The phrase mi-le-ma'la combines the preposition min ("from"), the noun ma'la ("above"), and a directional he suffix, producing a spatial sense of "from above / upward," describing the cord's position relative to the turban.

The final clause, ka'asher tzivvah Yehovah et-Moshe, is a standard compliance formula recurring across the tabernacle-construction account. The piel perfect tzivvah marks the divine command as a completed, prior event, and the direct object marker et (H0853, untranslated) introduces Moshe as the recipient of that command. Grammatically, the verse subordinates the entire action (attaching the cord) to this prior command, framing the craftsmen's work as an execution of an already-given instruction rather than an independent decision.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate text supplied (VULCLEM) does not correspond to this Hebrew verse; it reads "Perfectum est igitur omne opus tabernaculi..." ("Thus all the work of the tabernacle... was finished"), which matches content associated with a different verse in the chapter's summary section, not the cord-and-turban instruction found in the Hebrew, RV1909, BSB, or SBLIBRE texts. Among the other versions, RV1909, BSB, and SBLIBRE agree closely with the Hebrew in describing the blue/violet cord fastened above the turban "as the LORD/Yehovah commanded Moses."