Exodus 39:32

Summary

Exodus 39:32 reports the completion of all the work for the tabernacle, called here "tent of meeting." It closes with a formulaic statement that the Israelites did everything exactly as Yehovah had commanded Moses.

Key words

• Te.khel ("it was finished", H3615) — qal narrative verb, feminine subject (agreeing with "the service"), marking the completion of the construction as a discrete narrative event.
• 'a.vo.Dat ("service/work of", H5656) — feminine singular construct noun, linking to "tabernacle" that follows; construct chains like this build the phrase "the service of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting" as one long genitive string.
• mish.Kan ("tabernacle of", H4908) — masculine singular construct, continuing the construct chain begun by 'a.vo.Dat.
• tzi.Vah ("he had commanded", H6680) — piel perfect, third person masculine singular; the piel stem here conveys an intensive/directive command, completed prior to the main narrative action.
• ken ("so", H3651) — adverb closing the sentence, creating a symmetrical structure with ka-khol 'asher ("according to all that") earlier in the verse.

What the text says

The verse opens with a narrative vav on Te.khel ("and it was finished"), a qal form whose feminine gender agrees with the feminine noun 'a.vo.Dat ("service/work"), the grammatical subject of the completion. This subject is expanded through a chain of four construct nouns — 'a.vo.Dat ("service of") governing mish.Kan ("tabernacle of"), which governs 'Ohel ("tent of"), which governs mo.'Ed ("meeting") — producing the single phrase "the service of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting." Construct chains of this length compress what in English requires multiple prepositional phrases into one uninterrupted noun sequence.

The second half of the verse shifts subject to be.Nei Yis.ra.'El ("the sons/people of Israel"), governed by another narrative-vav verb, ya.'a.Su ("they did", H6213). The comparison is built with ke-khol 'asher ("according to all that"), introducing a relative clause headed by 'a.Sher ("that/who") and the piel perfect tzi.Vah ("he had commanded"), whose completed aspect marks the command as prior to the Israelites' action. The direct object marker 'et precedes Mosheh, marking Moses as the recipient of Yehovah's command rather than its agent. The final clause, ken 'a.Su ("so they did"), repeats the root 'a.Su (H6213) from the earlier verb ya.'a.Su, creating an inclusio: command and execution are framed by the same verb root, formally underscoring correspondence between what was ordered and what was performed.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew, RV1909, BSB, and SBLIBRE all render the same content: completion of the tabernacle work and Israel's compliance with Yehovah's command to Moses. The VULCLEM text supplied here ("Et obtulerunt tabernaculum et tectum...") describes offerings of tabernacle components (rings, boards, bars, columns, bases) and does not correspond in content to the Hebrew of this verse; it appears to reflect a different verse or textual unit than the one analyzed.