Exodus 39:43

Summary

Moses inspects all the completed work of the tabernacle and observes that it had been done exactly as Yehovah had commanded. In response, Moses pronounces a blessing over the workers.

Key words

• va-yar' ("and he saw", H7200G) — qal narrative verb; opens the sequence with Moses as the active subject of perception.
• ha-melakhah ("the work", H4399) — feminine singular noun with definite article, referring to the totality of construction described in the preceding chapters.
• hinneh ("there!", H2009) — interjection marking a moment of realization or vivid presentation within Moses' act of seeing.
• ka'asher tzivah Yehovah ("as Yehovah had commanded", H0834D + H6680 + H3068G) — relative clause with piel perfect verb, establishing the standard of comparison for the work's execution.
• va-yevarekh ("and he blessed", H1288) — piel narrative verb; the intensive stem underlies the act of blessing as Moses' formal response to the completed work.

What the text says

The verse divides into two narrative movements joined by the vav-consecutive chain typical of Biblical Hebrew storytelling. The first movement centers on va-yar' Mosheh et-kol-ha-melakhah ("and Moses saw all the work", H7200G/H4872/H4399) — a straightforward qal narrative verb introducing Moses as observer of "all the work," with kol (H3605) in construct state binding it grammatically to ha-melakhah.

The interjection hinneh (H2009) introduces a subordinate observation: what Moses saw was that asu otah ("they had done it", H6213A) — a qal perfect verb indicating completed action prior to or coinciding with Moses' observation. This clause is then reinforced by a second, near-identical clause: ka'asher tzivah Yehovah ken asu ("as Yehovah had commanded, so they had done"). The repetition of asu (H6213A) at both the beginning and end of this comparative structure creates a chiastic emphasis on correspondence between command and execution — the piel perfect tzivah (H6680) marks Yehovah's prior command as completed action, matched by the qal perfect asu marking the workers' completed execution.

The second movement shifts to Moses' response: va-yevarekh otam Mosheh ("and Moses blessed them", H1288/H4872). The piel stem of barakh carries an intensive or formal nuance, distinct from the simple qal verbs used earlier for seeing and doing.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (VULCLEM) compresses the double "as commanded... so they did" structure into a single phrase, cuncta vidit completa ("he saw all things completed"), omitting the explicit comparison to Yehovah's command that the Hebrew text states twice. The Hebrew's repetition of asu (H6213A) for emphasis is not reproduced in the Vulgate's rendering.