Exodus 39:5
וְחֵשֶׁב אֲפֻדָּתוֹ אֲשֶׁר עָלָיו מִמֶּנּוּ הוּא כְּמַעֲשֵׂהוּ זָהָב תְּכֵלֶת וְאַרְגָּמָן וְתוֹלַעַת שָׁנִי וְשֵׁשׁ מָשְׁזָר כַּאֲשֶׁר צִוָּה יְהוָה אֶת־מֹשֶֽׁה׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וְחֵ֨שֶׁב אֲפֻדָּת֜וֹ אֲשֶׁ֣ר עָלָ֗יו מִמֶּ֣נּוּ הוּא֮ כְּמַעֲשֵׂהוּ֒ זָהָ֗ב תְּכֵ֧לֶת וְאַרְגָּמָ֛ן וְתוֹלַ֥עַת שָׁנִ֖י וְשֵׁ֣שׁ מָשְׁזָ֑ר כַּאֲשֶׁ֛ר צִוָּ֥ה יְהוָ֖ה אֶת־מֹשֶֽׁה׃
ἑκατὸν κεφαλίδες εἰς τὰ ἑκατὸν τάλαντα, τάλαντον τῇ κεφαλίδι.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
et balteum ex eisdem coloribus, sicut præceperat Dominus Moysi.
El cinturón que iba sobre el efod formaba una sola pieza con él, y estaba hecho del mismo material: hilo de oro, y lino fino torcido de color azul, púrpura y escarlata, tal como Yehová se lo había ordenado a Moisés.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y el cinto del ephod que estaba sobre él, era de lo mismo, conforme á su obra; de oro, jacinto, y púrpura, y carmesí, y lino torcido; como Jehová lo había mandado á Moisés.
And the skillfully woven waistband of the ephod was of one piece with the ephod, of the same workmanship — with gold, with blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and with finely spun linen, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse describes the chesheb ("girdle/band", H2805) of the ephod, stating that it was made from the same material as the ephod itself and of the same workmanship, combining gold, violet, purple, and scarlet threads with twisted fine linen, in accordance with what Yehovah had commanded Moses.
Key words
- Chesheb ("girdle of", H2805) — masculine singular construct, naming the woven band attached to the ephod; its construct form links it directly to 'afudato ("its ephod").
- 'afudato ("ephod", H0642) — feminine singular construct plus 3ms suffix ("its ephod"), indicating the band belongs to a specific ephod already introduced in the narrative.
- mimennu hu' ("from it, it", H4480A + H1931) — the pronoun hu' emphasizes identity: the band is stated to be "from it," i.e., of the same piece/material as the ephod, not a separate attachment.
- ke-ma'asehu ("like its workmanship", H9004 + H4639G) — construct noun with suffix, comparing the band's craftsmanship to that of the ephod, reinforcing material and technical continuity.
- mashezar ("twisted", H7806) — hophal passive participle describing the fine linen (shesh, H8336B) as having undergone a twisting process, a technical detail about thread construction.
What the text says
The Hebrew sentence structure front-loads the subject, ve-chesheb 'afudato ("and the girdle of its ephod"), followed by a relative clause 'asher 'alav ("which was on it/him", H0834A + H5921A) that specifies which band is meant. The core assertion — mimennu hu' ke-ma'asehu — uses the independent pronoun hu' ("it", H1931) for emphasis, stressing that the band originates "from it" (the ephod) and matches "its workmanship" (ma'asehu, H4639G). This construction does not merely say the two items are similar; it asserts material and technical unity between the band and the ephod, a nuance that can be flattened in translation to simple phrases like "was of one piece" or "conforme á su obra."
The list that follows — zahav ("gold", H2091), tekhelet ("violet stuff", H8504), 'argaman ("purple", H0713), tola'at shani ("scarlet stuff of scarlet", H8438B + H8144), and shesh mashezar ("twisted fine linen", H8336B + H7806) — enumerates the raw materials without a verb, relying on syntactic apposition to the preceding statement about the band's composition. The final clause, ka'asher tzivvah Yehovah 'et-Mosheh ("just as Yehovah had commanded Moses", H0834D + H6680 + H3068G + H4872), uses the piel perfect tzivvah ("he had commanded", H6680) to mark completed prior action, framing the entire material description as compliance with an earlier directive.
Differences between versions
The Vulgate (et balteum ex eisdem coloribus, "and a belt of the same colors") condenses the Hebrew's detailed material list and the emphatic hu' construction into a brief phrase, omitting the explicit repetition of "workmanship." The Septuagint text provided (hekaton kephalides...) does not correspond to this verse's content and appears to reference a different passage (concerning "hundred clasps" and "talents"), so no direct comparison with the Hebrew of Exodus 39:5 can be made from the data given.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.