Exodus 39:9

Summary

The verse describes the physical construction of the choshen ("breastpiece", H2833): it was made square, folded double, measuring one span in length and one span in width, also folded double. The sentence reports a finished physical object through a chain of stative/passive descriptions.

Key words

• ra.Vu.a' ("square", H7251) — qal passive participle, masculine singular, describing the shape of the object without naming the agent who made it square.
• ka.Ful ("folded double", H3717) — qal passive participle, appearing twice (positions 3 and 15), framing the verse and describing the doubled construction both at the start and end.
• ha.Yah ("it was", H1961) — qal perfect, third person masculine, a completed-action verb that establishes the state of being square as already accomplished.
• Cho.shen ("breastpiece", H2833) — masculine singular noun, the object under description, marked by the definite article ha ("the", H9009) and the object marker 'et (H0853).
• Ze.ret ("span", H2239) — feminine singular noun, used twice to give the measurements of length ('a.re.K, "length", H0753, construct form "length of") and breadth (ra.che.B, "breadth", H7341, construct form "breadth of"), each with the third-person suffix o ("its", H9023).

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with two participles, ra.Vu.a' ("square") and ka.Ful ("folded double"), before the finite verb ha.Yah ("it was") for the first, and before 'a.Su ("they made", H6213H) for the object itself. This front-loading of descriptive participles is a feature the English and Spanish translations render as adjectives following the noun ("square," "doubled"), but in the Hebrew word order the qualities precede the naming of the object (ha.Chosen, "the breastpiece"). The verse then gives measurements using construct chains: Ze.ret 'a.re.K-o ("a span [is] the length of it") and ve.Ze.ret ra.che.B-o ("and a span [is] the breadth of it"), each construct pairing a measurement noun with a suffixed noun for length or breadth. The final word ka.Ful ("folded double") repeats the opening participle, forming a frame around the measurement clause — the object is stated as doubled both before and after its dimensions are given.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (quadrangulum, duplex, mensuræ palmi, "four-cornered, double, of a palm's measure") and the Spanish/English translations closely follow the Hebrew structure of square, doubled, span by span. The Greek text supplied here (LXXSWETE) does not correspond to this verse's content — it describes bases of a gate and pegs of the tabernacle courtyard, so no direct comparison of the Septuagint's rendering of ra.Vu.a', ka.Ful, or Ze.ret can be made from the data given.