Exodus 40:16

Summary

The verse closes the account of the Tabernacle's construction with a summary formula: Moses acted in complete accordance with what Yehovah had commanded him. The Hebrew sentence uses a frame structure — "did" ... "so he did" — to underline exact compliance.

Key words

• ya'as ("he did", H6213A) — qal narrative verb opening the sentence; establishes Moses as the acting subject in the ongoing story sequence.
• kol ("all", H3605) — governs the relative clause that follows, marking totality of the command.
• 'asher ("that", H0834A) — relative particle introducing what was commanded, linking the totality (kol) to the specific content of Yehovah's instruction.
• tzivah ("he had commanded", H6680) — piel perfect, an intensive stem marking a completed, authoritative act of command by Yehovah, prior to Moses' action.
• 'asah ("he did", H6213A) — same root as word 2, in perfect aspect; its repetition at the end of the verse creates an inclusio around the clause of comparison.

What the text says

The verse is built as two matching halves joined by ken ("so", H3651C). The first half states that Moses acted (vayya'as Mosheh, using the narrative vav, word 1, which chains this clause to the preceding narrative). The second half, introduced by the comparative preposition ke ("according to", H9004) attached to kol ("all"), specifies the standard of that action: everything that Yehovah had commanded him (tzivah ... 'oto, using the direct object marker 'et with pronominal suffix, word 9-10, "him"). The sentence closes by restating the verb 'asah ("he did") after ken ("so"), which grammatically mirrors the opening verb ya'as from the same root (H6213A). This repetition of the same root at both ends of the sentence functions as a frame emphasizing that the action performed matches exactly the content commanded — the doing corresponds point for point to the command.

The verb tzivah ("he had commanded") is in the piel stem, an intensive form used elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible for authoritative directives, and appears in the perfect, marking the commanding as a completed act prior to Moses' compliance.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew text of this verse is a short summary clause ("Moses did according to all that Yehovah commanded him; so he did"), matched closely by the Spanish RV1909, BSB, and SBLIBRE renderings. The LXX (Swete) and Vulgate texts supplied here instead describe concrete construction actions — setting up the tent, placing tablets/bases, inserting bars, and erecting pillars — content that does not correspond to the Hebrew wording of this verse but reflects material found in surrounding verses of the chapter.