Exodus 40:20

Summary

The verse narrates a sequence of three actions performed by an unnamed "he" (Moses, understood from context): placing the edut ("testimony") inside the aron ("ark"), fitting the baddim ("poles") onto the ark, and setting the kapporet ("atonement cover") on top of the ark. The final phrase specifies that the cover was placed "from above," i.e., on the ark's upper surface.

Key words

• yiqqach ("he took", H3947G) — qal narrative form (vav-consecutive), continuing the story line as "and then he took."
• edut ("testimony", H5715) — feminine singular noun, the object placed inside the ark; marked by the untranslated direct object marker 'et (H0853).
• aron ("ark", H0727) — masculine singular noun, repeated three times (verses 20, 22, 26), each time with the definite article ha (H9009), indicating the same specific object already known to the reader.
• kapporet ("atonement cover", H3727) — feminine singular noun, the object set atop the ark in the final clause.
• mi-le-ma'lah ("from above", H9006 + H9005 + H4605 + H9011) — a compound of two prepositions plus the noun "above" and a directional he suffix, intensifying the sense of placement "on top."

What the text says

The verse is built as a chain of three narrative (vav-consecutive) verbs — yiqqach, yitten, yasem, yitten again — each introducing a discrete physical action performed on the ark. This verb form in Biblical Hebrew narrative typically signals sequential, consecutive events: first the testimony is taken and placed inside the ark, then the poles are set upon it, then the cover is placed on top. The repeated use of 'et before each object (ha-edut, ha-baddim, ha-kapporet) marks each as a definite direct object of its verb, a grammatical marker with no independent translation value.

The triple repetition of ha-aron ("the ark") with the definite article, rather than a pronoun ("it"), keeps the ark explicitly named at each step, which in Hebrew narrative style reinforces spatial precision — the testimony goes into the ark ('el, "into"), while the poles and the cover go 'al, "on/upon" the ark, marking a difference in preposition between interior and exterior placement. The closing phrase mi-le-ma'lah stacks two prepositions with the noun "above" and a directional suffix, producing a heightened locative sense — placement specifically on the upper surface, distinguishing this final act from the two prior ones done "into" and "upon" more generally.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew text of this verse describes placing the testimony, poles, and cover on the ark. The Septuagint and Vulgate texts supplied for this verse instead describe the placement of a table in the tent of testimony on its north side, outside a veil — content that does not correspond to the Hebrew wording given here, reflecting a difference in verse arrangement between the Masoretic Hebrew and the Greek/Latin textual traditions of Exodus 40 at this point.