Exodus 40:9

Summary

The verse instructs a sequence of ritual actions: taking the shemen ha-mishchah ("oil of anointing", H8081/H4888A), anointing the tabernacle and everything within it, consecrating it and its vessels, resulting in a state of holiness. The Hebrew presents this as a chain of four consecutive actions leading to a final state.

Key words

• la.kach.Ta ("you will take", H3947G) — qal sequential perfect, first link in the action chain, opening the ritual sequence.
• mish.Chah ("anointing", H4888A) — feminine singular noun in construct relation with shemen ("oil"), forming the phrase "oil of the anointing."
• ma.shach.Ta ("you will anoint", H4886) — qal sequential perfect; the base-stem verb for the physical act of applying oil.
• ki.dash.Ta ("you will consecrate", H6942G) — piel (intensive stem) sequential perfect; the intensive form marks a distinct, more formal ritual act than the simple anointing.
• Ko.desh ("a holy thing", H6944G) — masculine singular noun functioning as predicate, naming the resulting condition rather than describing an action.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a chain of four sequential perfect verbs (la.kach.Ta, ma.shach.Ta, ki.dash.Ta, Ha.yah), each introduced by the narrative vav (H9001). This grammatical structure presents the actions as one continuous, ordered procedure rather than isolated commands: take → anoint → consecrate → [it] will be. The shift from the qal stem in ma.shach.Ta ("anoint") to the piel stem in ki.dash.Ta ("consecrate") marks a grammatical distinction between the physical act of applying oil and a more intensive act of setting apart — a distinction visible in the Hebrew stem system but not necessarily in translation, where both may appear as ordinary transitive verbs.

The object markers 'et (H0853) appear repeatedly (positions 3, 9, 13, 20, 23) without independent translation; they mark grammatically that "the oil," "the tabernacle," "all that is in it," "it," and "all its vessels" are each direct objects of their respective verbs, clarifying which nouns receive the action at each step. The final clause, ve.Ha.yah Ko.desh ("and it will be a holy thing"), uses the verb hayah ("to be", H1961) with a bare predicate noun qodesh, stating a resulting condition rather than another action — the sentence moves from procedure to outcome.

Differences between versions

The LXX text supplied diverges substantially from the Hebrew: it mentions only ἁγιάσεις τὸ θυσιαστήριον ("you shall sanctify the altar") and ἅγιον τῶν ἁγίων ("holy of holies"), omitting the oil, the anointing verb, the tabernacle, and the vessels found in the Hebrew. The Vulgate preserves the oil and anointing (unctionis oleo unges) and mentions the tabernacle "with its vessels" (cum vasis suis) in one combined phrase, whereas the Hebrew treats "all that is in it" (v. 15-16) and "all its vessels" as two separate objects under two separate verbs (ma.shach.Ta and ki.dash.Ta). The Vulgate's closing purpose clause ut sanctificentur ("so that they may be sanctified") differs from the Hebrew's stative result clause ve.Ha.yah Ko.desh ("and it will be holy"), shifting from a stated outcome to an expressed purpose.