Leviticus 24:6

Summary

The verse instructs that the bread previously described is to be arranged in two rows of six each, placed upon the pure table, positioned before Yehovah. The syntax emphasizes precise spatial arrangement (two rows, six per row) and ritual placement in the sacred space.

Key words

• sam.Ta ("you will place", H7760A) — qal sequential perfect, second person masculine; continues a prior instruction as part of a narrative chain of commands.
• she.Ta.yim ("two", H8147) — feminine dual cardinal number, agreeing with the feminine plural noun that follows it.
• ma.'a.ra.Khot ("rows", H4635) — feminine plural noun, the object being counted as "two."
• ma.'a.Ra.khet ("row", H4635) — same root as above but feminine singular with definite article ha ("the", H9009), used distributively to mean "each row."
• ta.Hor ("pure", H2889) — masculine singular adjective modifying shulchan ("table", H7979), describing the table's ritual status rather than its material.

What the text says

The clause opens with the narrative vav (ve, H9001) attached to sam.Ta, linking this instruction to the preceding verses as a continuous sequence of commands. The verb takes a direct object marked by 'oTam (H0853 + H9038, "them"), referring back to items introduced earlier in the passage though not repeated here by name.

The numerical structure is notable: sheTayim ma'arakhot ("two rows") uses the dual form of "two" agreeing with the feminine plural "rows," while shesh hamma'arakhet ("six, the row") repeats the singular form of the same root with a definite article, functioning distributively — literally "six per each row" rather than a separately counted total of twelve. This construction relies on juxtaposition rather than an explicit preposition to convey distribution.

The final phrase, 'al hashulchan hattahor lifnei Yehovah ("on the pure table before Yehovah"), stacks two prepositional phrases: location ("on the table") and rank/nearness ("before Yehovah"). The word lifnei is built from the construct plural noun peney ("face of", H6440G) plus the preposition li (H9005), so the literal sense is "to the face of Yehovah," a construction the English "before" and Spanish "delante de" both smooth into a simple locative sense.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew adjective tahor ("pure", H2889) describes the table's ritual status without naming a material. The BSB renders this as "table of pure gold," and the SBLIBRE similarly adds "oro puro" ("pure gold"), introducing a material specification not present in the Hebrew adjective itself. The Vulgate's "mensam purissimam" preserves the purity sense without adding gold. The LXX's Greek text as given is fragmentary but includes "θέματα" ("things laid out") for what the Hebrew calls "rows," and mentions "ἄρτους" ("loaves") explicitly, making the referent of 'oTam ("them") explicit as bread, whereas the Hebrew of this verse alone does not name the object being arranged.