Numbers 15:38

Summary

This verse opens a divine instruction to Moses, commanding him to relay to the Israelites a permanent statute: they are to make fringes on the corners of their garments, and to place a blue cord on each fringe. The command uses a chain of sequential verbs describing an ongoing, repeated action across generations.

Key words

• da.Ber ("speak", H1696G) — piel imperative, an intensive command form directing Moses to transmit speech, not merely to converse.
• tzi.Tzit ("tassel", H6734) — feminine singular noun, appearing twice; first as the object to be made (v.38a), then in construct form tzi.Tzit ("tassel of", v.38b) governing "the corner."
• kan.Fei ("corners of", H3671) — construct dual form, "the two edges/corners," here linked to vig.dei.hem ("their garments," H0899B) to specify where the tassels attach.
• pe.Til ("cord of", H6616) — construct singular noun, joined directly to te.Khe.let ("violet stuff", H8504) to form "a cord of blue-violet material."
• do.ro.Ta.m ("their generations", H1755) — plural construct with pronominal suffix, marking the durational scope ("for their generations") of the statute.

What the text says

The verse is built as a chain of four verbs in sequence: the piel imperative da.Ber ("speak") is followed by three qal sequential perfects — 'a.mar.Ta ("you will say"), 'a.Su ("they will make"), and Na.te.Nu ("they will put"). This verb chain is a standard Hebrew narrative-legal structure: Moses is told to speak, then to say (the content follows), then the Israelites will make the tassels, then they will put the cord on them. Each verb in the sequence depends grammatically on the imperative that opens the verse, producing a single continuous instruction rather than four separate commands.

The phrase tzi.Tzit recurs with different grammatical roles: first as an absolute noun (the object created), then in construct form governing ha.Ka.Naf ("the corner", H3671 with article H9009), so that the second occurrence means "the tassel of the corner" rather than simply "tassel." The construct chain pe.Til te.Khe.let ("a cord of violet-stuff") functions as a genitive-like phrase specifying the material and color of the cord, without a separate adjective for "blue."

Differences between versions

The Hebrew ve.Na.te.Nu ("and they will put", third person plural) is rendered in the LXX as ἐπιθήσετε, a second-person plural future ("you shall put"), shifting the grammatical subject from the Israelites in general (third person) to a direct address (second person). The Vulgate instead uses the participle ponentes ("placing"), which subordinates this action to the main clause ut faciant ("that they make"), differing from the Hebrew's sequence of independent perfect verbs. The Hebrew tzi.Tzit ("tassel") appears in the LXX as κράσπεδα ("fringes/borders") and in the Vulgate as fimbrias ("fringes"), both broader terms than the specific Hebrew noun.