Numbers 3:26

Summary

Numbers 3:26 lists items assigned for care: the curtains of the courtyard, the screen at the courtyard's entrance (located near the tabernacle and altar, all around), and the ropes used for the entire service of these structures. The verse enumerates physical components of the sanctuary enclosure and their associated cords.

Key words

• kal'ei ("curtains of", H7050B) — masculine plural construct, opening a chain of construct forms that link each item to its location (the courtyard).
• chaTzer ("courtyard", H2691A) — common gender singular, appears twice, anchoring both the curtains and the screen to the same physical space.
• 'asher ("which", H0834A) — relative particle introducing a clause that specifies the location of the screen relative to the tabernacle and altar.
• sabiv ("all around", H5439G) — common gender singular, modifying the spatial description of the altar's surroundings.
• meitarav ("ropes of...its", H4340 + H9023) — masculine plural construct with 3ms suffix, referring to cords tied to the preceding structures, marked by the object particle 'et (H0853).

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built through a chain of construct phrases (kal'ei ha-chatzer, masakh petach ha-chatzer) joined by the conjunction ve ("and", H9002), each introduced or connected by the direct object marker 'et (H0853), showing these are objects being enumerated rather than the subject of an action verb — the verb governing this list appears earlier in the passage (v. 25), making v. 26 a continuation of that list.

The relative clause introduced by 'asher ("which", H0834A) describes the screen's position: it stands 'al ha-mishkan ("at the tabernacle", H5921A + H4908) and 'al ha-mizbeach sabiv ("at the altar, all around", H5921A + H4196 + H5439G). The repetition of the preposition 'al for both the tabernacle and altar coordinates two locations under a single spatial clause.

The final phrase, meitarav ("its ropes", H4340) followed by le-khol 'avodato ("for all its service", H9005 + H3605 + H5656H), uses construct chains with pronominal suffixes (H9023) to tie the ropes' function directly to the operational use of the courtyard structures already named.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the specific term for "ropes" (meitarav) more generally as τὰ κατάλοιπα πάντων τῶν ἔργων αὐτοῦ ("the remainder of all his works"), omitting the concrete image of cords found in the Hebrew. The Vulgate instead expands the list, adding funes tabernaculi et omnia utensilia eius ("the ropes of the tabernacle and all its utensils"), introducing "utensils" as a category not present in the Hebrew word-by-word data.