Numbers 4:12

וְלָקְחוּ אֶת־כָּל־כְּלֵי הַשָּׁרֵת אֲשֶׁר יְשָֽׁרְתוּ־בָם בַּקֹּדֶשׁ וְנָֽתְנוּ אֶל־בֶּגֶד תְּכֵלֶת וְכִסּוּ אוֹתָם בְּמִכְסֵה עוֹר תָּחַשׁ וְנָתְנוּ עַל־הַמּֽוֹט׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וְלָקְחוּ֩ אֶת־כָּל־כְּלֵ֨י הַשָּׁרֵ֜ת אֲשֶׁ֧ר יְשָֽׁרְתוּ־בָ֣ם בַּקֹּ֗דֶשׁ וְנָֽתְנוּ֙ אֶל־בֶּ֣גֶד תְּכֵ֔לֶת וְכִסּ֣וּ אוֹתָ֔ם בְּמִכְסֵ֖ה ע֣וֹר תָּ֑חַשׁ וְנָתְנ֖וּ עַל־הַמּֽוֹט׃

Greek (Septuagint)

καὶ πάντα τὰ σκεύη τὰ λειτουργικὰ ὅσα ὅσα λειτουργοῦσιν ἐν αὐτοῖς ἐν τοῖς ἁγίοις, καὶ ἐμβαλοῦσιν εἰς ἱμάτιον ὑακίνθινον, καὶ καλύψουσιν αὐτὰ καλύμματι δερματίνῳ ὑακινθίνῳ, καὶ ἐπιθήσουσιν ἐπὶ ἀναφορεῖς.

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Omnia vasa, quibus ministratur in sanctuario, involvent hyacinthino pallio, et extendent desuper operimentum janthinarum pellium, inducentque vectes.

Spanish

“Tomarán todos los utensilios con los que sirven en el santuario, los pondrán en una tela azul, los cubrirán con una funda de piel de tejón y los colocarán sobre las parihuelas.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Y tomarán todos los vasos del servicio, de que hacen uso en el santuario, y los pondrán en un paño cárdeno, y los cubrirán con una cubierta de pieles de tejones, y los colocarán sobre unas parihuelas.

English

They are to take all the utensils for serving in the sanctuary, place them in a blue cloth, cover them with fine leather, and put them on the carrying frame.

✦ What the text says

Summary

Numbers 4:12 instructs the Kohathites to gather all the utensils used for service in the sanctuary, wrap them in a blue/violet cloth, cover them with a skin covering, and place them on a carrying frame for transport.

Key words

lakechu ("they will take", H3947G) — qal sequential perfect; continues the chain of duties begun in the preceding verses, marking this as the next action in a fixed procedural sequence.
keley ha-sharet (keley, "articles of", H3627 + ha-sharet, "the service", H8335) — construct chain meaning "vessels/articles of service," a technical designation for the sanctuary's functional implements.
yesharetu ("they will serve", H8334) — piel imperfect, denoting the ongoing or repeated ministerial use of these objects "in them" (va-ham) within the holy place.
beged tekhelet (beged, "covering of", H0899B construct + tekhelet, "violet stuff", H8504) — construct pair specifying the first wrapping material, a textile dyed with the tekhelet color.
or tachash (or, "skin of", H5785 construct + tachash, H8476) — construct pair naming the material of the outer covering; the Hebrew noun tachash is glossed "dolphin" in this dataset, though its precise referent is debated across traditions.

What the text says

The verse is built as a chain of sequential perfect verbs (lakechu, natenu, khisu, natenu) joined by the narrative ve- ("and"), producing a stepwise procedural list: take → wrap in blue cloth → cover with skin → place on frame. Each verb takes a direct object marked by 'et or 'otam ("them"), keeping the grammatical focus on the sacred vessels throughout. The relative clause 'asher yesharetu-vam ba-qodesh ("which they serve with them in the holy place") uses the piel yesharetu to describe the vessels' ongoing liturgical function, distinguishing "vessels of service" as items actively used for ministry rather than merely stored objects. The construct chains (keley ha-sharet, beged tekhelet, mikhseh or tachash) compress descriptive noun-pairs into tight phrases, a feature not always visible when translations render them as adjective + noun (e.g., "blue cloth," "leather covering").

Differences between versions

The Hebrew or tachash ("skin of tachash") is rendered in the LXX as καλύμματι δερματίνῳ ὑακινθίνῳ, "a leather covering, hyacinth-colored" — describing the covering by color rather than by animal source. The Vulgate similarly gives "operimentum janthinarum pellium," "a covering of violet-colored skins," again omitting a specific animal term. The Spanish RV1909 renders tachash as "tejones" (badgers), differing from the "dolphin" gloss given for the Hebrew term here. Additionally, the LXX text as provided opens directly with the list of objects (καὶ πάντα τὰ σκεύη...) without an explicit verb corresponding to lakechu ("they will take"), where the Hebrew states the taking action explicitly at the start of the verse.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.