Numbers 4:25

Summary

The verse lists items the Gershonite Levites are to carry: the curtain-panels of the tabernacle, the tent of meeting with its covering and the covering of tachash skin above it, and the screen for the entrance of the tent of meeting. The sentence continues a sequence of verbs describing the disassembly and transport duties assigned earlier in the chapter.

Key words

• Na.se.'U ("they will carry", H5375H) — Qal sequential perfect, 3rd person plural; continues a chain of prior verbs describing the Levites' ongoing task rather than a single isolated action.
• ye.ri.'Ot ("curtains of", H3407) — feminine plural construct noun, grammatically bound to ha.mish.Kan ("the tabernacle"), indicating these are the fabric panels belonging to the structure, not the structure itself.
• mikh.Se.hu ("its covering", H4372 + suffix) — masculine singular construct noun with a 3rd person masculine singular pronominal suffix ("his/its"), referring back to ohel mo'ed ("tent of meeting").
• Ta.chash ("dolphin/tachash", H8476) — masculine singular noun naming the material of a second covering; the term's precise referent (an animal or a type of hide) is debated in the underlying data, as reflected in how it is rendered across versions.
• Ma.'e.la ("above", H4605) — combined with the prefixed prepositions mi- ("from") and le- ("to") and a directional he, forming the compound expression "from above," specifying the covering's position relative to the tent.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a chain of construct phrases governed by the verb Na.se.'U ("they will carry"), each introduced or linked by the object marker 'et (H0853) and the conjunction ve- ("and"). The items carried are: (1) yeri'ot ha-mishkan, "the curtains of the tabernacle"; (2) ohel mo'ed, "the tent of meeting," together with mikhsehu, "its covering"; (3) mikhseh ha-tachash, "the covering of the tachash," qualified by the relative clause 'asher 'alav mi-le-ma'lah, "which is on it from above"; and (4) masakh petach ohel mo'ed, "the screen of the entrance of the tent of meeting." The repeated construct chains (X of Y) tightly link each covering or curtain to the structure it belongs to, producing a cumulative inventory rather than a single described object.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew Ta.chash (H8476) is rendered in the LXX as ὑακίνθινον ("hyacinth-colored") and in the Vulgate as "ianthinum" (violet-colored), both describing a color rather than an animal or hide, unlike the Hebrew noun itself. The Vulgate also restructures the list, pairing "tectum foederis" ("covering of the covenant") with a separate "operimentum aliud" ("another covering"), producing a division of coverings that does not directly mirror the Hebrew's single relative clause 'asher 'alav mi-le-ma'lah ("which is on it from above").