Numbers 4:8

וּפָרְשׂוּ עֲלֵיהֶם בֶּגֶד תּוֹלַעַת שָׁנִי וְכִסּוּ אֹתוֹ בְּמִכְסֵה עוֹר תָּחַשׁ וְשָׂמוּ אֶת־בַּדָּֽיו׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וּפָרְשׂ֣וּ עֲלֵיהֶ֗ם בֶּ֚גֶד תּוֹלַ֣עַת שָׁנִ֔י וְכִסּ֣וּ אֹת֔וֹ בְּמִכְסֵ֖ה ע֣וֹר תָּ֑חַשׁ וְשָׂמ֖וּ אֶת־בַּדָּֽיו׃

Greek (Septuagint)

καὶ ἐπιβαλοῦσιν ἐπ’ αὐτὴν ἱμάτιον κόκκινον, καὶ καλύψουσιν αὐτὴν καλύμματι δερματίνῳ ὑακινθίνῳ, καὶ διεμβαλοῦσιν δι’ αὐτῆς τοὺς ἀναφορεῖς.

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

Latin (Vulgate)

extendentque desuper pallium coccineum, quod rursum operient velamento janthinarum pellium, et inducent vectes.

Spanish

Extenderán sobre ellos una tela carmesí, la cubrirán con una cubierta de piel de tejón, y colocarán sus varas.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Y extenderán sobre ella el paño de carmesí colorado, y lo cubrirán con la cubierta de pieles de tejones; y le pondrán sus varas.

English

And they shall spread a scarlet cloth over them, cover them with fine leather, and insert the poles.

✦ What the text says

Summary

The verse describes a three-step procedure for covering sacred objects during transport: spreading a scarlet cloth over them, covering that with a skin covering, and inserting carrying poles. The three actions are expressed as a chain of sequential verbs describing an ordered ritual action.

Key words

fareSu ("they will spread out", H6566) — qal sequential perfect; opens the chain of actions, marking the first step in the sequence.
Beged ("a covering of", H899B) — construct noun, linked to toLa'at shaNi ("scarlet stuff of scarlet", H8438B/H8144); together they specify the material and color of the first layer.
khiSu ("they will cover", H3680) — piel (intensive) stem, sequential perfect; the intensive form marks a thorough or complete covering action, the second step.
mikSeh 'or Tachash ("a covering of skin of dolphin/tachash", H4372/H5785/H8476) — a construct chain naming the material of the outer covering; Tachash designates a specific animal whose identity is not further specified in the text.
saMu ("they will put in", H7760H) — qal sequential perfect, third and final step, referring to the insertion of the baDav ("poles", H905G) with the 3rd person suffix "its."

What the text says

The verse is built on three verbs in sequential perfect form, joined by the narrative vav (H9001): fareSu ("they will spread"), khiSu ("they will cover"), and saMu ("they will put in"). This chain marks a fixed sequence of actions rather than simultaneous events — first the scarlet cloth is spread, then the skin covering is placed over it, and only then are the poles inserted. Each layer is described through a construct-noun phrase (Beged toLa'at shaNi, mikSeh 'or Tachash), a grammatical structure in Hebrew where the first noun is defined by the second, producing tight phrases like "covering-of scarlet-stuff-of scarlet" and "covering-of skin-of tachash." The direct object marker 'et (H853) appears twice, marking 'oto ("it," referring to the object being covered) and baDav ("its poles") as the grammatical objects of the covering and placing actions.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew names the covering material as 'or Tachash ("skin of tachash", H5785/H8476), an animal term. The LXX instead renders this phrase with a color term, καλύμματι δερματίνῳ ὑακινθίνῳ ("a skin covering, hyacinth-colored"), and the Vulgate similarly gives "velamento janthinarum pellium" ("a covering of violet-colored skins"). Both LXX and Vulgate interpret the covering by color rather than by the specific animal named in the Hebrew text.

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