translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: EXO

label: NET translator note

text: The word order in Hebrew thrusts the direct object to the front for particular emphasis. After the first couple of pieces of furniture are treated (chap. ), attention turns to the tabernacle itself.


text: This is for the adverbial accusative explaining how the dwelling place is to be made.


text: The construction is difficult in this line because of the word order. “Cherubim” is an adverbial accusative explaining how they were to make the curtains. And מַעֲשֵׂה חֹשֵׁב ( ma ’ aseh khoshev ) means literally “work of a designer”; it is in apposition to “cherubim.” The Hebrew participle means “designer” or “deviser” so that one could render this “of artistic designs in weaving” (S. R. Driver, Exodus , 280-81). B. Jacob says that it refers to “artistic weavers” ( Exodus , 789).


text: Heb “one” (so KJV).


text: Heb “twenty-eight cubits” long and “four cubits” wide.


text: This is the active participle, not the passive. It would normally be rendered “joining together.” The Bible uses the active because it has the result of the sewing in mind, namely, that every curtain accompanies another (U. Cassuto, Exodus , 348).


text: Heb “a woman to her sister,” this form of using nouns to express “one to another” is selected because “curtains” is a feminine noun (see GKC 448 §139. e ).


text: The phrase “the other” has been supplied.


text: Here “loops” has been supplied.


text: Heb “a woman to her sister.”


text: Heb “one”; KJV “it shall be one tabernacle”; NRSV “that the tabernacle may be one whole”; NLT “a single unit.”


text: Heb “you will make them”


text: Heb “one”


text: Literally “cubit.”


text: See the note on this phrase in Exod 25:5 .


text: There is debate whether the word הַקְּרָשִׁים ( haqqÿrashim ) means “boards” (KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB) or “frames” (NIV, NCV, NRSV, TEV) or “planks” (see Ezek 27:6 ) or “beams,” given the size of them. The literature on this includes M. Haran, “The Priestly Image of the Tabernacle,” HUCA 36 (1965): 192; B. A. Levine, “The Description of the Tabernacle Texts of the Pentateuch,” JAOS 85 (1965): 307-18; J. Morgenstern, “The Ark, the Ephod, and the Tent,” HUCA 17 (1942/43): 153-265; 18 (1943/44): 1-52.


text: “Wood” is an adverbial accusative.


text: The plural participle “standing” refers to how these items will be situated; they will be vertical rather than horizontal (U. Cassuto, Exodus , 354).


text: Heb “the frame.”


text: Or “being joined each to the other.”


text: Heb “on the south side southward.”


text: The clause is repeated to show the distributive sense; it literally says, “and two bases under the one frame for its two projections.”


text: Or “westward” (toward the sea).


text: Heb “they will be for the two corners.” This is the last clause of the verse, moved forward for clarity.


text: The noun is מִשְׁפָּט ( mishpat ), often translated “judgment” or “decision” in other contexts. In those settings it may reflect its basic idea of custom, which here would be reflected with a rendering of “prescribed norm” or “plan.”


text: Although translated “curtain” (traditionally “veil,” so ASV, NAB, NASB) this is a different word from the one used earlier of the tent curtains, so “special curtain” is used. The word פָרֹכֶת ( farokhet ) seems to be connected with a verb that means “to shut off” and was used with a shrine. This curtain would form a barrier in the approach to God (see S. R. Driver, Exodus , 289).


text: The verb is the third masculine singular form, but no subject is expressed. It could be translated “one will make” or as a passive. The verb means “to make,” but probably has the sense of embroidering both here and in v. 1 .


text: Heb “put it.”


text: This clause simply says “and their hooks gold,” but is taken as a circumstantial clause telling how the veil will be hung.


text: Heb “on four silver bases.”


text: The traditional expression is “within the veil,” literally “into the house (or area) of the (special) curtain.”


text: Or “the Holy of Holies.”


text: The word רֹקֵם ( roqem ) refers to someone who made cloth with colors. It is not certain, however, whether the colors were woven into the fabric on the loom or applied with a needle; so “embroiderer” should be understood as an approximation (cf. HALOT 1290-91 s.v. רקם ).


text: “will be” has been supplied.