Exodus - 26:32



32 You shall hang it on four pillars of acacia overlaid with gold; their hooks shall be of gold, on four sockets of silver.

Verse In-Depth

Explanation and meaning of Exodus 26:32.

Differing Translations

Compare verses for better understanding.
And thou shalt hang it upon four pillars of shittim wood overlaid with gold: their hooks shall be of gold, upon the four sockets of silver.
And thou shalt hang it upon four pillars of acacia overlaid with gold; their hooks'shall be of gold, upon four sockets of silver.
And thou shalt hang it up before four pillars of setim wood, which themselves also shall be overlaid with gold, and shall have heads of gold, but sockets of silver.
And thou shalt attach it to four pillars of acacia-wood overlaid with gold, their hooks of gold; they shall be on four bases of silver.
and thou hast put it on four pillars of shittim wood, overlaid with gold, their pegs are of gold, on four sockets of silver.
Hanging it by gold hooks from four pillars of wood, plated with gold and fixed in silver bases.
And thou shalt hang it upon four pillars of acacia overlaid with gold, their hooks being of gold, upon four sockets of silver.
And you shall suspend it before four columns of setim wood, which themselves certainly shall be overlaid with gold, and have heads of gold, but bases of silver.
Et pones illud super quatuor columnas sittim obductas auro (un-cini earum aurei) super quatuor bases argenteas.

*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.


Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

Their hooks shall be of gold - וויהם vaveyhem, which we translate their hooks, is rendered κεφαλιδες, capitals, by the Septuagint, and capita by the Vulgate. As the word וו vav or vau, plural ווים vavim, occurs only in this book, Exodus 26:32, Exodus 26:37; Exodus 27:10, Exodus 27:11, Exodus 27:17; Exodus 36:36, Exodus 36:38; Exodus 38:10, Exodus 38:11, Exodus 38:12, Exodus 38:17, Exodus 38:19, Exodus 38:28; and is used in these places in reference to the same subject, it is very difficult to ascertain its precise meaning. Most commentators and lexicographers think that the ideal meaning of the word is to connect, attach, join to, hook; and that the letter ו vau has its name from its hooklike form, and its use as a particle in the Hebrew language, because it serves to connect the words and members of a sentence, and the sentences of a discourse together, and that therefore hook must be the obvious meaning of the word in all the above texts. Calmet thinks this reason of no weight, because the ו vau of the present Hebrew alphabet is widely dissimilar from the vau of the primitive Hebrew alphabet, as may be seen on the ancient shekels; on these the characters appear as in the word Jehovah, Exodus 28:36. This form bears no resemblance to a hook; nor does the Samaritan vau, which appears to have been copied from this ancient character.
Calmet therefore contends,
1. That if Moses does not mean the capitals of the pillars by the ווים eht vavim of the text, he mentions them nowhere; and it would be strange that while he describes the pillars, their sockets, bases, fillets, etc., etc., with so much exactness, as will appear on consulting the preceding places, that he should make no mention of the capitals; or that pillars, every way so correctly formed, should have been destitute of this very necessary ornament.
2. As Moses was commanded to make the hooks, ווים vavim, of the pillars and their fillets of silver, Exodus 27:10, Exodus 27:11, and the hooks, vavim, of the pillars of the veil of gold, Exodus 36:36; and as one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five shekels were employed in making these hooks, vavim, overlaying their chapiters, ראשיהם rasheyhem, their heads, and filleting them, Exodus 38:28; it is more reasonable to suppose that all this is spoken of the capitals of the pillars than of any kind of hooks, especially as hooks are mentioned under the word taches or clasps in other places. On the whole it appears much more reasonable to translate the original by capitals than by hooks.
After this verse the Samaritan Pentateuch introduces the ten first verses of Exodus 30, and this appears to be their proper place. Those ten verses are not repeated in the thirtieth chapter in the Samaritan, the chapter beginning with the 11th verse.

And thou shalt hang it upon four pillars of shittim [wood] overlaid with gold: their (k) hooks [shall be of] gold, upon the four sockets of silver.
(k) Some read "heads of the pillars".

And thou shalt hang it upon four pillars of shittim wood, overlaid with gold,.... For it was ten cubits long, and as many broad; and being of such a stiffness and thickness as it was, required so many pillars to support it: these pillars may signify the deity of Christ, which is the support of his human nature, and in which it has its personal subsistence, and gives all its actions and sufferings virtue and efficacy; and being of "shittim wood", which is incorruptible, may denote his eternity, and being covered with gold, his glory:
their hooks shall be of gold; which were upon the tops of the pillars on which the vail was hung: and the pillars were
upon the four sockets of silver; which were properly the pedestals or feet of the pillars; and these sockets, into which the pillars were let and placed, and the hooks the vail hung by, may hint to the union of the two natures in Christ, who is God and man in one person, God manifest in the flesh; see Song 5:15.

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