Exodus 26:32
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
And you shall hang it on four pillars of shittim wood overlaid with gold: their hooks shall be of gold, on the four sockets of silver.
American King James Version (AKJV)
And you shall hang it on four pillars of shittim wood overlaid with gold: their hooks shall be of gold, on the four sockets of silver.
American Standard Version (ASV)
And thou shalt hang it upon four pillars of acacia overlaid with gold; their hooks'shall be of gold, upon four sockets of silver.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
Hanging it by gold hooks from four pillars of wood, plated with gold and fixed in silver bases.
Webster's Revision
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.
World English Bible
You shall hang it on four pillars of acacia overlaid with gold; their hooks shall be of gold, on four sockets of silver.
English Revised Version (ERV)
and thou shalt hang it upon four pillars of acacia overlaid with gold, their hooks shall be of gold, upon four sockets of silver.
Clarke's Exodus 26:32 Bible Commentary
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.