Exodus 26:28

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

The middle bar in the midst of the boards shall pass through from end to end.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

1 first appearance in the Hebrew Bible

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הַתִּיכֹ֖ן

tîykôwn

H8484

“the · middle”

Particle, Definite Article + Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute

Appears 11× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears here

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H8432

TWOT: 2498a

middle

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

9: words
8: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is הַתִּיכֹ֖ן middle H8484 — appearing just 11 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

First appearance in Scripture

This word makes its first canonical appearance in the Hebrew Bible here:

הַתִּיכֹ֖ן middle H8484

Shared distinctive vocabulary

הַתִּיכֹ֖ן middle H8484 occurs in 9 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

1 verb
5 nouns
1 adjective
2 prepositions

Verb forms

מַבְרִ֕חַ Hiphil · Participle Active

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

הַקָּצֶ֖ה end H7097 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 16 words from the Hebrew and 20 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Exodus 26:28 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וְהַבְּרִ֥יחַ הַתִּיכֹ֖ן בְּת֣וֹךְ הַקְּרָשִׁ֑ים מַבְרִ֕חַ מִן הַקָּצֶ֖ה אֶל הַקָּצֶֽה

The middle bar in the midst of the boards shall pass through from end to end.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Exodus 26:28 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ὁ μοχλός ὁ μέσος ἀνά μέσος ὁ στῦλος διαἱκνέομαι ἀπό ὁ εἷς κλίτος εἰς ὁ ἕτερος κλίτος

And let the bar in the middle between the posts go through from the one side to the other side.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וְעַבְּרָא מְצִיעָאָה בְּגוֹ דַפַּיָא מַעְבַר מִן סְיָפֵי לִסְיָפֵי:

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וְנַגְרָא מְצִיעָאָה בְּגוֹ לוּחַיָיא מְשַׁלְבִישׁ מִן סְיָיפֵי לִסְיָיפֵי מִן אִילָנָא דִנְצִיב אַבְרָהָם בִּבְאֵרָה דְשָׁבַע וְכַד עֲבָרוּ יִשְרָאֵל יַת יַמָּא קְטָעוּ מַלְאָכַיָא יַת אִילָנָא וְטַלְקוּהוּ לְיַמָא וַהֲוַת טָפֵי עַל אַנְפֵּי מַיָא וַהֲוָה מַלְאָכַיָא מַכְרִיז וַאֲמַר דֵּין הוּא אִילָנָא דִנְצִיב אַבְרָהָם בְּבֵירָא דְשָׁבַע וְצַלִּי תַמָּן בְּשׁוּם מֵימְרָא דַיְיָ וְנַסְבוֹהִי בְּנֵי יִשְרָאֵל וַעֲבָדוּ מִנֵיהּ נַגְרָא מְצִיעָאָה אוּרְכֵּיהּ שׁוּבְעִין אַמִּין וּפְרִישָׁן מִתְעַבְדָן בֵּיהּ דְּכַד הֲווֹ מוֹקְמִין יַת מַשְׁכְּנָא הֲוָה מִתְגַּלְגֵּל הֵי כְּעַכְנָא חֲזוֹר חֲזוֹר מִלְגֵיו לְלוּחֵי מַשְׁכְּנָא וְכַד הֲוָה מִתְפָּרֵק הֲוָה פַּשִׁיט הֵי כְּחוּטְרָא

And the middle bar in the midst of the boards passing from end to end shall be from the tree which Abraham planted in Beara of Sheba: for when Israel had crossed the sea, the angels cut down the tree and cast it into the sea, and it floated on the face of the waters. And an angel proclaimed, and said, This is the tree which Abraham planted in Beara of Sheba, and prayed there in the name of the Word of the Lord. And the sons of Israel shall take and make thereof the middle bar, seventy cubits in length, and with it shall wondrous things be done: for when they have reared up the tabernacle, it shall go round it like a serpent among the boards of the tabernacle and when they take it down, it shall become straight as a rod.

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Exodus 26:28 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Exo 26:28 And the middle bar in the midst of the boards shall reach from end to end.

Ver. 28. And the middle bar in the midst of the boards.] The fastening together of these boards thus with bars signified, saith an interpreter, the uniting of all the members together by one and the same Spirit in Christ: "from whom the whole body fitly joined together, maketh increase of the body, unto the edifying of itself in love." {Eph 4:16}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(28) In the midst of the boards.—Rather, midway in the boards—equi-distant, i.e., from the bottom and the top.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And thou shall rear up the tabernacle,.... When thus finished, and all the furniture belonging to it completed:

according to the fashion thereof, which was showed thee in the mount; this is the third time that this is observed to Moses in the account of the tabernacle; which shows how punctually God would have the pattern observed he had given him, and that all things might be particularly and exactly done according to it, see Heb 8:5.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

In the midst of the boards; not within the thickness of the boards, as the Jews conceive, but in the length of them; as appears,

1. Because this bar, as well as the rest, was gilded, Exo 26:29, which was frivolous if it were never seen

2. Because all the bars had rings made to receive and hold them up, Exo 26:29.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Keil & Delitzsch

C. F. Keil & F. Delitzsch

"And the middle bar in the midst of the boards (i.e., at an equal distance from both top and bottom) shall be fastening (מבריח) from one end to the other." As it thus expressly stated with reference to the middle bar, that it was to fasten, i.e., to reach along the walls from one end to the other, we necessarily conclude, with Rashi and others, that the other four bars on every side were not to reach the whole length of the walls, and may therefore suppose that they were only half as long as the middle one, so that there were only three rows of bars on each wall, the upper and lower being composed of two bars each.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Exodus, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 9 words (8 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is tîykôwn (“middle”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “middle” (tîykôwn) contribute to the verse as a whole?
The word “middle” first appears here in Scripture. What is being introduced at this debut?
Exodus 36:33 shares the word «middle» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
“end” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
The verb «מַבְרִ֕חַ» is Hiphil Participle Active. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

1 word makes its first canonical appearance in Scripture here.
These translations choose different wording for 9 words in this verse.
“end” occurs 2× in this single verse.
8 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 9 words in this verse.