וַיְצַפֵּ֛הוּ זָהָ֥ב טָה֖וֹר מִבַּ֣יִת וּמִח֑וּץ וַיַּ֥עַשׂ ל֛וֹ זֵ֥ר זָהָ֖ב סָבִֽיב
He overlaid it with pure gold inside and outside, and made a molding of gold for it round about.
World English Bible · Public Domain
Exodus 37:2
Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex) Exodus 37:2 appears in the Hebrew Old Testament. The text above is from the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Each word links to its Strong’s number, a concise gloss, and parsing drawn from the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible morphology. Click any word for its full Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB) entry.
English Translation
He overlaid it with pure gold inside and outside, and made a molding of gold for it round about.
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Compare translations 3
The same verse in 3 English versions, stacked beneath the original-language interlinear above. Click any original word for its lexicon entry.
Each is an independent rendering of the whole verse — the interlinear is not word-aligned to these translations.
Highlighted words mark where these versions differ — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment.
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World English Bible Public Domain
He overlaid it with pure gold inside and outside, and made a molding of gold for it round about.
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King James Version Public Domain
And he overlaid it with pure gold within and without, and made a crown of gold to it round about.
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
And he overlaid it pure gold, inside and outside, and for it he made a border of gold around.
unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult).
Show all 18 translations
Every available English version of this verse, each an independent rendering of the whole verse.
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World English Bible Public Domain
He overlaid it with pure gold inside and outside, and made a molding of gold for it round about.
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Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
He overlaid it with pure gold, both inside and out, and made a gold molding around it.
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Majority Standard Bible Public Domain
He overlaid it with pure gold, both inside and out, and made a gold molding around it.
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King James Version Public Domain
And he overlaid it with pure gold within and without, and made a crown of gold to it round about.
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American Standard Version (1901) Public Domain
and he overlaid it with pure gold within and without, and made a crown of gold to it round about.
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Revised Version (1885) Public Domain
and he overlaid it with pure gold within and without, and made a crown of gold to it round about.
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Geneva Bible (1599) Public Domain
And ouerlayde it with fine golde within and without, and made a crowne of golde to it rounde about,
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Douay-Rheims (1899) Public Domain
And he made to it a crown of gold round about,
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Young's Literal Translation Public Domain
and he overlayeth it with pure gold within and without, and maketh for it a wreath of gold round about;
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Literal Standard Version CC BY-SA 4.0
and he overlays it with pure gold inside and outside, and makes a wreath of gold for it all around;
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Unlocked Literal Bible CC BY-SA 4.0
He covered it inside and out with pure gold and made for it a border of gold around its top.
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
And he overlaid it pure gold, inside and outside, and for it he made a border of gold around.
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Darby Bible Public Domain
And he overlaid it with pure gold inside and outside, and made a border of gold upon it round about.
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World Messianic Bible Public Domain
He overlaid it with pure gold inside and outside, and made a molding of gold for it around it.
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Webster's Bible Public Domain
And he overlaid it with pure gold within and without, and made a crown of gold to it round about.
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Free Bible Version CC BY-SA 4.0
He covered it with pure gold on the inside and the outside, and made a gold trim to go around it.
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Bible in Basic English Public Domain
Plating it inside and out with the best gold, and putting an edge of gold all round it.
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JPS Tanakh (1917) Public Domain
And he overlaid it with pure gold within and without, and made a crown of gold to it round about.
Literal Standard Version (2020), Covenant Press — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). Unlocked Literal Bible (unfoldingWord) — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult). Free Bible Version, Dr. Jonathan Gallagher — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org).
Word by word
More ways to search: Search by grammar → Find every occurrence → Compare this word →
Practice this passage: Drill this verse → Learn its vocabulary →
זֵ֥ר
zêr
H2213
“border”
Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute
- Appears 10× in the Hebrew Bible
- First appears at Exodus 25:11
- Part of Speech
- Noun
- Type
- Common
- Gender
- Masculine
- Number
- Singular
- State
- Absolute
Full BDB Definition
border, moulding, circlet
- וַיְצַפֵּ֛הוּ tsâphâh H6823 “and · to overlay · him” Conjunction + Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular + Suffix, Personal, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
- זָהָ֥ב zâhâb H2091 “gold” Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute
- טָה֖וֹר ṭâhôwr H2889 “pure” Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute
- מִבַּ֣יִת bayith H1004 “from · house” Preposition + Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute
- וּמִח֑וּץ chûwts H2351 “and · from · outside” Conjunction + Preposition + Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute
- וַיַּ֥עַשׂ ʻâsâh H6213 “and · to do” Conjunction + Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
- זֵ֥ר zêr H2213 “border” Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute
- זָהָ֖ב zâhâb H2091 “gold” Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute
- סָבִֽיב çâbîyb H5439 “round about” Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Absolute
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 →
- 10
- words
- 8
- distinct lemmas
- Pentateuch
- section
Notable vocabulary
The rarest word here is זֵ֥ר border H2213 — appearing just 10 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.
Shared distinctive vocabulary
זֵ֥ר border H2213 occurs in 10 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:
Grammatical profile
- 2 verbs
- 6 nouns
- 1 adjective
- 1 preposition
Verb forms
- וַיְצַפֵּ֛הוּ Piel · Sequential Imperfect
- וַיַּ֥עַשׂ Qal · Sequential Imperfect
Repetition
A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:
- זָהָ֥ב gold H2091 ×2
Hebrew & Septuagint length
In English translation the verse runs 19 words from the Hebrew and 26 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.
Cross-references
1Topical passages linked to Exodus 37:2 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.
- Exodus 30:3 You shall overlay it with pure gold, the top of it, the sides of it around it, and its horns; and you shall make a gold molding around it.
Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).
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.
ὀκτώ καί εἴκοσι πῆχυς μῆκος ὁ αὐλαία ὁ εἷς ὁ αὐτός εἰμί πᾶς καί τέσσαρες πῆχυς ὁ εὖρος ὁ αὐλαία ὁ εἷς
of eight and twenty cubits the length of one curtain: the same measure was to all, and the breadth of one curtain was of four cubits.
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.
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Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)
וַחֲפָהִי דְהַב דְכֵי מִגָּו וּמִבָּרָא וַעֲבַד לֵהּ דֵיר דִדְהַב סְחוֹר סְחוֹר:
(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.
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Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)
וְחַפְיֵיהּ דְּהַב דְּכֵי מִגֵּיו וּמִבָּרָא וְעָבַד לֵיהּ דֵּיר דִּדְהַב חֲזוֹר חֲזוֹר
And he covered it with pure gold within and without, and made for it a crown of gold round about.
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.
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 10 words (8 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is zêr (“border”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.
Discussion questions
- What does “border” (zêr) contribute to the verse as a whole?
- Exodus 25:11 shares the word «border» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
- “gold” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
- The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
- The verb «וַיְצַפֵּ֛הוּ» is Piel Sequential Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
- Reading how Geneva Bible (1599) and The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?
Things to notice
- These translations choose different wording for 10 words in this verse.
- “gold” occurs 2× in this single verse.
- 8 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 10 words in this verse.
Commentary
Notes on Exodus 37:2 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 →
Geneva Bible (1599)
Geneva Bible translators
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.