וַיַּ֥עַשׂ בַּדֵּ֖י עֲצֵ֣י שִׁטִּ֑ים וַיְצַ֥ף אֹתָ֖ם זָהָֽב
He made poles of acacia wood, and overlaid them with gold.
World English Bible · Public Domain
Exodus 37:4
Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex) Exodus 37:4 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 made poles of acacia wood, and overlaid them with gold.
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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 made poles of acacia wood, and overlaid them with gold.
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King James Version Public Domain
And he made staves of shittim wood, and overlaid them with gold.
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
And he made poles of wood of acacias and overlaid them gold.
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 made poles of acacia wood, and overlaid them with gold.
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Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Then he made poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold.
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Majority Standard Bible Public Domain
Then he made poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold.
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King James Version Public Domain
And he made staves of shittim wood, and overlaid them with gold.
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American Standard Version (1901) Public Domain
And he made staves of acacia wood, and overlaid them with gold.
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Revised Version (1885) Public Domain
And he made staves of acacia wood, and overlaid them with gold.
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Geneva Bible (1599) Public Domain
Also he made barres of Shittim wood, and couered them with golde,
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Douay-Rheims (1899) Public Domain
And he made bars of setim wood, which he overlaid with gold,
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Young's Literal Translation Public Domain
and he maketh staves of shittim wood, and overlayeth them with gold,
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Literal Standard Version CC BY-SA 4.0
and he makes poles of shittim wood, and overlays them with gold,
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Unlocked Literal Bible CC BY-SA 4.0
He made poles of acacia wood and covered them with gold.
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
And he made poles of wood of acacias and overlaid them gold.
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Darby Bible Public Domain
And he made staves of acacia-wood and overlaid them with gold.
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World Messianic Bible Public Domain
He made poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold.
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Webster's Bible Public Domain
And he made staffs of shittim wood, and overlaid them with gold.
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Free Bible Version CC BY-SA 4.0
He made poles of acacia wood and covered them with gold.
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Bible in Basic English Public Domain
And rods of the same wood plated with gold.
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JPS Tanakh (1917) Public Domain
And he made staves of acacia-wood, and overlaid them with gold.
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 →
שִׁטִּ֑ים
shiṭṭâh
H7848
“acacia trees”
Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Absolute
- Appears 28× in the Hebrew Bible
- First appears at Exodus 25:5
- Part of Speech
- Noun
- Type
- Common
- Gender
- Feminine
- Number
- Plural
- State
- Absolute
Full BDB Definition
acacia tree, acacia wood
- וַיַּ֥עַשׂ ʻâsâh H6213 “and · to do” Conjunction + Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
- בַּדֵּ֖י bad H905 “poles of” Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct
- עֲצֵ֣י ʻêts H6086 “trees of” Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct
- שִׁטִּ֑ים shiṭṭâh H7848 “acacia trees” Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Absolute
- וַיְצַ֥ף tsâphâh H6823 “and · to overlay” Conjunction + Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
- אֹתָ֖ם ʼêth H853 “- · them” Particle, Direct Object + Suffix, Personal, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural
- זָהָֽב zâhâb H2091 “gold” Noun, Common, Masculine, 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 →
- 7
- words
- 7
- distinct lemmas
- Pentateuch
- section
Shared distinctive vocabulary
שִׁטִּ֑ים acacia tree H7848 occurs in 28 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:
Grammatical profile
- 2 verbs
- 4 nouns
- 1 particle
Verb forms
- וַיַּ֥עַשׂ Qal · Sequential Imperfect
- וַיְצַ֥ף Piel · Sequential Imperfect
Hebrew & Septuagint length
In English translation the verse runs 11 words from the Hebrew and 24 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — the Septuagint runs noticeably longer here. See the side-by-side →
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
4Topical passages linked to Exodus 37:4 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.
- Numbers 4:14–15 They shall put on it all its vessels, with which they minister about it, the fire pans, the flesh hooks, the shovels, and the basins; all the vessels of the altar; and they shall spread on it a covering of sealskin, and put in its poles.
- Acts 9:15 But the Lord said to him, "Go your way, for he is my chosen vessel to bear my name before the nations and kings, and the children of Israel.
- 1 Peter 1:7 that the proof of your faith, which is more precious than gold that perishes even though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ--
- 1 Peter 1:18–19 knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your fathers,
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.
Here the Septuagint runs noticeably longer than the Hebrew — LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) 24 words vs World English Bible 11. A rough length comparison of the two English translations, not a word-level alignment — read both below.
These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.
καί ἐπιτίθημι αὐτός ἐπί τέσσαρες στῦλος ἄσηπτος καταχρυσόω ἐν χρυσίον καί ὁ κεφαλίς αὐτός χρυσοῦς καί ὁ βάσις αὐτός τέσσαρες ἀργυροῦς
And they put it on four posts of incorruptible wood overlaid with gold; and their capitals were gold, and their four sockets were silver.
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)
וַעֲבַד אֲרִיחֵי דְאָעֵי שִׁטִין וַחֲפָא יָתְהוֹן דַהֲבָא:
(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)
וְעָבַד אֲרִיחֵי דְקִיסָא שִׁיטָא וַחֲפָא יַתְהוֹן דַּהֲבָא
And he made the staves of it of sitta wood, and covered them with gold,
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 7 words (7 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is shiṭṭâh (“acacia tree”). The Greek Septuagint runs longer here. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.
Discussion questions
- What does “acacia tree” (shiṭṭâh) contribute to the verse as a whole?
- Exodus 25:5 shares the word «acacia tree» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
- Compared with the Hebrew, the Septuagint runs longer here. What questions does that raise?
- These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
- The verb «וַיַּ֥עַשׂ» is Qal Sequential Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Things to notice
- These translations choose different wording for 5 words in this verse.
- 7 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 7 words in this verse.
Commentary
Notes on Exodus 37:4 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 →
unfoldingWord translationNotes
Door43 World Missions Community
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.