Exodus 25:2

Footnotes

1. 2 The verb is וְיִקְחוּ (véyiqkhu), the Qal imperfect or jussive with vav; after the imperative “speak” this verb indicates the purpose or result: “speak … that they may take” and continues with the force of a command.
2. 3 The “offering” (תְּרוּמָה, térumah) is perhaps better understood as a contribution since it was a freewill offering. There is some question about the etymology of the word. The traditional meaning of “heave-offering” derives from the idea of “elevation,” a root meaning “to be high” lying behind the word. B. Jacob says it is something sorted out of a mass of material and designated for a higher purpose (Exodus, 765). S. R. Driver (Exodus, ) corrects the idea of “heave-offering” by relating the root to the Hiphil form of that root, herim, “to lift” or “take off.” He suggests the noun means “what is taken off” from a larger mass and so designated for sacred purposes. The has “something taken off.”
3. 4 The verb יִדְּבֶנּוּ (yiddévennu) is related to the word for the “freewill offering” (נְדָבָה, nédavah). The verb is used of volunteering for military campaigns (Judg 5:2, 9) and the willing offerings for both the first and second temples (see 1 Chr 29:5, 6, 9, 14, 17).
4. 5 The pronoun is plural.