pillars of shittim: Exodus 26:37, Exodus 36:38; Esther 1:6
their hooks shall be of gold: The Hebrew waveyhem:, which we translate their hooks, is rendered by the LXX κεφαλιδες:, and by the Vulgate, capiata:, capitals. Hence Calmet contends:
1. That if Moses does not mean the capitals of the pillars by this word, he mentions them nowhere else; and it would seem strange, that while he describes them with so much exactness, that he should not mention the capitals; or that pillars every way so correctly formed, should have been destitute of this necessary ornament.
2. As Moses was commanded to make the wavim: of the pillars, and their fillets, of silver (Exodus 27:10-11), and the wavim: of the pillars of the vail of gold (Exodus 36:36), and that 1,775 shekels were employed in making them, overlaying their chapiters:, rasheyhem:, their heads, and filleting them (Exodus 38:28), it is more reasonable to suppose that all this is spoken of the capitals of pillars, than of any kind of hooks, especially as hooks are mentioned under the word taches or clasps. But as the root wavah: seems to signify to connect (for yww, in Arabic, is to marry a wife), and as the letter ww, wav:, if it has not its name from its hook-like form, is yet used as a connective particle, it would rather appear to denote hooks, which connected the curtains or vails to the pillars. The LXX also render it αγκυλαι:, "handles", and κρικοι:, "rings" or "clasps".