The long sentence continues. Three cups made like almonds is literally “three cups almond-blossom-shaped.” The word refers to “almond blossoms” (Good News Translation) and not to the small edible kernel of the fruit. Each with capital and flower refers to the “calyx” and the “petals” (New Revised Standard Version) that made up each cup (see verse 31).

On one branch means that each branch was to have three cups, but it is not clear where these cups were to be placed, nor whether they were to be three-dimensional or simply embossed along the surface. Possibly they were three-dimensional cups, with two of them producing new segments of the branch, and the third one serving as a lamp holder at the top of each branch. To call them “decorative flowers” (Good News Translation) suggests that they had no function other than to decorate. The word “decorative” is not in the text and should probably be omitted. An alternative translation model is “Each of the six branches is to have three flowers shaped like almond blossoms, with buds and petals.”

On the other branch is better translated as “on the next branch” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Revised English Bible, New International Version), since the other suggests incorrectly that there were only two. This is made clear with the final phrase: so for the six branches going out of the lampstand. This means that on the six branches alone there were to be 18 of these cups, each with its capital and flower.

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• Form three flowers shaped like almond blossoms along with their buds and petals on each of the six branches.

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .