And for the second side of the tabernacle uses a different word for side, but it means the same as in verse 18. On the north side repeats the same thing in different words. Here the word for side is the word used in verse 18. The word for north, tsafon, probably referred originally to a mountain in Syria (Mount Zaphon), to the north of Palestine. Twenty frames means the same as in verse 18.

And their forty bases of silver means that “forty silver bases” (Good News Translation) were to be made for the twenty frames on the north side. Two bases under one frame is identical with verse 19, as well as the phrase, and two bases under another frame.

An alternative translation model combining verses 18-21 is the following:

• [You (singular) shall] make silver stands [or, bases] with sockets [or, holes] in them for the arms [or, tenons] to fit into. Place two of these stands under each frame. In this way the frames will be joined together. Place twenty of these frames along the south side and twenty more along the north.

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 .