The Daily Audio Bible

¹⁰ All of you who are skilled in crafts should come forward and make everything that the Lord has commanded: ¹¹ the dwelling, its tent and its covering, its clasps, its boards, its bars, its posts, and its bases, ¹² the chest with its poles and its cover, the veil for a screen, ¹³ the table with its poles and all its equipment, the bread of the presence, ¹⁴ the lampstand for light with its equipment and its lamps, the oil for the light, ¹⁵ the incense altar with its poles, the anointing oil and the sweet-smelling incense, the entrance screen for the dwelling’s entrance, ¹⁶ the altar for entirely burned offerings with its copper grate, its poles, and all its equipment, the washbasin with its stand, ¹⁷ the courtyard’s drapes, its posts, and its bases, and the screen for the courtyard gate, ¹⁸ the dwelling’s tent pegs and the courtyard’s tent pegs, and their cords, ¹⁹ the woven clothing for ministering in the sanctuary, and the holy clothes for Aaron the priest and his sons for their service as priests.

Gifts for building the dwelling

²⁰ The whole Israelite community left Moses. ²¹ Everyone who was excited and eager to participate brought the Lord’s gift offerings to be used for building the meeting tent and all its furnishings and for the holy clothes. ²² Both men and women came forward. Everyone who was eager to participate brought pins, earrings, rings, and necklaces, all sorts of gold objects. Everyone raised an uplifted offering of gold to the Lord. ²³ And everyone who had blue or purple or deep red yarn or fine linen or goats’ hair or rams’ skins dyed red or beaded leather brought them. ²⁴ Everyone who could make a gift offering of silver or copper brought it as the Lord’s gift offering. Everyone who had acacia wood that could be used in any kind of building work brought it. ²⁵ All the skilled women spun cloth with their hands, and brought what they had spun in blue and purple and deep red yarns and fine linen. ²⁶ All the women who were eager to use their skill spun the goats’ hair. ²⁷ The chiefs brought gemstones and gems to be set in the priest’s vest and the chest pendant, ²⁸ spices and oil for light and for the anointing oil, and for the sweet-smelling incense. ²⁹ All the Israelite men and women who were eager to contribute something for the work that the Lord had commanded Moses to do brought it as a spontaneous gift to the Lord.

Moses introduces Bezalel and Oholiab

³⁰ Then Moses said to the Israelites: “Look, the Lord has chosen Bezalel, Uri’s son and Hur’s grandson from the tribe of Judah. ³¹ The Lord has filled him with the divine spirit that will give him skill, ability, and knowledge for every kind of work. ³² He will be able to create designs, do metalwork in gold, silver, and copper, ³³ cut stones for setting, carve wood, do every kind of creative work, ³⁴ and have the ability to teach others. Both he and Oholiab, Ahisamach’s son from the tribe of Dan, ³⁵ have been given the skill to do every kind of work done by a gem cutter or a designer or a needleworker in blue, purple, and deep red yarns and in fine linen or a weaver or anyone else doing work or creating designs.

36 “Let Bezalel, Oholiab, and every other skilled worker whom the Lord has given skill, ability, and knowledge for the work of building the sanctuary do all that the Lord has commanded.”

² Moses then called together Bezalel, Oholiab, and every skilled person whom the Lord had given skill and who was eager to come and do the work. ³ Moses gave them all the gift offerings that the Israelites had contributed to the work on the sanctuary. They kept bringing him spontaneous gifts, morning after morning.

⁴ Finally, all the skilled workers building the sanctuary left their work that they were doing one by one to come ⁵ and say to Moses, “The people are contributing way too much material for doing the work that the Lord has commanded us to do.”

⁶ So Moses issued a command that was proclaimed throughout the camp: “Every man and woman should stop making gift offerings for the sanctuary project.” So the people stopped bringing anything more ⁷ because what they had already brought was more than enough to do all the work.

Construction of the dwelling

⁸ All the skilled workers made the dwelling out of ten curtains of fine twisted linen and blue, purple, and deep red yarns, with figures of winged heavenly creatures worked into their design. ⁹ Each curtain was forty-two feet long and six feet wide. All the curtains were the same size.

¹⁰ They joined five of the curtains to each other and joined the other five curtains to each other. ¹¹ They made loops of blue thread on the edge of the outer curtain of the first set. They did the same on the edge of the outer curtain of the second set. ¹² They made fifty loops on the one curtain and fifty loops on the outer curtain that was in the second set. The loops were opposite each other. ¹³ They also made fifty gold clasps, and they used the clasps to join the curtains to each other so that the dwelling was one whole structure.

¹⁴ They also made curtains of goats’ hair for a tent over the dwelling. They made eleven curtains. ¹⁵ Each curtain was forty-five feet long and each curtain six feet wide. All eleven curtains were the same size. ¹⁶ They joined five curtains together and the six other curtains together. ¹⁷ They made fifty loops on the edge of the outer curtain of the one set and fifty loops on the edge of the other set of curtains. ¹⁸ They made fifty copper clasps to join the tent together so that it would be one whole structure. ¹⁹ They also made a covering for the tent of rams’ skins dyed red and an outer covering of beaded leather.

²⁰ Then they made acacia-wood boards to stand upright as a frame for the dwelling. ²¹ Each board was fifteen feet long and twenty-seven inches wide. ²² Each board had two pegs for joining them to each other. They did this for all the dwelling’s boards. ²³ They made twenty boards for the dwelling’s southern side. ²⁴ They made forty silver bases under the twenty boards, with two bases under the first board for its two pegs, two bases under the next board for its two pegs, and so on. ²⁵ For the dwelling’s other side on the north, they made twenty boards ²⁶ and forty silver bases, two bases under the first board, two bases under the next board, and so on. ²⁷ For the back of the dwelling on the west, they made six boards. ²⁸ They made two additional boards for the dwelling’s rear corners. ²⁹ They were spread out at the bottom but joined together at the top with one ring. In this way, these two boards formed the two corners. ³⁰ And so there were eight boards with their sixteen silver bases, with two bases under every board.

³¹ They also made acacia-wood bars: five for the boards on one side of the dwelling, ³² five bars for the boards on the other side of the dwelling, and five bars for the boards on the back wall of the dwelling on the west. ³³ They made the middle bar, which was halfway up the boards, run from one end to the other. ³⁴ They covered the boards with gold. They made gold rings to house the bars and covered the bars with gold.

³⁵ They made the veil of blue, purple, and deep red yarns and fine twisted linen, with figures of winged heavenly creatures worked into its design. ³⁶ They made for it four acacia-wood posts covered in gold with gold hooks and cast four silver bases for them. ³⁷ They made a screen for the entrance to the tent of blue, purple, and deep red yarns and fine twisted linen, decorated with needlework. ³⁸ They made its five posts with hooks. They covered their tops and bands with gold, but made their five bases out of copper.

Crucifixion

³² As they were going out, they found Simon, a man from Cyrene. They forced him to carry his cross. ³³ When they came to a place called Golgotha, which means Skull Place, ³⁴ they gave Jesus wine mixed with vinegar to drink. But after tasting it, he didn’t want to drink it. ³⁵ After they crucified him, they divided up his clothes among them by drawing lots. ³⁶ They sat there, guarding him. ³⁷ They placed above his head the charge against him. It read, “This is Jesus, the king of the Jews.” ³⁸ They crucified with him two outlaws, one on his right side and one on his left.

³⁹ Those who were walking by insulted Jesus, shaking their heads ⁴⁰ and saying, “So you were going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, were you? Save yourself! If you are God’s Son, come down from the cross.”

⁴¹ In the same way, the chief priests, along with the legal experts and the elders, were making fun of him, saying, ⁴² “He saved others, but he can’t save himself. He’s the king of Israel, so let him come down from the cross now. Then we’ll believe in him. ⁴³ He trusts in God, so let God deliver him now if he wants to. He said, ‘I’m God’s Son.’” ⁴⁴ The outlaws who were crucified with him insulted him in the same way.

Death

⁴⁵ From noon until three in the afternoon the whole earth was dark. ⁴⁶ At about three Jesus cried out with a loud shout, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani,” which means, “My God, my God, why have you left me?”^[a]

⁴⁷ After hearing him, some standing there said, “He’s calling Elijah.” ⁴⁸ One of them ran over, took a sponge full of vinegar, and put it on a pole. He offered it to Jesus to drink.

⁴⁹ But the rest of them said, “Let’s see if Elijah will come and save him.”

⁵⁰ Again Jesus cried out with a loud shout. Then he died.

⁵¹ Look, the curtain of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split, ⁵² and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised. ⁵³ After Jesus’ resurrection they came out of their graves and went into the holy city where they appeared to many people. ⁵⁴ When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and what had just happened, they were filled with awe and said, “This was certainly God’s Son.”

⁵⁵ Many women were watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to serve him. ⁵⁶ Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.

Burial

⁵⁷ That evening a man named Joseph came. He was a rich man from Arimathea who had become a disciple of Jesus. ⁵⁸ He came to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. Pilate gave him permission to take it. ⁵⁹ Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, ⁶⁰ and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had carved out of the rock. After he rolled a large stone at the door of the tomb, he went away. ⁶¹ Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting in front of the tomb.

Guard at the tomb

⁶² The next day, which was the day after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate. ⁶³ They said, “Sir, we remember that while that deceiver was still alive he said, ‘After three days I will arise.’ ⁶⁴ Therefore, order the grave to be sealed until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people, ‘He’s been raised from the dead.’ This last deception will be worse than the first.”

⁶⁵ Pilate replied, “You have soldiers for guard duty. Go and make it as secure as you know how.” ⁶⁶ Then they went and secured the tomb by sealing the stone and posting the guard.

Psalm 34^[a]

Of David, when he pretended to be crazy before Abimelech, who banished him so that he left.

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