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36 Bezalel and Aholiab and every wisehearted man in whom the Lord has put wisdom and understanding to know how to do all the work for the service of the sanctuary shall work according to all that the Lord has commanded.

And Moses called Bezalel and Aholiab and every able and wisehearted man in whose mind the Lord had put wisdom and ability, everyone whose heart stirred him up to come to do the work;

And they received from Moses all the freewill offerings which the Israelites had brought for doing the work of the sanctuary, to prepare it for service. And they continued to bring him freewill offerings every morning.

And all the wise and able men who were doing the work on the sanctuary came, every man from the work he was doing,

And they said to Moses, The people bring much more than enough for doing the work which the Lord commanded to do.

So Moses commanded and it was proclaimed in all the camp, Let no man or woman do anything more for the sanctuary offering. So the people were restrained from bringing,

For the stuff they had was sufficient to do all the work and more.

And all the able and wisehearted men among them who did the work on the tabernacle made ten curtains of fine twined linen and blue, purple, and scarlet [stuff], with cherubim skillfully worked on them.

The length of each curtain was twenty-eight cubits and its breadth four cubits; all the curtains were one size.

10 [Bezalel] coupled five curtains one to another and the other five curtains he coupled one to another.

11 And he made loops of blue on the outer edge of the last curtain in the first set; this he did also on the inner edge of the first curtain in the second set.

12 Fifty loops he made in the one curtain and fifty loops in the edge of the curtain which was the second set; the loops were opposite one another.

13 And he made fifty clasps of gold and coupled the curtains together with the clasps so that the tabernacle became one unit.

14 And he made eleven curtains of goats’ hair for a tent over the tabernacle.

15 The length of one curtain was thirty cubits and four cubits was the breadth; the eleven curtains were of equal size.

16 And he coupled five curtains by themselves and the other six curtains by themselves.

17 And he made fifty loops on the outmost edge of the curtain to be coupled and fifty loops he made on the inner edge of the second curtain to be coupled.

18 He made fifty clasps of bronze to couple the tent together into one whole.

19 He made a covering for the tent of [a]rams’ skins tanned red, and above it a covering of dolphin or porpoise skins.

20 He made boards of acacia wood for the upright framework of the tabernacle.

21 The length of a board was ten cubits and the breadth one cubit and a half.

22 Each board had two tenons (projections) to fit into a mortise to form a clutch; he did this for all the boards of the tabernacle.

23 And he made thus the boards [for frames] for the tabernacle: twenty boards for the south side,

24 And he made under the twenty boards forty sockets or bases of silver, two sockets under one board for its two tenons or hands, and two sockets under another board for its two tenons.

25 For the other side of the tabernacle, the north side, he made twenty boards

26 And their forty sockets or bases of silver, two sockets under [the end of] each board.

27 And for the rear or west side of the tabernacle he made six [frame] boards.

28 And two boards he made for each corner of the tabernacle in the rear.

29 They were separate below but linked together at the top with one ring; thus he made both of them in both corners.

30 There were eight boards with sixteen sockets or bases of silver, and under [the end of] each board two sockets.

31 He made bars of acacia wood, five for the [frame] boards of the one side of the tabernacle,

32 And five bars for the boards of its other side, and five bars for the boards at the rear or west side.

33 And he made the middle bar pass through halfway up the boards from one end to the other.

34 He overlaid the boards and the bars with gold and made their rings of gold as places for the bars.

35 And he made the veil of blue, purple, and scarlet [stuff] and fine twined linen, with cherubim skillfully worked.(A)

36 For [the veil] he made four pillars of acacia [wood] and overlaid them with gold; their hooks were of gold, and he cast for them four sockets or bases of silver.

37 And he made a screen for the tent door of blue, purple, and scarlet [stuff] and fine twined linen, embroidered,

38 And he made the five pillars of it with their hooks, and overlaid their ornamental tops and joinings with gold, but their five sockets were of bronze.

Footnotes

  1. Exodus 36:19 The final coverings of the tabernacle tent are not to be confused with the second one of goats’ hair (Exod. 36:14). There were four distinct coverings of the tabernacle tent: 1. A covering of fine twined linen woven with blue, purple, and scarlet, with figures of cherubim upon it. It was made of two long pieces, one running from north to south, the other from east to west [and overlapping for the ceiling] (Exod. 26:1, 6; 36:8ff.). 2. Over this a covering of woven goats’ hair was thrown (Exod. 26:7; 36:14). 3. A third covering of rams’ skins made red (Exod. 26:14; 36:19). 4. And “above it” another covering of dolphin or porpoise skins, weighing the others down and giving perfect protection from the weather (Exod. 26:14; 36:19).

36 So Bezalel, Oholiab and every skilled person(A) to whom the Lord has given skill and ability to know how to carry out all the work of constructing the sanctuary(B) are to do the work just as the Lord has commanded.”

Then Moses summoned Bezalel(C) and Oholiab(D) and every skilled person to whom the Lord had given ability and who was willing(E) to come and do the work. They received from Moses all the offerings(F) the Israelites had brought to carry out the work of constructing the sanctuary. And the people continued to bring freewill offerings morning after morning. So all the skilled workers who were doing all the work on the sanctuary left what they were doing and said to Moses, “The people are bringing more than enough(G) for doing the work the Lord commanded to be done.”

Then Moses gave an order and they sent this word throughout the camp: “No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.” And so the people were restrained from bringing more, because what they already had was more(H) than enough to do all the work.

The Tabernacle(I)

All those who were skilled among the workers made the tabernacle with ten curtains of finely twisted linen and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, with cherubim woven into them by expert hands. All the curtains were the same size—twenty-eight cubits long and four cubits wide.[a] 10 They joined five of the curtains together and did the same with the other five. 11 Then they made loops of blue material along the edge of the end curtain in one set, and the same was done with the end curtain in the other set. 12 They also made fifty loops on one curtain and fifty loops on the end curtain of the other set, with the loops opposite each other. 13 Then they made fifty gold clasps and used them to fasten the two sets of curtains together so that the tabernacle was a unit.(J)

14 They made curtains of goat hair for the tent over the tabernacle—eleven altogether. 15 All eleven curtains were the same size—thirty cubits long and four cubits wide.[b] 16 They joined five of the curtains into one set and the other six into another set. 17 Then they made fifty loops along the edge of the end curtain in one set and also along the edge of the end curtain in the other set. 18 They made fifty bronze clasps to fasten the tent together as a unit.(K) 19 Then they made for the tent a covering of ram skins dyed red, and over that a covering of the other durable leather.[c]

20 They made upright frames of acacia wood for the tabernacle. 21 Each frame was ten cubits long and a cubit and a half wide,[d] 22 with two projections set parallel to each other. They made all the frames of the tabernacle in this way. 23 They made twenty frames for the south side of the tabernacle 24 and made forty silver bases to go under them—two bases for each frame, one under each projection. 25 For the other side, the north side of the tabernacle, they made twenty frames 26 and forty silver bases—two under each frame. 27 They made six frames for the far end, that is, the west end of the tabernacle, 28 and two frames were made for the corners of the tabernacle at the far end. 29 At these two corners the frames were double from the bottom all the way to the top and fitted into a single ring; both were made alike. 30 So there were eight frames and sixteen silver bases—two under each frame.

31 They also made crossbars of acacia wood: five for the frames on one side of the tabernacle, 32 five for those on the other side, and five for the frames on the west, at the far end of the tabernacle. 33 They made the center crossbar so that it extended from end to end at the middle of the frames. 34 They overlaid the frames with gold and made gold rings to hold the crossbars. They also overlaid the crossbars with gold.

35 They made the curtain(L) of blue, purple and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen, with cherubim woven into it by a skilled worker. 36 They made four posts of acacia wood for it and overlaid them with gold. They made gold hooks for them and cast their four silver bases. 37 For the entrance to the tent they made a curtain of blue, purple and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen—the work of an embroiderer;(M) 38 and they made five posts with hooks for them. They overlaid the tops of the posts and their bands with gold and made their five bases of bronze.

Footnotes

  1. Exodus 36:9 That is, about 42 feet long and 6 feet wide or about 13 meters long and 1.8 meters wide
  2. Exodus 36:15 That is, about 45 feet long and 6 feet wide or about 14 meters long and 1.8 meters wide
  3. Exodus 36:19 Possibly the hides of large aquatic mammals (see 35:7)
  4. Exodus 36:21 That is, about 15 feet long and 2 1/4 feet wide or about 4.5 meters long and 68 centimeters wide