Exodus 35–39

Regulations for the Sabbath

35Moses called together the whole community of the people of Israel and said to them, “This is what the Lord has commanded you to do: ^2*You have six days in which to do your work, but the seventh day is to be sacred, a solemn day of rest dedicated to me, the Lord. Anyone who does any work on that day is to be put to death. ³Do not even light a fire in your homes on the Sabbath.”

Offerings for the Sacred Tent

⁴Moses said to all the people of Israel, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ⁵Make an offering to the Lord. Everyone who wishes to do so is to bring an offering of gold, silver, or bronze; ⁶fine linen; blue, purple, and red wool; cloth made of goats’ hair; ⁷rams’ skin dyed red; fine leather; acacia wood;

Making the Tent of the ’s Presence

⁸oil for the lamps; spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet-smelling incense; ⁹carnelians and other jewels to be set in the High Priest’s ephod and in his breast-piece.

Articles for the Tent of the ’s Presence

¹⁰“All the skilled workers among you are to come and make everything that the Lord commanded: ¹¹the Tent, its covering and its outer covering, its hooks and its frames, its crossbars, its posts, and its bases; ¹²the Covenant Box, its poles, its lid, and the curtain to screen it off; ¹³the table, its poles, and all its equipment; the bread offered to God; ¹⁴the lamp-stand for the light and its equipment; the lamps with their oil; ¹⁵the altar for burning incense and its poles; the anointing oil; the sweet-smelling incense; the curtain for the entrance of the Tent; ¹⁶the altar on which to burn offerings, with its bronze grating attached, its poles, and all its equipment; the washbasin and its base; ¹⁷the curtains for the enclosure, its posts and bases; the curtain for the entrance of the enclosure; ¹⁸the pegs and ropes for the Tent and the enclosure; ¹⁹and the magnificent garments the priests are to wear when they serve in the Holy Place—the sacred clothes for Aaron the priest and for his sons.”

The People Bring Their Offerings

²⁰All the people of Israel left, ²¹and everyone who wished to do so brought an offering to the Lord for making the Tent of the Lord’s presence. They brought everything needed for use in worship and for making the priestly garments. ²²All who wanted to, both men and women, brought decorative pins, earrings, rings, necklaces, and all kinds of gold jewellery and dedicated them to the Lord. ²³Everyone who had fine linen; blue, purple, or red wool; cloth of goats’ hair; rams’ skin dyed red; or fine leather, brought it. ²⁴All who were able to contribute silver or bronze brought their offering for the Lord, and all who had acacia wood which could be used for any of the work brought it. ²⁵All the skilled women brought fine linen thread and thread of blue, purple, and red wool, which they had made. ²⁶They also made thread of goats’ hair. ²⁷The leaders brought carnelians and other jewels to be set in the ephod and the breast-piece ²⁸and spices and oil for the lamps, for the anointing oil, and for the sweet-smelling incense. ²⁹All the people of Israel who wanted to brought their offering to the Lord for the work which he had commanded Moses to do.

Craftsmen for the Tent of the ’s Presence

³⁰Moses said to the Israelites, “The Lord has chosen Bezalel, the son of Uri and grandson of Hur, from the tribe of Judah. ³¹God has filled him with his power^k and given him skill, ability, and understanding for every kind of artistic work, ³²for planning skilful designs and working them in gold, silver and bronze; ³³for cutting jewels to be set; for carving wood; and for every other kind of artistic work. ³⁴The Lord has given to him and to Oholiab son of Ahisamach, from the tribe of Dan, the ability to teach their crafts to others. ³⁵He has given them skill in all kinds of work done by engravers, designers, and weavers of fine linen; blue, purple, and red wool; and other cloth. They are able to do all kinds of work and are skilful designers.

36“Bezalel, Oholiab, and all the other workers to whom the Lord has given skill and understanding, who know how to make everything needed to build the sacred Tent, are to make everything just as the Lord has commanded.”

The People Bring Many Gifts

²Moses called Bezalel, Oholiab, and all the other skilled men to whom the Lord had given ability and who were willing to help, and Moses told them to start working. ³They received from him all the offerings which the Israelites had brought for constructing the sacred Tent. But the people of Israel continued to bring Moses their offerings every morning. ⁴Then the skilled men who were doing the work went ⁵and reported to Moses, “The people are bringing more than is needed for the work which the Lord commanded to be done.”

⁶So Moses sent a command throughout the camp that no one was to make any further contribution for the sacred Tent; so the people did not bring any more. ⁷What had already been brought was more than enough to finish all the work.

⁸The most skilled men among those doing the work made the Tent of the Lord’s presence. They made it out of ten pieces of fine linen woven with blue, purple, and red wool and embroidered with figures of winged creatures. ⁹Each piece was the same size, 12 metres long and 2 metres wide. ¹⁰They sewed five of them together in one set and did the same with the other five. ¹¹They made loops of blue cloth on the edge of the outside piece in each set. ¹²They put 50 loops on the first piece of the first set and 50 loops matching them on the last piece of the second set. ¹³They made 50 gold hooks, with which to join the two sets into one piece.

¹⁴Then they made a cover for the Tent out of eleven pieces of cloth made of goats’ hair. ¹⁵They made them all the same size, 13 metres long and 2 metres wide. ¹⁶They sewed five of them together in one set and the other six in another set. ¹⁷They put 50 loops on the edge of the last piece of one set and 50 loops on the edge of the other set. ¹⁸They made 50 bronze hooks to join the two sets, so as to form one cover. ¹⁹They made two more coverings, one of rams’ skin dyed red and the other of fine leather, to serve as an outer cover.

²⁰They made upright frames of acacia wood for the Tent. ²¹Each frame was 4 metres tall and 66 centimetres wide, ²²with two matching projections, so that the frames could be joined together. All the frames had these projections. ²³They made twenty frames for the south side ²⁴and 40 silver bases to go under them, two bases under each frame to hold its two projections. ²⁵They made twenty frames for the north side of the Tent ²⁶and 40 silver bases, two under each frame. ²⁷For the back of the Tent, on the west, they made six frames ²⁸and two frames for the corners. ²⁹These corner frames were joined at the bottom and connected all the way to the top. The two frames that formed the two corners were made in this way. ³⁰So there were eight frames and sixteen silver bases, two under each frame.

³¹They made fifteen crossbars of acacia wood, five for the frames on one side of the Tent, ³²five for the frames on the other side, and five for the frames on the west end, at the back. ³³The middle crossbar, set halfway up the frames, extended from one end of the Tent to the other. ³⁴They covered the frames with gold and fitted them with gold rings to hold the crossbars, which were also covered with gold.

³⁵They made a curtain of fine linen, woven with blue, purple, and red wool and embroidered it with figures of winged creatures. ³⁶They made four posts of acacia wood to hold the curtain, covered them with gold, and fitted them with gold hooks. Then they made four silver bases to hold the posts. ³⁷For the entrance of the Tent they made a curtain of fine linen woven with blue, purple, and red wool and decorated with embroidery. ³⁸For this curtain they made five posts fitted with hooks, covered their tops and their rods with gold, and made five bronze bases for the posts.

Making the Covenant Box

37Bezalel made the Covenant Box out of acacia wood, 110 centimetres long, 66 centimetres wide, and 66 centimetres high. ²He covered it with pure gold inside and out and put a gold border all round it. ³He made four carrying rings of gold for it and attached them to its four feet, with two rings on each side. ⁴He made carrying poles of acacia wood, covered them with gold, ⁵and put them through the rings on each side of the box. ⁶He made a lid of pure gold, 110 centimetres long and 66 centimetres wide. ⁷He made two winged creatures of hammered gold, ⁸one for each end of the lid. He made them so that they formed one piece with the lid. ⁹The winged creatures faced each other across the lid, and their outspread wings covered it.

Making the Table for the Bread Offered to God

¹⁰He made the table out of acacia wood, 88 centimetres long, 44 centimetres wide, and 66 centimetres high. ¹¹He covered it with pure gold and put a gold border round it. ¹²He made a rim 75 millimetres wide round it and put a gold border round the rim. ¹³He made four carrying rings of gold for it and put them at the four corners, where the legs were. ¹⁴The rings to hold the poles for carrying the table were placed near the rim. ¹⁵He made the poles of acacia wood and covered them with gold. ¹⁶He made the dishes of pure gold for the table: the plates, the cups, the jars, and the bowls to be used for the wine offering.

Making the Lamp-stand

¹⁷He made the lamp-stand of pure gold. He made its base and its shaft of hammered gold; its decorative flowers, including buds and petals, formed one piece with it.

¹⁸Six branches extended from its sides, three from each side. ¹⁹Each of the six branches had three decorative flowers shaped like almond blossoms with buds and petals. ²⁰The shaft of the lamp-stand had four decorative flowers shaped like almond blossoms with buds and petals. ²¹There was one bud below each of the three pairs of branches. ²²The buds, the branches, and the lamp-stand were a single piece of pure hammered…