Curtains, Boards and a Veil
1 “Moreover you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, with cherubim. You shall make them with the work of a skillful workman. 2 The length of each curtain shall be twenty-eight cubits, and the width of each curtain four cubits: all the curtains shall have one measure. 3 Five curtains shall be coupled together to one another, and the other five curtains shall be coupled to one another. 4 You shall make loops of blue on the edge of the one curtain from the edge in the coupling, and you shall do likewise on the edge of the curtain that is outermost in the second coupling. 5 You shall make fifty loops in the one curtain, and you shall make fifty loops in the edge of the curtain that is in the second coupling. The loops shall be opposite one another. 6 You shall make fifty clasps of gold, and couple the curtains to one another with the clasps. The tabernacle shall be a unit. 7 “You shall make curtains of goats’ hair for a covering over the tabernacle. You shall make eleven curtains. 8 The length of each curtain shall be thirty cubits, and the width of each curtain four cubits: the eleven curtains shall have one measure. 9 You shall couple five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves, and shall double over the sixth curtain in the forefront of the tent. 10 You shall make fifty loops on the edge of the one curtain that is outermost in the coupling, and fifty loops on the edge of the curtain which is outermost in the second coupling. 11 You shall make fifty clasps of bronze, and put the clasps into the loops, and couple the tent together, that it may be one. 12 The overhanging part that remains of the curtains of the tent—the half curtain that remains—shall hang over the back of the tabernacle. 13 The cubit on the one side and the cubit on the other side, of that which remains in the length of the curtains of the tent, shall hang over the sides of the tabernacle on this side and on that side, to cover it. 14 You shall make a covering for the tent of rams’ skins dyed red, and a covering of sea cow hides above. 15 “You shall make the boards for the tabernacle of acacia wood, standing upright. 16 Ten cubits shall be the length of a board, and one and a half cubits the width of each board. 17 There shall be two tenons in each board, joined to one another: thus you shall make for all the boards of the tabernacle. 18 You shall make twenty boards for the tabernacle, for the south side southward. 19 You shall make forty sockets of silver under the twenty boards; two sockets under one board for its two tenons, and two sockets under another board for its two tenons. 20 For the second side of the tabernacle, on the north side, twenty boards, 21 and their forty sockets of silver; two sockets under one board, and two sockets under another board. 22 For the far side of the tabernacle westward you shall make six boards. 23 You shall make two boards for the corners of the tabernacle in the far side. 24 They shall be double beneath, and in the same way they shall be whole to its top to one ring: thus shall it be for them both; they shall be for the two corners. 25 There shall be eight boards, and their sockets of silver, sixteen sockets; two sockets under one board, and two sockets under another board. 26 “You shall make bars of acacia wood: five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle, 27 and five bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the side of the tabernacle, for the far side westward. 28 The middle bar in the middle of the boards shall pass through from end to end. 29 You shall overlay the boards with gold, and make their rings of gold for places for the bars. You shall overlay the bars with gold. 30 You shall set up the tabernacle according to the way that it was shown to you on the mountain. 31 “You shall make a veil of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, with cherubim. It shall be the work of a skillful workman. 32 You shall hang it on four pillars of acacia overlaid with gold; their hooks shall be of gold, on four sockets of silver. 33 You shall hang up the veil under the clasps, and shall bring the ark of the covenant in there within the veil. The veil shall separate the holy place from the most holy for you. 34 You shall put the mercy seat on the ark of the covenant in the most holy place. 35 You shall set the table outside the veil, and the lamp stand opposite the table on the side of the tabernacle toward the south. You shall put the table on the north side. 36 “You shall make a screen for the door of the Tent, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, the work of the embroiderer. 37 You shall make for the screen five pillars of acacia, and overlay them with gold. Their hooks shall be of gold. You shall cast five sockets of bronze for them.
Four coverings hide a structure of gold, and one embroidered curtain divides the two rooms.
“Moreover you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, with cherubim. You shall make them with the work of a skillful workman.
The tent is built from the inside out, in four layers, and the order in which they are described is the order in which they would be seen by someone standing inside and looking up.
First the linen, dyed and embroidered with cherubim — the ceiling of the holy place, visible only to priests. Then curtains of goats' hair for a covering over the tabernacle Exodus 26:7, eleven of them, plain. Then rams' skins dyed red, and outermost a covering of hides Exodus 26:14.
The gradient runs one way. What is innermost is most beautiful and least seen; what is outermost is weatherproof and plain. A traveler passing the camp would see a low tent covered in leather, entirely unremarkable, with no indication of what the inside was made of. The description of one who has no good looks or majesty... no beauty that we should desire him Isaiah 53:2 is written about a person, and the tent was built on the same principle.
“You shall make the boards for the tabernacle of acacia wood, standing upright.
The frame is desert acacia, a hard, twisted, thorny wood from a tree that survives where nothing else does, overlaid entirely with gold and standing in sockets of silver. Every board is identical in dimension and every one is set in the same footing, which is worth noticing in a structure paid for by an offering that the wealthy could have dominated.
“You shall make a veil of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, with cherubim. It shall be the work of a skillful workman.
The most consequential object in the chapter. It carries cherubim, like the ceiling and like the figures over the ark, and its function is stated without softening: the veil shall separate the holy place from the most holy for you Exodus 26:33.
This is the barrier the whole system is built around. Behind it, the ark and the presence; in front of it, priests working daily by lamplight who may not go through. One man may pass, once a year, with blood Leviticus 16:2. The arrangement makes the nearness real and keeps it fenced, and the letter to the Hebrews reads the fence as a statement rather than an accident: while the first tent stood, the way into the Holy Place wasn't yet revealed Hebrews 9:8.
Which is why the account of the crucifixion pauses to report a piece of interior damage. The veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom Matthew 27:51. Torn downward, from a height no one could reach, at the moment the death occurred.
You shall set up the tabernacle according to the way that it was shown to you on the mountain.
settled What this mark means