Exodus 36

Common English Bible

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.