Exodus 35-37

Easy-to-Read Version

Rules About the Sabbath

35 Moses gathered all the Israelites together and said to them, “I will tell you what the Lord has commanded you to do:

² “There are six days for working, but the seventh day will be a very special day of rest for you. You will honor the Lord by resting on that special day. Anyone who works on the seventh day must be killed. ³ On the Sabbath you should not even light a fire in any of the places where you live.”

Things for the Holy Tent

⁴ Moses said to all the Israelites, “This is what the Lord commanded: ⁵ Gather special gifts for the Lord. Each of you should decide in your heart what you will give. And then you should bring that gift to the Lord. Bring gold, silver, and bronze; ⁶ blue, purple, and red yarn and fine linen; goat hair; ⁷ ram skins dyed red and fine leather; acacia wood; ⁸ oil for the lamps; spices for the anointing oil and spices for the sweet-smelling incense. ⁹ Also, bring onyx stones and other jewels to be put on the ephod and the judgment pouch.

¹⁰ “All of you who are skilled workers should make all the things the Lord commanded: ¹¹ the Holy Tent, its outer tent, and its covering; the hooks, boards, braces, posts, and bases; ¹² the Holy Box, its poles, the mercy-cover, and the curtain that covers the area where the Box stays; ¹³ the table and its poles, all the things on the table, and the special bread on the table; ¹⁴ the lampstand that is used for light and the things used with the lampstand, the lamps, and oil for the light; ¹⁵ the altar for burning incense and its poles; the anointing oil and the sweet-smelling incense; the curtain that covers the door at the entrance to the Holy Tent; ¹⁶ the altar for burning offerings and its bronze grating, the poles, and all the things used at the altar; the bronze bowl and its base; ¹⁷ the curtains around the yard, their posts and bases, and the curtain that covers the entrance to the yard; ¹⁸ the pegs used to support the Tent and the wall of curtains around the courtyard, and the ropes that tie to the pegs; ¹⁹ and the special woven clothes for the priest to wear in the Holy Place. These are the special clothes for Aaron the priest and his sons to wear when they serve as priests.”

The Great Offering From the People

²⁰ Then all the Israelites went away from Moses. ²¹ All the people who wanted to give came and brought a gift to the Lord. These gifts were used for making the Meeting Tent, everything in the Tent, and the special clothes. ²² All the men and women who wanted to give brought gold jewelry of all kinds. They brought pins,^[a] earrings, rings, and other jewelry. They all gave their jewelry as a special offering to the Lord.

²³ Everyone who had fine linen and blue, purple, and red yarn brought it to the Lord. Anyone who had goat hair or ram skins dyed red or fine leather brought it to the Lord. ²⁴ Everyone who wanted to give silver or bronze brought that as a gift to the Lord. Everyone who had acacia wood came and gave it to the Lord. ²⁵ Every skilled woman made fine linen and blue, purple, and red yarn. ²⁶ And all the women who were skilled and wanted to help made cloth from the goat hair.

²⁷ The leaders brought onyx stones and other jewels. These stones and jewels were put on the ephod and judgment pouch of the priest. ²⁸ The people also brought spices and olive oil. These things were used for the sweet-smelling incense, the anointing oil, and the oil for the lamps.

²⁹ All the Israelites who wanted to help brought gifts to the Lord. They gave these gifts freely, because they wanted to. These gifts were used to make everything the Lord had commanded Moses and the people to make.

Bezalel and Oholiab

³⁰ Then Moses said to the Israelites, “Look, the Lord has chosen Bezalel son of Uri, from the tribe of Judah. (Uri was the son of Hur.) ³¹ And he has filled Bezalel with the Spirit of God—he gave Bezalel special skill and knowledge to do all kinds of things. ³² He can design and make things with gold, silver, and bronze. ³³ He can cut and set stones and jewels. He can work with wood and make all kinds of things. ³⁴ The Lord has given Bezalel and Oholiab special skills to teach other people. (Oholiab was the son of Ahisamach from the tribe of Dan.) ³⁵ He has given both of these men special skills to do all kinds of work. They are able to do the work of carpenters and metalworkers. They can weave cloth with designs in it from blue, purple, and red yarn and fine linen. And they are able to weave things with wool.

36 “So Bezalel, Oholiab, and all the other skilled men must do the work the Lord has commanded. The Lord has given these men the wisdom and understanding to do all the skilled work needed to build this holy place.”

² Then Moses called Bezalel, Oholiab, and all the other skilled men who the Lord had given special skills to. And they came because they wanted to help with the work. ³ Moses gave them everything the Israelites had brought as gifts, and they used these things to build the holy place. The people continued to bring gifts each morning. ⁴ Finally, all the skilled workers left the work they were doing on the holy place, and they went to speak to Moses. They said, ⁵ “The people have brought too much. We have more than we need to finish the work the Lord told us to do.”

⁶ Then Moses sent this message throughout the camp: “No man or woman should make anything else as a gift for the holy place.” So the people were forced to stop giving more. ⁷ The people had brought more than enough things to finish the work of building God’s holy place.

The Holy Tent

⁸ Then the skilled workers began making the Holy Tent. They made the ten curtains from fine linen and blue, purple, and red yarn. And they sewed pictures of Cherub angels with wings into the curtains. ⁹ Each curtain was the same size—28 cubits^[b] long and 4 cubits^[c] wide. ¹⁰ The workers joined the curtains together into two groups of curtains. They joined five curtains together to make one group and five curtains together to make the other group. ¹¹ Then they used blue cloth to make loops along the edge of the end curtain of one group. And they did the same on the end curtain in the other group. ¹² There were 50 loops on the end curtain in one group and 50 loops on the end curtain in the other group. The loops were opposite each other. ¹³ Then they made 50 gold rings to join the two curtains together. So the Holy Tent was joined together into one piece.

¹⁴ Then the workers made another tent to cover the Holy Tent. They used goat hair to make eleven curtains. ¹⁵ All the curtains were the same size—30 cubits^[d] long and 4 cubits wide. ¹⁶ The workers joined five curtains together into one group and six curtains together into another group. ¹⁷ They put 50 loops along the edge of the end curtain of one group. And they did the same on the end curtain of the other group. ¹⁸ The workers made 50 bronze rings to join the two groups of curtains together to form one tent. ¹⁹ Then they made two more coverings for the Holy Tent. One covering was made from ram skins dyed red. The other covering was made from fine leather.

²⁰ Then the workers made frames from acacia wood to support the Holy Tent. ²¹ Each frame was 10 cubits^[e] long and 1 1/2 cubits^[f] wide. ²² There were two side poles joined together with cross pieces to make each frame. Every frame for the Holy Tent was made the same. ²³ They made 20 frames for the south side of the Holy Tent. ²⁴ Then they made 40 silver bases for the frames. There were two bases for each frame—one base for each side pole. ²⁵ They also made 20 frames for the other side (the north side) of the Holy Tent. ²⁶ They made 40 silver bases for the frames—two bases for each frame. ²⁷ They made six more frames for the back (the west side) of the Holy Tent. ²⁸ They also made two frames for the corners at the back of the Holy Tent. ²⁹ These frames were joined together at the bottom. And at the top a ring held the corner frames together. They did the same for both corners. ³⁰ There were eight frames for the west side of the Holy Tent. And there were 16 silver bases—two bases for each frame.

³¹ Then the workers used acacia wood to make the braces for the frames—five braces for the first side of the Holy Tent, ³² five braces for the other side, and five braces for the back of the Holy Tent (that is, the west side). ³³ They made the middle brace so that it passed through the frames from one end to the other. ³⁴ They covered these frames with gold. Then they used gold to make the rings to hold the braces, and they covered the braces with gold.

³⁵ They used fine linen and blue, purple, and red yarn to make the special curtain for the entrance to the Most Holy Place. And they sewed pictures of Cherub angels into the curtain. ³⁶ They made four posts using acacia wood, and they covered the posts with gold. Then they made gold hooks for the posts and four silver bases for the posts. ³⁷ Then they made the curtain to cover the entrance to the Tent. They used blue, purple, and red yarn and fine linen to make this curtain. And they wove pictures into it. ³⁸ Then they made the five posts and the hooks for this curtain over the entrance. They covered the tops of the posts and the curtain rods^[g] with gold. And they made the five bronze bases for the posts.

The Box of the Agreement

37 Bezalel made the Holy Box from acacia wood. The Box was 2 1/2 cubits^[h] long, 1 1/2 cubits^[i] wide, and 1 1/2 cubits high. ² He covered the inside and outside of the Box with pure gold. Then he put gold trim around the Box. ³ He made four rings of gold and put them on the four corners. These rings were used for carrying the Box. There were two rings on each side. ⁴ Then he made the poles for carrying the Box. He used acacia wood and covered the poles with pure gold. ⁵ He put the poles through the rings on each side of the Box. ⁶ Then he made the mercy-cover from pure gold. It was 2 1/2 cubits long and 1 1/2 cubits wide. ⁷ Then Bezalel hammered gold to make two Cherub angels. He put the Cherub angels on each end of the mercy-cover. ⁸ He put one angel on one end and the other angel on the other end. The angels were joined together with the mercy-cover to make one piece. ⁹ The wings of the angels were spread up toward the sky. The angels covered the Box with their wings and faced each other, looking toward the mercy-cover.

The Special Table

¹⁰ Then he made the table from acacia wood. The table was 2 cubits^[j] long, 1 cubit^[k] wide, and 1 1/2 cubits high. ¹¹ He covered it with pure gold and put gold trim around it. ¹² Then he made a frame 1 handbreadth^[l] wide around the table. He put gold trim on the frame. ¹³ Then he made four gold rings and put them at the four corners of the table, where the four legs were. ¹⁴ He put the rings close to the frame. The rings were to hold the poles used to carry the table. ¹⁵ Then he used acacia wood to make the poles for carrying the table. He covered the poles with pure gold. ¹⁶ Then he made everything that was used on the table. He made the plates, the spoons, the bowls, and the pitchers from pure gold. The bowls and pitchers are used for pouring the drink offerings.

The Lampstand

¹⁷ Then he made the lampstand. He used pure gold and hammered it to make the base and the shaft.^[m] Then he made flowers, buds, and petals and joined everything together into one piece. ¹⁸ The lampstand had six branches—three branches on one side and three branches on the other side. ¹⁹ Each branch had three flowers on it. These flowers were made like almond flowers with buds and petals. ²⁰ The shaft of the lampstand had four more flowers. They were also made like almond flowers with buds and petals. ²¹ There were six branches—three branches coming out from each side of the shaft. And there was a flower with buds and petals below each of the three places where the branches joined the shaft. ²² The whole lampstand, with the flowers and branches, was made from pure gold. All this gold was hammered and joined together into one piece. ²³ He made seven lamps for this lampstand. Then he made lamp snuffers and trays from pure gold. ²⁴ He used 75 pounds^[n] of pure gold to make the lampstand and the things used with it.

The Altar for Burning Incense

²⁵ He made the altar for burning incense from acacia wood. The altar was square. It was 1 cubit long, 1 cubit wide, and 2 cubits high. There were four horns on the altar. There was one horn on each corner. These horns were joined together with the altar to make one piece. ²⁶ He covered the top, all the sides, and the horns with pure gold. Then he put gold trim around the altar. ²⁷ He made two gold rings for the altar. He put the gold rings below the trim on each side of the altar. These gold rings held the poles for carrying the altar. ²⁸ He made the poles from acacia wood and covered them with gold.

²⁹ Then he made the holy anointing oil. He also made the pure, sweet-smelling incense. These things were made the same way that a perfume maker would make them.