Book two (Psalms 42–72)

Psalm 42

For the choir director: A psalm^[a] of the descendants of Korah.

36 “The Lord has gifted Bezalel, Oholiab, and the other skilled craftsmen with wisdom and ability to perform any task involved in building the sanctuary. Let them construct and furnish the Tabernacle, just as the Lord has commanded.”

² So Moses summoned Bezalel and Oholiab and all the others who were specially gifted by the Lord and were eager to get to work. ³ Moses gave them the materials donated by the people of Israel as sacred offerings for the completion of the sanctuary. But the people continued to bring additional gifts each morning. ⁴ Finally the craftsmen who were working on the sanctuary left their work. ⁵ They went to Moses and reported, “The people have given more than enough materials to complete the job the Lord has commanded us to do!”

⁶ So Moses gave the command, and this message was sent throughout the camp: “Men and women, don’t prepare any more gifts for the sanctuary. We have enough!” So the people stopped bringing their sacred offerings. ⁷ Their contributions were more than enough to complete the whole project.

Building the Tabernacle

⁸ The skilled craftsmen made ten curtains of finely woven linen for the Tabernacle. Then Bezalel^[a] decorated the curtains with blue, purple, and scarlet thread and with skillfully embroidered cherubim. ⁹ All ten curtains were exactly the same size—42 feet long and 6 feet wide.^{[b] 10} Five of these curtains were joined together to make one long curtain, and the other five were joined to make a second long curtain. ¹¹ He made fifty loops of blue yarn and put them along the edge of the last curtain in each set. ¹² The fifty loops along the edge of one curtain matched the fifty loops along the edge of the other curtain. ¹³ Then he made fifty gold clasps and fastened the long curtains together with the clasps. In this way, the Tabernacle was made of one continuous piece.

¹⁴ He made eleven curtains of goat-hair cloth to serve as a tent covering for the Tabernacle. ¹⁵ These eleven curtains were all exactly the same size—45 feet long and 6 feet wide.^{[c] 16} Bezalel joined five of these curtains together to make one long curtain, and the other six were joined to make a second long curtain. ¹⁷ He made fifty loops for the edge of each large curtain. ¹⁸ He also made fifty bronze clasps to fasten the long curtains together. In this way, the tent covering was made of one continuous piece. ¹⁹ He completed the tent covering with a layer of tanned ram skins and a layer of fine goatskin leather.

²⁰ For the framework of the Tabernacle, Bezalel constructed frames of acacia wood. ²¹ Each frame was 15 feet high and 27 inches wide,^{[d] 22} with two pegs under each frame. All the frames were identical. ²³ He made twenty of these frames to support the curtains on the south side of the Tabernacle. ²⁴ He also made forty silver bases—two bases under each frame, with the pegs fitting securely into the bases. ²⁵ For the north side of the Tabernacle, he made another twenty frames, ²⁶ with their forty silver bases, two bases under each frame. ²⁷ He made six frames for the rear—the west side of the Tabernacle— ²⁸ along with two additional frames to reinforce the rear corners of the Tabernacle. ²⁹ These corner frames were matched at the bottom and firmly attached at the top with a single ring, forming a single corner unit. Both of these corner units were made the same way. ³⁰ So there were eight frames at the rear of the Tabernacle, set in sixteen silver bases—two bases under each frame.

³¹ Then he made crossbars of acacia wood to link the frames, five crossbars for the north side of the Tabernacle ³² and five for the south side. He also made five crossbars for the rear of the Tabernacle, which faced west. ³³ He made the middle crossbar to attach halfway up the frames; it ran all the way from one end of the Tabernacle to the other. ³⁴ He overlaid the frames with gold and made gold rings to hold the crossbars. Then he overlaid the crossbars with gold as well.

³⁵ For the inside of the Tabernacle, Bezalel made a special curtain of finely woven linen. He decorated it with blue, purple, and scarlet thread and with skillfully embroidered cherubim. ³⁶ For the curtain, he made four posts of acacia wood and four gold hooks. He overlaid the posts with gold and set them in four silver bases.

³⁷ Then he made another curtain for the entrance to the sacred tent. He made it of finely woven linen and embroidered it with exquisite designs using blue, purple, and scarlet thread. ³⁸ This curtain was hung on gold hooks attached to five posts. The posts with their decorated tops and hooks were overlaid with gold, and the five bases were cast from bronze.

Jesus’ Trial before Pilate

¹¹ Now Jesus was standing before Pilate, the Roman governor. “Are you the king of the Jews?” the governor asked him.

Jesus replied, “You have said it.”

¹² But when the leading priests and the elders made their accusations against him, Jesus remained silent. ¹³ “Don’t you hear all these charges they are bringing against you?” Pilate demanded. ¹⁴ But Jesus made no response to any of the charges, much to the governor’s surprise.

¹⁵ Now it was the governor’s custom each year during the Passover celebration to release one prisoner to the crowd—anyone they wanted. ¹⁶ This year there was a notorious prisoner, a man named Barabbas.^{[a] 17} As the crowds gathered before Pilate’s house that morning, he asked them, “Which one do you want me to release to you—Barabbas, or Jesus who is called the Messiah?” ¹⁸ (He knew very well that the religious leaders had arrested Jesus out of envy.)

¹⁹ Just then, as Pilate was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent him this message: “Leave that innocent man alone. I suffered through a terrible nightmare about him last night.”

²⁰ Meanwhile, the leading priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas to be released and for Jesus to be put to death. ²¹ So the governor asked again, “Which of these two do you want me to release to you?”

The crowd shouted back, “Barabbas!”

²² Pilate responded, “Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?”

They shouted back, “Crucify him!”

²³ “Why?” Pilate demanded. “What crime has he committed?”

But the mob roared even louder, “Crucify him!”

²⁴ Pilate saw that he wasn’t getting anywhere and that a riot was developing. So he sent for a bowl of water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood. The responsibility is yours!”

²⁵ And all the people yelled back, “We will take responsibility for his death—we and our children!”^[b]

²⁶ So Pilate released Barabbas to them. He ordered Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip, then turned him over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified.

The Soldiers Mock Jesus

²⁷ Some of the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into their headquarters^[c] and called out the entire regiment. ²⁸ They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him. ²⁹ They wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on his head, and they placed a reed stick in his right hand as a scepter. Then they knelt before him in mockery and taunted, “Hail! King of the Jews!” ³⁰ And they spit on him and grabbed the stick and struck him on the head with it. ³¹ When they were finally tired of mocking him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him again. Then they led him away to be crucified.