²⁵ “No,” Moses said, “you must provide us with animals for sacrifices and burnt offerings to the Lord our God.

⁹ Aaron will then present as a sin offering the goat chosen by lot for the Lord.

²² After that, Aaron raised his hands toward the people and blessed them. Then, after presenting the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offering, he stepped down from the altar.

Dedication of the Priests

29 “This is the ceremony you must follow when you consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests: Take a young bull and two rams with no defects. ² Then, using choice wheat flour and no yeast, make loaves of bread, thin cakes mixed with olive oil, and wafers spread with oil. ³ Place them all in a single basket, and present them at the entrance of the Tabernacle, along with the young bull and the two rams.

⁴ “Present Aaron and his sons at the entrance of the Tabernacle,^[a] and wash them with water. ⁵ Dress Aaron in his priestly garments—the tunic, the robe worn with the ephod, the ephod itself, and the chestpiece. Then wrap the decorative sash of the ephod around him. ⁶ Place the turban on his head, and fasten the sacred medallion to the turban. ⁷ Then anoint him by pouring the anointing oil over his head. ⁸ Next present his sons, and dress them in their tunics. ⁹ Wrap the sashes around the waists of Aaron and his sons, and put their special head coverings on them. Then the right to the priesthood will be theirs by law forever. In this way, you will ordain Aaron and his sons.

¹⁰ “Bring the young bull to the entrance of the Tabernacle, where Aaron and his sons will lay their hands on its head. ¹¹ Then slaughter the bull in the Lord’s presence at the entrance of the Tabernacle. ¹² Put some of its blood on the horns of the altar with your finger, and pour out the rest at the base of the altar. ¹³ Take all the fat around the internal organs, the long lobe of the liver, and the two kidneys and the fat around them, and burn it all on the altar. ¹⁴ Then take the rest of the bull, including its hide, meat, and dung, and burn it outside the camp as a sin offering.

¹⁵ “Next Aaron and his sons must lay their hands on the head of one of the rams. ¹⁶ Then slaughter the ram, and splatter its blood against all sides of the altar. ¹⁷ Cut the ram into pieces, and wash off the internal organs and the legs. Set them alongside the head and the other pieces of the body, ¹⁸ then burn the entire animal on the altar. This is a burnt offering to the Lord; it is a pleasing aroma, a special gift presented to the Lord.

¹⁹ “Now take the other ram, and have Aaron and his sons lay their hands on its head. ²⁰ Then slaughter it, and apply some of its blood to the right earlobes of Aaron and his sons. Also put it on the thumbs of their right hands and the big toes of their right feet. Splatter the rest of the blood against all sides of the altar. ²¹ Then take some of the blood from the altar and some of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it on Aaron and his sons and on their garments. In this way, they and their garments will be set apart as holy.

²² “Since this is the ram for the ordination of Aaron and his sons, take the fat of the ram, including the fat of the broad tail, the fat around the internal organs, the long lobe of the liver, and the two kidneys and the fat around them, along with the right thigh. ²³ Then take one round loaf of bread, one thin cake mixed with olive oil, and one wafer from the basket of bread without yeast that was placed in the Lord’s presence. ²⁴ Put all these in the hands of Aaron and his sons to be lifted up as a special offering to the Lord. ²⁵ Afterward take the various breads from their hands, and burn them on the altar along with the burnt offering. It is a pleasing aroma to the Lord, a special gift for him. ²⁶ Then take the breast of Aaron’s ordination ram, and lift it up in the Lord’s presence as a special offering to him. Then keep it as your own portion.

²⁷ “Set aside the portions of the ordination ram that belong to Aaron and his sons. This includes the breast and the thigh that were lifted up before the Lord as a special offering. ²⁸ In the future, whenever the people of Israel lift up a peace offering, a portion of it must be set aside for Aaron and his descendants. This is their permanent right, and it is a sacred offering from the Israelites to the Lord.

²⁹ “Aaron’s sacred garments must be preserved for his descendants who succeed him, and they will wear them when they are anointed and ordained. ³⁰ The descendant who succeeds him as high priest will wear these clothes for seven days as he ministers in the Tabernacle and the Holy Place.

³¹ “Take the ram used in the ordination ceremony, and boil its meat in a sacred place. ³² Then Aaron and his sons will eat this meat, along with the bread in the basket, at the Tabernacle entrance. ³³ They alone may eat the meat and bread used for their purification^[b] in the ordination ceremony. No one else may eat them, for these things are set apart and holy. ³⁴ If any of the ordination meat or bread remains until the morning, it must be burned. It may not be eaten, for it is holy.

³⁵ “This is how you will ordain Aaron and his sons to their offices, just as I have commanded you. The ordination ceremony will go on for seven days. ³⁶ Each day you must sacrifice a young bull as a sin offering to purify them, making them right with the Lord.^[c] Afterward, cleanse the altar by purifying it^[d]; make it holy by anointing it with oil. ³⁷ Purify the altar, and consecrate it every day for seven days. After that, the altar will be absolutely holy, and whatever touches it will become holy.

³⁸ “These are the sacrifices you are to offer regularly on the altar. Each day, offer two lambs that are a year old, ³⁹ one in the morning and the other in the evening. ⁴⁰ With one of them, offer two quarts of choice flour mixed with one quart of pure oil of pressed olives; also, offer one quart of wine^[e] as a liquid offering. ⁴¹ Offer the other lamb in the evening, along with the same offerings of flour and wine as in the morning. It will be a pleasing aroma, a special gift presented to the Lord.

⁴² “These burnt offerings are to be made each day from generation to generation. Offer them in the Lord’s presence at the Tabernacle entrance; there I will meet with you and speak with you. ⁴³ I will meet the people of Israel there, in the place made holy by my glorious presence. ⁴⁴ Yes, I will consecrate the Tabernacle and the altar, and I will consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests. ⁴⁵ Then I will live among the people of Israel and be their God, ⁴⁶ and they will know that I am the Lord their God. I am the one who brought them out of the land of Egypt so that I could live among them. I am the Lord their God.

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.