The Seventh Day—a Holy Day

35 Then Moses gathered together all the people of Israel, saying, “These are the things that the Lord has told you to do. ² Work may be done for six days. But the seventh day will be a holy day for you, a Day of Rest to the Lord. Whoever does any work on this day will be put to death. ³ Do not make a fire in any of your tents on the Day of Rest.”

Gifts for the Meeting Tent

⁴ Moses said to all the people of Israel, “This is what the Lord has told you to do. ⁵ Take from among you a gift to the Lord. Whoever has a willing heart, let him bring the Lord’s gift: gold, silver and brass, ⁶ and blue, purple and red cloth, fine linen, cloth made from goat hair, ⁷ rams’ skins made red, badgers’ skins and acacia wood, ⁸ lamp oil, spices for the oil for holy use and for the sweet-smelling perfume, ⁹ onyx stones and stones to be set for the linen vest and the breast-piece.

Parts of the Meeting Tent

¹⁰ “Let every able workman among you come and make all that the Lord has told us to make: ¹¹ the meeting tent, its tent and its covering, its hooks, its wood pieces, its cross-pieces, its pillars and their bases, ¹² the special box of the agreement and the long pieces of wood for carrying it, the mercy-seat, the curtain to hang in front of it, ¹³ the table and the long pieces of wood for carrying it, all its objects, and the holy bread to set before the Lord. ¹⁴ Also the able workmen are to make: the lamp-stand for the light, and its lamps and oil for the light, ¹⁵ the altar of special perfume and the long pieces of wood for carrying it, the oil for holy use, the sweet-smelling perfume, and the curtain for the door of the meeting tent. ¹⁶ Also they are to make: the altar of burnt gifts with its brass net and long pieces of wood for carrying it, all its objects, the washing pot and its base, ¹⁷ the curtains of the open space, its pillars and its bases, and the curtain for the gate of the open space. ¹⁸ Also the able workmen are to make: the nails of the meeting tent and the nails of the open space and their ropes, ¹⁹ the well-made clothing for working in the holy place, the holy clothing for Aaron the religious leader, and the clothing for his sons as they work as religious leaders.”

People Bring Their Gifts

²⁰ Then all the people of Israel went away from Moses. ²¹ And every one whose heart or spirit moved him brought the Lord’s gift to be used for the meeting tent, for all its work, and for the holy clothing. ²² Then all the men and women who wanted to give brought objects of gold that had been worn on their clothing, ears, fingers and arms. Every man gave a gift of gold to the Lord. ²³ And every one who had blue, purple and red cloth, fine linen, cloth made from goats’ hair, rams’ skins made red, and badgers’ skins, brought them. ²⁴ Every one who could give a gift of silver or brass brought it as a gift to the Lord. Every one who had acacia wood to be used for the work, brought it. ²⁵ All the able women made cloth with their hands. They brought the blue, purple and red cloth and fine linen they had made. ²⁶ All the able women whose hearts moved them made cloth from goat hair. ²⁷ The leaders brought the onyx stones and the stones to be set for the linen vest and the breast-piece, ²⁸ and the spice and the oil for the light, and the oil for holy use, and for the sweet-smelling perfume. ²⁹ The people of Israel who wanted to brought gifts to the Lord. Every man and woman, whose heart moved them, brought what the Lord had told them through Moses.

Workmen Called by God

³⁰ Then Moses said to the people of Israel, “See, the Lord has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the family of Judah. ³¹ The Lord has filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, understanding, much learning, and in all work. ³² So he can make plans for working in gold, silver and brass, ³³ and cut stones to be set, cut wood, and do good work of every kind. ³⁴ The Lord has given him the power to teach also, both he and Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the family of Dan. ³⁵ He has made them able to do every work: writing words in stone, gold, silver and brass, planning, sewing beautiful work on blue, purple and red cloth and fine linen, making cloth, and all kinds of work done by able workmen.

36 “Bezalel and Oholiab will do the work, together with every workman whom the Lord has made able and understands how to do all the work in the building of the holy place. They will do all that the Lord has said.”

The People Bring More Than Enough

² Then Moses called Bezalel and Oholiab and every workman whom the Lord had made able, every one whose heart moved him to come to do the work. ³ They received from Moses all the gifts the people of Israel had brought for the work of building the holy place. And they kept bringing gifts because they wanted to every morning. ⁴ All the able workmen came who were doing all the work on the holy place. Each man came from the work he had been doing. ⁵ They said to Moses, “The people are bringing much more than enough for the work the Lord told us to do.” ⁶ So Moses made it be known to all the people, saying, “No man or woman is to give any more gifts for the holy place.” So the people were kept from bringing any more. ⁷ For the things they had were enough for doing all the work. There was more than enough.

Building of the Tent

⁸ All the able men among those who were doing the work made the meeting tent with ten curtains. They made them of fine linen and blue, purple and red cloth, with cherubim sewed into them by an able workman. Bezalel made them. ⁹ Each curtain was as long as fourteen long steps and as wide as two long steps, all of them the same. ¹⁰ He joined five curtains to each other. And the other five curtains he joined to each other. ¹¹ He took small pieces of blue cloth, longer than they were wide. He sewed both ends to the side of the last curtain in the first row. Then he did the same on the side of the last curtain in the second row. ¹² He put fifty of these pieces on the one curtain. And he put fifty on the side of the other curtain, so that the pieces met each other. ¹³ He made fifty hooks of gold. Then he joined the curtains together with the hooks so the meeting tent was as one.

¹⁴ He made curtains of goat hair for a covering over the meeting tent. He made eleven curtains in all. ¹⁵ Each curtain was as long as fifteen long steps, and as wide as two long steps, all of them the same. ¹⁶ He joined five curtains by themselves and six curtains by themselves. ¹⁷ He took fifty small pieces of cloth, longer than they were wide. He sewed both ends of each to the side of the last curtain in the first row. Then he sewed fifty pieces onto the side of the last curtain in the second row. ¹⁸ He made fifty hooks of brass. And he put the hooks through the sewed pieces of cloth and joined the tent together as one. ¹⁹ He made a covering for the tent out of rams’ skins made red, and a covering of badgers’ skins over this. ²⁰ Then he made the pillars of acacia wood for the meeting tent. ²¹ Each piece of wood was as long as five long steps, and as wide as one step. ²² He made two joining pieces in each piece of wood for joining them together. He did this for all the pieces of wood of the meeting tent. ²³ He made twenty pieces of wood for the south side of the meeting tent. ²⁴ He made forty silver bases under the twenty pieces of wood, two bases under each piece of wood. ²⁵ Then he made twenty pieces of wood for the north side of the meeting tent. ²⁶ And he made forty silver bases, with two bases under each piece of wood. ²⁷ He made six pieces of wood for the back or west side of the meeting tent. ²⁸ He made two pieces of wood for the back corners. ²⁹ They were together at the bottom, and joined at the top with one ring. They were made the same for the two corners. ³⁰ There were eight pieces of wood, with sixteen silver bases, two under each piece of wood.

³¹ He made long, straight pieces of acacia wood, five for the pieces of wood on one side of the meeting tent, ³² and five for the pieces of wood on the other side of the meeting tent. Then he made five for the pieces of wood at the back of the meeting tent, the west side. ³³ He made the long, straight cross-piece for the center to pass through from end to end. ³⁴ He covered the pieces of wood with gold. He made rings of gold to hold the long, straight pieces of wood. And he covered these pieces of wood with gold.

³⁵ He made the curtain of blue and purple and red cloth and fine linen. He made it with cherubim sewed into it by an able workman. ³⁶ He hung it on four pillars of acacia wood covered with gold. Their hooks were made of gold and he made four silver bases for it. ³⁷ He made a curtain for the door of the meeting tent out of blue, purple and red cloth and fine linen, the work of an able workman. ³⁸ He made five pillars with their hooks and covered their tops with gold. But he made their five bases of brass.