Exodus 35:1-36:19

Common English Bible

35 Moses gathered together the whole Israelite community and said to them: These are the things that the Lord has commanded you to do:

Instructions for the Sabbath

² Do your work for six days, but the seventh day should be holy to you, a Sabbath of complete rest for the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath will be put to death. ³ Don’t start a fire in any of your homes on the Sabbath day.

Preparing to build the dwelling

⁴ Moses said to the whole Israelite community, This is what the Lord has commanded: ⁵ Collect gift offerings for the Lord from all of you. Whoever freely wants to give should bring the Lord’s gift offerings: gold, silver, and copper; ⁶ blue, purple, and deep red yarns; fine linen; goats’ hair; ⁷ rams’ skins dyed red; beaded leather;^[a] acacia wood; ⁸ the oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet-smelling incense; ⁹ gemstones; and gems for setting in the priest’s vest^[b] and in the priest’s chest pendant.

¹⁰ All of you who are skilled in crafts should come forward and make everything that the Lord has commanded: ¹¹ the dwelling, its tent and its covering, its clasps, its boards, its bars, its posts, and its bases, ¹² the chest with its poles and its cover, the veil for a screen, ¹³ the table with its poles and all its equipment, the bread of the presence, ¹⁴ the lampstand for light with its equipment and its lamps, the oil for the light, ¹⁵ the incense altar with its poles, the anointing oil and the sweet-smelling incense, the entrance screen for the dwelling’s entrance, ¹⁶ the altar for entirely burned offerings with its copper grate, its poles, and all its equipment, the washbasin with its stand, ¹⁷ the courtyard’s drapes, its posts, and its bases, and the screen for the courtyard gate, ¹⁸ the dwelling’s tent pegs and the courtyard’s tent pegs, and their cords, ¹⁹ the woven clothing for ministering in the sanctuary, and the holy clothes for Aaron the priest and his sons for their service as priests.

Gifts for building the dwelling

²⁰ The whole Israelite community left Moses. ²¹ Everyone who was excited and eager to participate brought the Lord’s gift offerings to be used for building the meeting tent and all its furnishings and for the holy clothes. ²² Both men and women came forward. Everyone who was eager to participate brought pins, earrings, rings, and necklaces, all sorts of gold objects. Everyone raised an uplifted offering of gold to the Lord. ²³ And everyone who had blue or purple or deep red yarn or fine linen or goats’ hair or rams’ skins dyed red or beaded leather brought them. ²⁴ Everyone who could make a gift offering of silver or copper brought it as the Lord’s gift offering. Everyone who had acacia wood that could be used in any kind of building work brought it. ²⁵ All the skilled women spun cloth with their hands, and brought what they had spun in blue and purple and deep red yarns and fine linen. ²⁶ All the women who were eager to use their skill spun the goats’ hair. ²⁷ The chiefs brought gemstones and gems to be set in the priest’s vest and the chest pendant, ²⁸ spices and oil for light and for the anointing oil, and for the sweet-smelling incense. ²⁹ All the Israelite men and women who were eager to contribute something for the work that the Lord had commanded Moses to do brought it as a spontaneous gift to the Lord.

Moses introduces Bezalel and Oholiab

³⁰ Then Moses said to the Israelites: “Look, the Lord has chosen Bezalel, Uri’s son and Hur’s grandson from the tribe of Judah. ³¹ The Lord has filled him with the divine spirit that will give him skill, ability, and knowledge for every kind of work. ³² He will be able to create designs, do metalwork in gold, silver, and copper, ³³ cut stones for setting, carve wood, do every kind of creative work, ³⁴ and have the ability to teach others. Both he and Oholiab, Ahisamach’s son from the tribe of Dan, ³⁵ have been given the skill to do every kind of work done by a gem cutter or a designer or a needleworker in blue, purple, and deep red yarns and in fine linen or a weaver or anyone else doing work or creating designs.

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.