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^[a] long and 4 cubits^[b] 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^[c] 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^[d] long and 1 1/2 cubits^[e] 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^[f] with gold. And they made the five bronze bases for the posts.

Be United and Care for Each Other

2 Think about what we have in Christ: the encouragement he has brought us, the comfort of his love, our sharing in his Spirit, and the mercy and kindness he has shown us. If you enjoy these blessings, ² then do what will make my joy complete: Agree with each other, and show your love for each other. Be united in your goals and in the way you think. ³ In whatever you do, don’t let selfishness or pride be your guide. Be humble, and honor others more than yourselves. ⁴ Don’t be interested only in your own life, but care about the lives of others too.

Learn From Christ to Be Unselfish

⁵ In your life together, think the way Christ Jesus thought.

Be the People God Wants You to Be

¹² My dear friends, you always obeyed what you were taught. Just as you obeyed when I was with you, it is even more important for you to obey now that I am not there. So you must continue to live in a way that gives meaning to your salvation. Do this with fear and respect for God. ¹³ Yes, it is God who is working in you. He helps you want to do what pleases him, and he gives you the power to do it.

¹⁴ Do everything without complaining or arguing ¹⁵ so that you will be blameless and pure, children of God without any fault. But you are living with evil people all around you, who have lost their sense of what is right. Among those people you shine like lights in a dark world, ¹⁶ and you offer them the teaching that gives life. So I can be proud of you when Christ comes again. You will show that my work was not wasted—that I ran in the race and won.

¹⁷ Your faith makes you give your lives as a sacrifice in serving God. Maybe I will have to offer my own life with your sacrifice. But if that happens, I will be glad, and I will share my joy with all of you. ¹⁸ You also should be glad and share your joy with me.

News About Timothy and Epaphroditus

¹⁹ With the blessing of the Lord Jesus, I hope I will be able to send Timothy to you soon. I will be glad to learn how you are. ²⁰ I have no one else like Timothy, who genuinely cares for you. ²¹ Others are interested only in their own lives. They don’t care about the work of Christ Jesus. ²² You know the kind of person Timothy is. He has served with me in telling the Good News like a son with his father. ²³ I plan to send him to you quickly, as soon as I know what will happen to me. ²⁴ I am sure the Lord will help me come to you soon.

²⁵ For now, I think I must send Epaphroditus back to you. He is my brother in God’s family, who works and serves with me in the Lord’s army. When I needed help, you sent him to me, ²⁶ but now he wants very much to see all of you again. He is worried because you heard that he was sick. ²⁷ He was sick and near death. But God helped him and me too, so that I would not have even more grief. ²⁸ So I want very much to send him to you. When you see him, you can be happy. And I can stop worrying about you. ²⁹ Welcome him in the Lord with much joy. Give honor to people like Epaphroditus. ³⁰ He should be honored because he almost died for the work of Christ. He put his life in danger so that he could help me. This was help that you could not give me.