The Sacred Tent

(Exodus 35.4-9)

25 The Lord said to Moses:

² Tell everyone in Israel who wants to give gifts that they must bring them to you. ³ Here is a list of what you are to collect: Gold, silver, and bronze; ⁴ blue, purple, and red wool; fine linen; goat hair; ⁵ tanned ram skins; fine leather; acacia wood; ⁶ olive oil for the lamp; sweet-smelling spices to mix with the incense and with the oil for dedicating the tent and ordaining the priests; ⁷ and onyx^[a] stones and other gems for the sacred vest and the breastpiece. ⁸ I also want them to build a special place where I can live among my people. ⁹ Make it and its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you.

The Sacred Chest

(Exodus 37.1-9)

The Lord said to Moses:

¹⁰ Tell the people to build a chest of acacia wood 110 centimeters long, 66 centimeters wide, and 66 centimeters high. ¹¹ Cover it inside and out with pure gold and put a gold edging around the lid. ¹² Make four gold rings and attach one of them to each of the four legs of the chest. ¹³ Make two poles of acacia wood. Cover them with gold ¹⁴ and put them through the rings, so the chest can be carried by the poles. ¹⁵ Don't ever remove the poles from the rings. ¹⁶ When I give you the Ten Commandments written on two flat stones, put them inside the chest.

^17 (A) Make the lid of the chest out of pure gold. ^18-19 Then hammer out two winged creatures of pure gold and fasten them to the lid at the ends of the chest. ²⁰ The creatures must face each other with their wings spread over the chest. ²¹ Inside it place the two flat stones with the Ten Commandments on them and put the gold lid on top of the chest. ²² I will meet you there^[b] between the two creatures and tell you what my people must do and what they must not do.

The Table for the Sacred Bread

(Exodus 37.10-16)

The Lord said:

²³ Make a table of acacia wood 88 centimeters long, 44 centimeters wide, and 66 centimeters high. ^24-25 Cover it with pure gold and put a gold edging around it with a border 75 millimeters thick.^{[c] 26} Make four gold rings and attach one to each of the legs ^27-28 near the edging. The poles for carrying the table are to be placed through these rings and are to be made of acacia wood covered with gold. ^29-30 (B) The table is to be kept in the holy place, and the sacred loaves of bread must always be on it. All bowls, plates, jars, and cups for wine offerings are to be made of pure gold and set on this table.

The Lampstand

(Exodus 37.17-24)

The Lord said:

³¹ Make a lampstand of pure gold. The whole lampstand, including its decorative flowers, must be made from a single piece of hammered gold ³² with three branches on each of its two sides. ³³ There are to be three decorative almond blossoms on each branch ³⁴ and four on the stem. ³⁵ There must also be a blossom where each pair of branches comes out from the stem. ³⁶ The lampstand, including its branches and decorative flowers, must be made from a single piece of hammered pure gold. ³⁷ The lamp on the top and those at the end of each of its six branches must be made so as to shine toward the front of the lampstand. ³⁸ The tongs and trays for taking care of the lamps are to be made of pure gold. ³⁹ The lampstand and its equipment will require 35 kilograms of pure gold, ^40 (C) and they must be made according to the pattern I showed you on the mountain.

Curtains and Coverings for the Sacred Tent

(Exodus 36.8-19)

The Lord said to Moses:

26 The top of the sacred tent must be made from ten pieces of the finest linen, woven with blue, purple, and red wool and embroidered with figures of winged creatures. ² Make each piece twelve meters long and two meters wide ³ and sew them together into two panels with five sections each. ^4-6 Put 50 loops of blue cloth along one of the wider sides of each panel, then fasten the two panels at the loops with 50 gold hooks.

^7-8 As the material for protecting the tent, use goat hair to weave eleven sections of cloth 13 meters by 2 meters each. ⁹ Sew five of the sections together to make one panel. Then sew the other six together to make a second panel, and fold the sixth section double over the front of the tent. ¹⁰ Put 50 loops along one of the wider sides of each panel ¹¹ and fasten the two panels at the loops with 50 bronze hooks. ^12-13 The panel of goat hair will be a meter longer than the tent itself, so fold 50 centimeters of the material behind the tent and on each side as a protective covering. ¹⁴ Make two more coverings—one with tanned ram skins and the other with fine leather.

The Framework for the Sacred Tent

(Exodus 36.20-34)

The Lord said:

¹⁵ Build a framework of acacia wood for the walls of the sacred tent. ¹⁶ Make each frame 4 meters high and 66 centimeters wide ¹⁷ with two wooden pegs near the bottom. ^18-21 Place two silver stands under each frame with sockets for the pegs, so the frames can be joined together. Put 20 of these frames along the south side and 20 more along the north. ²² For the back wall along the west side use six frames ^23-24 with two more at the southwest and northwest corners. Make certain that these corner frames are joined from top to bottom. ²⁵ Altogether, this back wall will have eight frames with two silver stands under each one.

^26-27 Make five crossbars for each of the wooden frames, ²⁸ with the center crossbar running the full length of the wall. ²⁹ Cover the frames and the crossbars with gold and attach gold rings to the frames to run the crossbars through. ³⁰ Then set up the tent in the way I showed you on the mountain.

The Curtain inside the Sacred Tent

(Exodus 36.35-38)

The Lord said:

^31-33 (D) Make a curtain to separate the holy place from the most holy place. Use fine linen woven with blue, purple, and red wool, and embroidered with figures of winged creatures. Cover four acacia wood posts with gold and set them each on a silver stand. Then fasten gold hooks to the posts and hang the curtain there.

³⁴ Inside the most holy place, put the sacred chest that has the place of mercy on its lid.^{[d] 35} Outside the most holy place, as you face the curtain, put the table for the sacred bread on the right side and the gold lampstand on the left.

³⁶ For the entrance to the tent, use a piece of fine linen woven with blue, purple, and red wool and embroidered with fancy needlework. ³⁷ Cover five acacia wood posts with gold and set them each on a bronze stand. Then put gold hooks on the posts and hang the curtain there.

Jesus Again Tells about His Death

(Mark 10.32-34; Luke 18.31-34)

¹⁷ As Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem, he took his twelve disciples aside and told them in private:

¹⁸ We are now on our way to Jerusalem, where the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the teachers of the Law of Moses. They will sentence him to death, ¹⁹ and then they will hand him over to foreigners^[a] who will make fun of him. They will beat him and nail him to a cross. But on the third day he will rise from death.

A Mother's Request

(Mark 10.35-45)

²⁰ The mother of James and John^[b] came to Jesus with her two sons. She knelt down and started begging him to do something for her. ²¹ Jesus asked her what she wanted, and she said, “When you come into your kingdom, please let one of my sons sit at your right side and the other at your left.”^[c]

²² Jesus answered, “Not one of you knows what you are asking. Are you able to drink from the cup^[d] that I must soon drink from?”

James and John said, “Yes, we are!”

²³ Jesus replied, “You certainly will drink from my cup! But it isn't for me to say who will sit at my right side and at my left. This is for my Father to say.”

²⁴ When the ten other disciples heard this, they were angry with the two brothers. ^25 (A) But Jesus called the disciples together and said:

You know foreign rulers like to order their people around. And their great leaders have full power over everyone they rule. ^26 (B) But don't act like them. If you want to be great, you must be the servant of all the others. ²⁷ And if you want to be first, you must be the slave of the rest. ²⁸ The Son of Man did not come to be a slave master, but a slave who will give his life to rescue^[e] many people.

Jesus Heals Two Blind Men

(Mark 10.46-52; Luke 18.35-43)

²⁹ Jesus was followed by a large crowd as he and his disciples were leaving Jericho. ³⁰ Two blind men were sitting beside the road. And when they heard that Jesus was coming their way, they shouted, “Lord and Son of David,^[f] have pity on us!”

³¹ The crowd told them to be quiet, but they shouted even louder, “Lord and Son of David, have pity on us!”

³² When Jesus heard them, he stopped and asked, “What do you want me to do for you?”

³³ They answered, “Lord, we want to see!”

³⁴ Jesus felt sorry for them and touched their eyes. At once they could see, and they became his followers.