Beginning
The tabernacle
25 The Lord said to Moses: 2 ‘Tell the Israelites to bring me an offering. Every person who wants to give can make a gift to me. You must receive their gifts. 3 These are the gifts that you must receive from the people as an offering:
gold, silver and bronze;
4 blue, purple and red material;
good linen and goat's hair;
5 red leather from sheep's skins and other good leather;
wood from acacia trees;
6 olive oil for the lamps;
spices for the special oil and for incense with a nice smell;
7 onyx and other jewels to fix on the priest's ephod and his breastpiece.[a]
8 You must tell the Israelites to make a special place to be my home. Then I will live among them. 9 I will show you how to make this tabernacle and everything that you will put inside it. But you must make everything in the way that I tell you.
The Covenant Box
10 The Israelites must use acacia wood to make a big box. It must be 1 metre long, 75 centimetres wide and 75 centimetres high. 11 Cover the wood with gold, both inside and outside. Build up the edges of the box with gold. 12 Make four gold rings and fix them to the four feet of the box. Fix two rings on one side and two rings on the other side. 13 Then use acacia wood to make two poles. Cover them with gold too. 14 Push the poles through the rings on the sides of the box. You will use the poles to carry the box. 15 The poles must remain along the side of the box, in the rings. Never remove them. 16 Then put into the box the two flat stones with the words of the covenant on them. I will give those to you.
17 Use pure gold to make a lid for the box. Make the lid 1 metre long and 75 centimetres wide. 18 Use gold to make images of two cherubs. Use a hammer to make them the right shape. They will stand at the two ends of the lid. 19 One cherub will stand at one end of the lid, and one cherub will stand at the other end. The two cherubs and the lid must be one piece of gold. 20 The cherubs must look towards each other and watch over the lid. Their wings must touch each other over the top of the lid. 21 Then put the lid on the top of the box. Put the flat stones with the words of the covenant into the box. I will give those to you.
22 I will meet with you there, between the two cherubs that are above the lid. They watch over the Covenant Box. In that place I will give you all my commands for the Israelites.
The table for special bread
23 Use acacia wood to make a table. It must be one 1 metre long, 50 centimetres wide and 75 centimetres high. 24 Cover the wood with gold. Build up the edges of the table with gold. 25 Also, fix an extra piece of wood around its edge. It must be 7 centimetres wide. Build up the edges of this piece with gold.
26 Make four gold rings for the table. Fix them to the four corners, one beside each leg of the table. 27 The rings must be near to the extra piece of wood. They will hold the poles that you will use to carry the table. 28 Use acacia wood to make the poles. Cover them with gold. Use the poles to carry the table. 29 Use pure gold to make plates, big spoons, jars and bowls. You will use these things to pour out drink offerings. 30 Put the Lord's special bread on this table. The bread must always be there for me.
The lampstand
31 Use one piece of pure gold to make a lampstand. Use a hammer to make it the right shape. Use the gold to make its base, its middle pole and the cups to hold the oil. The cups will be like open flowers and closed flowers. 32 Make six branches on the lampstand, three branches on each side of the middle pole. 33 Put three cups in the shape of almond flowers and their leaves on each branch. Each of the six branches of the lampstand will have three cups like that. 34 On the lampstand itself, put four cups in the shape of almond flowers and their leaves. 35 Put one closed flower under the first pair of branches. Put a second closed flower under the second pair of branches. Put the third closed flower under the third pair of branches. So there will be three closed flowers for the six branches on the lampstand. 36 You must make the flowers and the branches from the same piece of pure gold as the lampstand. Use a hammer to make the gold into the right shape.
37 Then make seven lamps and fix them to the lampstand. Fix them so that they light the space in front of the lampstand. 38 Also use pure gold to make small tools and dishes to take care of the lamps. 39 Use 34 kilograms of pure gold to make the lampstand and all the tools to take care of it.
40 Be careful to make all these things like the plan that I have shown you on the mountain.
The tabernacle
26 Make the tabernacle with ten curtains of very good linen. Also use blue, purple and red material. Tell a worker to use special skills to make pictures of cherubs on the curtains. 2 All the curtains must be the same size: 12 metres long and 2 metres wide. 3 Join five of the curtains together. Do the same thing with the other five curtains. 4 Fix rings of blue material along the edge of the last curtain in each set of five curtains. 5 Put 50 rings on the edge of the first set. Put 50 rings on the edge of the other set. Do this so that the rings on one curtain are opposite to the rings on the other curtain. 6 Then use 50 small gold hooks to join the curtains together. In this way, a single piece of curtain will make the whole tabernacle.
7 Use goats' hair to make 11 curtains. They will cover the tabernacle, like a tent. 8 All the curtains must be the same size: 13.5 metres long and 2 metres wide. 9 Join five of the curtains together to make one set. Fix the other six curtains together to make a second set. Turn the sixth curtain of this set over itself to cover the entrance of the tent. 10 Use material to make 50 rings along the edge of the end curtain in each set. 11 Then make 50 bronze hooks. Use them to join the two sets of curtains together so that it makes a single tent. 12 The curtains for the tent will be longer than the curtains for the tabernacle. The extra half of the curtain for the tent will hang at the back of the tabernacle. 13 The curtains of the tent will be half a metre longer on both sides. The extra material will hang over each side of the tabernacle to cover it completely.
14 Use red leather from sheep's skins to cover the tent. Then use another kind of good leather to cover the red leather.
15 Use acacia wood to make boards to hold up the tabernacle. 16 Each board must be 4 metres high and 65 centimetres wide. 17 Make two wooden pegs on each board, beside each other. Make all the boards of the tabernacle like this. 18 Make 20 boards for the south side of the tabernacle. 19 Then use silver to make 40 heavy bases to hold up the boards. Two bases will hold up each board. The pegs on the boards will fit into holes in the bases. 20 Also make 20 boards for the north side of the tabernacle. 21 Make 40 silver bases, two bases under each board. 22 Make six boards for the west side, at the back of the tabernacle. 23 Then make two boards for the corners at the back of the tabernacle. 24 You must fix the two boards together, from the bottom to the top. Use a ring to fix them together at the top. Make both the corners in the same way. 25 So there will be eight boards at the back of the tabernacle and 16 silver bases, two bases under each board.
26 You must also use acacia wood to make bars to fix across the boards. Make five bars for the south side of the tabernacle, 27 five bars for the north side, and five bars for the west side at the back of the tabernacle. 28 The bar that goes across the centre of the boards must reach from one end of the tabernacle to the other end. 29 Use gold to cover the boards and to make rings for the boards. These rings will hold the bars in place across the boards. Also cover the wooden bars with gold.
30 Make the tabernacle the same as the plan that I showed to you on the mountain.
The curtain inside the tabernacle
31 Use blue, purple and red material and good linen to make a special curtain. A worker must use special skills to make pictures of cherubs on it. 32 Use gold rings to hang the curtain from four poles of acacia wood. Cover these poles with gold. Then fix them on four silver bases. 33 Hang the top of the curtain from the rings. Put the Covenant Box behind the curtain, in the Most Holy Place. The curtain will hang between the Most Holy Place and the Holy Place so that they are separate. 34 Put the special lid on the Covenant Box, in the Most Holy Place.[b] 35 Put the special table in the Holy Place, outside the curtain. It will be on the north side of the tabernacle. Put the lampstand opposite the table, on the south side.
36 Make a curtain for the entrance of the tent. Use blue, purple and red material and good linen to make it. A worker must use special skills to make it so that it looks beautiful. 37 Use acacia wood to make five poles. Cover them with gold. Fix gold rings to the poles. Use bronze to make five bases to hold up the poles. Then hang the curtain from the rings on the poles.
The altar for sacrifices
27 Use acacia wood to make an altar. It must be square, 2.2 metres long and 2.2 metres wide. It must be 1.3 metres high. 2 Make four horns, one at each corner of the altar. The horns and the altar itself must be one piece of work. Then cover the whole altar with bronze. 3 Make all the tools for the altar with bronze. Make pots to remove the ashes, spades and bowls. Make forks for the meat. Make dishes to carry the fire. 4 Use bronze to make a square net and rings at each corner. 5 Fix this net inside the altar, in the middle, between the top of the altar and the ground.[c] 6 Use acacia wood to make poles for the altar. Cover them with bronze. 7 You must put the poles through the rings when you carry the altar. There will be a pole on each of two sides of the altar. 8 Use boards to make the altar, so that it is empty inside. You must make it in the way that the Lord showed you on the mountain.
The yard
9 Make a yard around the tent of the tabernacle. The south side must be 45 metres long. It will have curtains that are made of good linen. 10 Make 20 poles and 20 bronze bases to hold the poles. Use silver to make hooks and sticks to hold the curtains. 11 The north side of the yard must also be 45 metres long. It will also have 20 poles with their bronze bases, as well as their silver hooks and sticks.
12 The west end of the yard must be 23 metres long. Make curtains for it, with ten poles and their bronze bases. 13 The entrance to the yard is at its east end. That end must also be 23 metres long. 14-15 There will be 7 metres of curtain on each side of the entrance. There will be three poles with their bases to hold the curtains on each side.
16 Make a curtain 9 metres wide for the entrance to the yard. Make it out of blue, purple and red material, as well as good linen. Choose a worker who can use special skills to make the curtain look beautiful. Make four poles and their bases to hold the curtain at the entrance.
17 All the poles around the yard must have bronze bases. They will also have silver hooks and sticks to hold the curtains. 18 The yard will be 45 metres long and 23 metres wide. Use good linen to make the curtains. They must be 2¼ metres high on the bronze bases.
19 Use bronze to make all the tools that you will use in the tabernacle. Also use bronze to make the pegs that fix the tent of the tabernacle to the ground. And make bronze pegs to fix the curtain around the yard to the ground.
Olive oil for the lamps
20 Command the Israelites to bring you pure oil from fresh olives. You will use this oil to make the lamps give light all the time. 21 Aaron and his sons must make sure that the lamps always give light from evening until morning. The lampstand will be in the Tent of Meeting, outside the curtain that hangs in front of the Covenant Box.[d] The lamps must always give light there, where the Lord is. This will always be a rule for the Israelites, now and in the future.
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