Exodus 38

Exodus 38:1 He made the altar of ascending offering of acacia wood. Its length was five cubits, and its breadth five cubits. It was square, and three cubits was its height.

Exodus 38:2 He made horns for it on its four corners. Its horns were carved of one piece with it, and he plated it with bronze.

Exodus 38:3 And he made all the utensils of the altar, the pots, the shovels, the basins, the forks, and the fire pans. He made all its utensils of bronze.

Exodus 38:4 And he made for the altar a grating, a network of bronze, under its ledge, extending halfway down.

Exodus 38:5 He cast four rings on the four corners of the bronze grating as houses for the poles.

Exodus 38:6 He made the poles of acacia wood and plated them with bronze.

Exodus 38:7 And he put the poles through the rings on the sides of the altar to carry it with them. He made it hollow, with boards.

Exodus 38:8 He made the basin of bronze and its stand of bronze, fashioned from the mirrors of the ministering women who ministered in the entrance of the conference tent.

Exodus 38:9 And he made the courtyard. On the south side the hangings of the courtyard were made of fine twined linen, a hundred cubits long;

Exodus 38:10 their twenty pillars and their twenty bases were of bronze, but the hooks of the pillars and their bands were of silver.

Exodus 38:11 And on the north side there were hangings a hundred cubits long, their twenty pillars, their twenty bases were of bronze, but the hooks of the pillars and their bands were of silver.

Exodus 38:12 And on the west side were hangings fifty cubits long, their ten pillars, and their ten bases; the hooks of the pillars and their bands were of silver.

Exodus 38:13 And on the front to the east, fifty cubits long.

Exodus 38:14 The hangings for one side of the gate were fifteen cubits, with their three pillars and three bases.

Exodus 38:15 And also for the other side. On both sides of the gate of the courtyard were hangings fifteen cubits long, with their three pillars and their three bases.

Exodus 38:16 All the hangings around the courtyard were of fine twined linen.

Exodus 38:17 And the bases for the pillars were of bronze, but the hooks of the pillars and their bands were of silver. The plating of their capitals was also of silver, and all the pillars of the courtyard were banded with silver.

Exodus 38:18 And the screen for the gate of the courtyard was embroidered with needlework in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen. It was twenty cubits long and five cubits high in its breadth, just like the hangings of the court.

Exodus 38:19 And their pillars were four in number. Their four bases were of bronze, their hooks of silver, and the plating of their capitals and their bands of silver.

Exodus 38:20 And all the pegs for the tabernacle and for the court all around were of bronze.

Exodus 38:21 These are the specifications of the tabernacle, the tabernacle of the reminder, as they were recorded by Moses’ command, detailing the responsibility of the Levites under the direction of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest.

Exodus 38:22 Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made all that Yahveh commanded Moses;

Exodus 38:23 and with him was Oholiab the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, an engraver and designer and embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen.

Exodus 38:24 All the gold that was used for the work, in all the construction of the sanctuary, the gold that was contributed, was twenty-nine talents and 730 shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary.

Exodus 38:25 The silver from those of the congregation who were recorded was a hundred talents and 1,775 shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary:

Exodus 38:26 a beka per person (that is, half a shekel, by the shekel of the sanctuary), for everyone who was listed in the records, from twenty years old and upward, for 603,550 men.

Exodus 38:27 The hundred talents of silver were for casting the bases of the sanctuary and the bases of the veil; a hundred bases for the hundred talents, a talent a base.

Exodus 38:28 And from the 1,775 shekels he made hooks for the pillars and overlaid their capitals and made bowls for them.

Exodus 38:29 The bronze that was offered was seventy talents and 2,400 shekels;

Exodus 38:30 with it he made the bases for the entrance of the conference tent, the bronze altar and the bronze grating for it and all the utensils of the altar,

Exodus 38:31 the bases around the court, and the bases of the gate of the court, all the pegs of the tabernacle, and all the pegs around the court.

Exodus 38 quotes:

“Of minor interest in this passage is the fact that women in those days used mirrors as a means of checking on their appearance. They made them out of polished bronze. These they now willingly gave up to serve as material for the bronze basin which the priests used to wash themselves. Of greater interest is the fact that women served at the entrance of the tabernacle. Their presence is also mentioned in 1 Samuel 2:22. What service these women performed is not explained. Perhaps they dedicated themselves to a life of prayer and fasting, as we hear about later in the case of Anna at the time of Christ, mentioned in Luke 2:36-37. Perhaps they were women who devoted themselves to a life of virginity in order to serve the Lord with praying and fasting, as some suppose happened in the case of Jephthah’s daughter, recorded in Judges 11:39. The Bible does not give us any details on this matter.”

Wendland, Ernst H. Exodus. Northwestern Pub. House, 1984. p. 274.

“he si/ver obtained from those of the community who were counted in the census was 100 talents and 1,775 shekels, according to the sanctuary shekel—one beka per person, that is, half a shekel, according to the sanctuary shekel, from everyone who had crossed over to those counted, twenty years old or more, a total of 603,550 men. The 100 talents of silver were used to cast the bases for the sanctuary and for the curtain—100 bases from the 100 talents, one talent for each base. (Exodus 38:25-27)”

Brittingham, Les. Tabernacle of Grace. Tate Publishing, 2016. p. 79.

“We have seen that the church is built on the basis of the redemption of Christ, as typified by the one hundred silver sockets (Exo. 36:24, 26, 30, 36). The whole tabernacle was grounded on the silver sockets. The base and foundation of the silver sockets is one of the most significant aspects of the tabernacle. Exodus 38:27 tells us that the sockets were very large and heavy, each being of one talent, the equivalent of almost one hundred pounds. The heaviest part of the tabernacle was the foundation. The tabernacle was not grounded on the earth. It was based and grounded on the silver sockets. It was something different from the earth and separated from the earth. This shows us that the church is not grounded or built upon something of the earth but on something apart from the earth, the full and weighty redemption of Christ.”

Lee, Witness. Spiritual Applications of the Tabernacle. Living Stream Ministry, 1987. p. 59.