Exodus 25:1-2

The Materials for the Sanctuary

25:1 ¹ The Lord spoke to Moses: 25:2 “Tell the Israelites to take ²  an offering ³  for me; from every person motivated by a willing ⁴  heart you ⁵  are to receive my offering.

Exodus 35:5

35:5 ‘Take ⁶  an offering for the Lord. Let everyone who has a willing heart ⁷  bring ⁸  an offering to the Lord: ⁹  gold, silver, bronze,

Exodus 35:22

35:22 They came, men and women alike, ¹⁰  all who had willing hearts. They brought brooches, earrings, rings and ornaments, all kinds of gold jewelry, ¹¹  and everyone came who waved ¹²  a wave offering of gold to the Lord.

Exodus 35:29

35:29 The Israelites brought a freewill offering to the Lord, every man and woman whose heart was willing to bring materials for all the work that the Lord through ¹³  Moses had commanded them ¹⁴  to do.

Exodus 36:3

36:3 and they received from Moses all the offerings the Israelites had brought to do ¹⁵  the work for the service of the sanctuary, and they still continued to bring him a freewill offering each morning. ¹⁶ 

Exodus 36:1

36:1 So Bezalel and Oholiab and every skilled person ¹⁷  in whom the Lord has put skill ¹⁸  and ability ¹⁹  to know how ²⁰  to do all the work for the service ²¹  of the sanctuary are to do the work ²²  according to all that the Lord has commanded.”

Exodus 29:3-9

29:3 You are to put them in one basket and present ²³  them in the basket, along with ²⁴  the bull and the two rams.

29:4 “You are to present ²⁵  Aaron and his sons at the entrance of the tent of meeting. You are to wash ²⁶  them with water 29:5 and take the garments and clothe Aaron with the tunic, ²⁷  the robe of the ephod, the ephod, and the breastpiece; you are to fasten the ephod on him by using the skillfully woven waistband. ²⁸  29:6 You are to put the turban on his head and put the holy diadem ²⁹  on the turban. 29:7 You are to take the anointing oil and pour it on his head and anoint him. ³⁰  29:8 You are to present his sons and clothe them with tunics 29:9 and wrap the sashes around Aaron and his sons ³¹  and put headbands on them, and so the ministry of priesthood will belong to them by a perpetual ordinance. Thus you are to consecrate ³²  Aaron and his sons.

Exodus 29:17

29:17 Then you are to cut the ram into pieces and wash the entrails and its legs and put them on its pieces and on its head

Ezra 1:6

1:6 All their neighbors assisted ³³  them with silver utensils, ³⁴  gold, equipment, animals, and expensive gifts, not to mention ³⁵  all the voluntary offerings.

Ezra 2:69

2:69 As they were able, ³⁶  they gave to the treasury for this work 61,000 drachmas ³⁷  of gold, 5,000 minas ³⁸  of silver, and 100 priestly robes. ³⁹ 

Ezra 7:16

7:16 along with all the silver and gold that you may collect ⁴⁰  throughout all the province of Babylon and the contributions of the people and the priests for the temple of their God which is in Jerusalem.

Ezra 8:25-28

8:25 and I weighed out to them the silver, the gold, and the vessels intended for the temple of our God – items that the king, his advisers, his officials, and all Israel who were present had contributed. 8:26 I weighed out to them ⁴¹  650 talents of silver, silver vessels worth 100 talents, ⁴²  100 talents of gold, 8:27 20 gold bowls worth 1,000 darics, and two exquisite vessels of gleaming bronze, as valuable as gold. 8:28 Then I said to them, “You are holy to the Lord, just as these vessels are holy. The silver and the gold are a voluntary offering to the Lord, the God of your fathers.

Luke 21:4

21:4 For they all offered their gifts out of their wealth. ⁴³  But she, out of her poverty, put in everything she had to live on.” ⁴⁴ 

[25:1]  ¹ sn Now begin the detailed instructions for constructing the tabernacle of Yahweh, with all its furnishings. The first paragraph introduces the issue of the heavenly pattern for the construction, calls for the people to make willing offerings (vv. 2-7), and explains the purpose for these offerings (vv. 8-9). The message here is that God calls his people to offer of their substance willingly so that his sanctuary may be made.

[25:2]  ² tn The verb is וְיִקְחוּ (vÿyiqkhu), the Qal imperfect or jussive with vav; after the imperative “speak” this verb indicates the purpose or result: “speak…that they may take” and continues with the force of a command.

[25:2]  ³ tn The “offering” (תְּרוּמָה, tÿrumah) is perhaps better understood as a contribution since it was a freewill offering. There is some question about the etymology of the word. The traditional meaning of “heave-offering” derives from the idea of “elevation,” a root meaning “to be high” lying behind the word. B. Jacob says it is something sorted out of a mass of material and designated for a higher purpose (Exodus, 765). S. R. Driver (Exodus, 263) corrects the idea of “heave-offering” by relating the root to the Hiphil form of that root, herim, “to lift” or “take off.” He suggests the noun means “what is taken off” from a larger mass and so designated for sacred purposes. The LXX has “something taken off.”

[25:2]  ⁴ tn The verb יִדְּבֶנּוּ (yiddÿvennu) is related to the word for the “freewill offering” (נְדָבָה, nÿdavah). The verb is used of volunteering for military campaigns (Judg 5:2, 9) and the willing offerings for both the first and second temples (see 1 Chr 29:5, 6, 9, 14, 17).

[25:2]  ⁵ tn The pronoun is plural.

[35:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “from with you.”

[35:5]  ⁷ tn “Heart” is a genitive of specification, clarifying in what way they might be “willing.” The heart refers to their will, their choices.

[35:5]  ⁸ tn The verb has a suffix that is the direct object, but the suffixed object is qualified by the second accusative: “let him bring it, an offering.”

[35:5]  ⁹ tn The phrase is literally “the offering of Yahweh”; it could be a simple possessive, “Yahweh’s offering,” but a genitive that indicates the indirect object is more appropriate.

[35:22]  ¹⁰ tn The expression in Hebrew is “men on/after the women,” meaning men with women, to ensure that it was clear that the preceding verse did not mean only men. B. Jacob takes it further, saying that the men came after the women because the latter had taken the initiative (Exodus, 1017).

[35:22]  ¹¹ tn Heb “all gold utensils.”

[35:22]  ¹² tn The verb could be translated “offered,” but it is cognate with the following noun that is the wave offering. This sentence underscores the freewill nature of the offerings people made. The word “came” is supplied from v. 21 and v. 22.

[35:29]  ¹³ tn Heb “by the hand of.”

[35:29]  ¹⁴ tn Here “them” has been supplied.

[36:3]  ¹⁵ tn In the Hebrew text the infinitive “to do it” comes after “sanctuary”; it makes a smoother rendering in English to move it forward, rather than reading “brought for the work.”

[36:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “in the morning, in the morning.”

[36:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “wise of [in] heart.”

[36:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “wisdom.”

[36:1]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “understanding, discernment.”

[36:1]  ²⁰ tn The relative clause includes this infinitive clause that expresses either the purpose or the result of God’s giving wisdom and understanding to these folk.

[36:1]  ²¹ tn This noun is usually given an interpretive translation. B. Jacob renders the bound relationship as “the holy task” or “the sacred task” (Exodus, 1019). The NIV makes it “constructing,” so read “the work of constructing the sanctuary.”

[36:1]  ²² tn The first word of the verse is a perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive; it is singular because it agrees with the first of the compound subject. The sentence is a little cumbersome because of the extended relative clause in the middle.

[29:3]  ²³ tn The verb קָרַב (qarav) in the Hiphil means to “bring near” to the altar, or, to offer something to God. These gifts will, therefore, be offered to him for the service of this ritual.

[29:3]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and with.”

[29:4]  ²⁵ tn Here too the verb is Hiphil (now imperfect) meaning “bring near” the altar. The choice of this verb indicates that they were not merely being brought near, but that they were being formally presented to Yahweh as the offerings were.

[29:4]  ²⁶ sn This is the washing referred to in Lev 8:6. This is a complete washing, not just of the hands and feet that would follow in the course of service. It had to serve as a symbolic ritual cleansing or purifying as the initial stage in the consecration. The imagery of washing will be used in the NT for regeneration (Titus 3:5).

[29:5]  ²⁷ tn The Hiphil of לָבַשׁ (lavash, “to clothe”) will take double accusatives; so the sign of the accusative is with Aaron, and then with the articles of clothing. The translation will have to treat Aaron as the direct object and the articles as indirect objects, because Aaron receives the prominence in the verse – you will clothe Aaron.

[29:5]  ²⁸ tn The verb used in this last clause is a denominative verb from the word for ephod. And so “ephod the ephod on him” means “fasten as an ephod the ephod on him” (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 316).

[29:6]  ²⁹ sn This term does not appear in chap. 28, but it can only refer to the plate with the inscription on it that was tied to the turban. Here it is called a “holy diadem,” a diadem that is distinctly set apart for this service. All the clothing was described as “holy garments,” and so they were all meant to mark the separation of the priests to this holy service. The items of clothing were each intended for different aspects of ministry, and so this step in the consecration was designed to symbolize being set apart for those duties, or, prepared (gifted) to perform the ministry.

[29:7]  ³⁰ sn The act of anointing was meant to set him apart for this holy service within the house of Yahweh. The psalms indicate that no oil was spared in this ritual, for it ran down his beard and to the hem of his garment. Oil of anointing was used for all major offices (giving the label with the passive adjective “mashiah” (or “messiah”) to anyone anointed. In the further revelation of Scripture, the oil came to signify the enablement as well as the setting apart, and often the Holy Spirit came on the person at the anointing with oil. The olive oil was a symbol of the Spirit in the OT as well (Zech 4:4-6). And in the NT “anointing” signifies empowerment by the Holy Spirit for service.

[29:9]  ³¹ tc Hebrew has both the objective pronoun “them” and the names “Aaron and his sons.” Neither the LXX nor Leviticus 8:13 has “Aaron and his sons,” suggesting that this may have been a later gloss in the text.

[29:9]  ³² tn Heb “and you will fill the hand” and so “consecrate” or “ordain.” The verb draws together the individual acts of the process.

[1:6]  ³³ tn Heb “strengthened their hands.”

[1:6]  ³⁴ tc The MT reads בִּכְלֵי־כֶסֶף (bikhley khesef, “with silver vessels”). However, part of the LXX manuscript tradition reads ἐν πᾶσιν ἀργυρίῳ (en pasin arguriw), which reflects an alternate Hebrew reading of בַּכֹּל־בַּכֶּסֶף (bakkol-bakkesef, “everywhere, with silver”). The textual variant involves (1) simple omission of yod (י) between two words, a common scribal mistake; (2) haplography of the preposition bet (בּ); and (3) an alternate vocalization tradition of the first term.

[1:6]  ³⁵ tn Heb “besides” or “in addition to.”

[2:69]  ³⁶ tn Heb “according to their strength.”

[2:69]  ³⁷ tn The meaning of the Hebrew word דַּרְכְּמוֹנִים (darkÿmonim, cf. Neh 7:69, 70, 71) is uncertain. It may be a Greek loanword meaning “drachmas” (the view adopted here and followed also by NAB, NASB, NIV) or a Persian loanword “daric,” referring to a Persian gold coin (BDB 204 s.v. דַּרְכְּמוֹן; HALOT 232 s.v. נִים(וֹ)דַּרְכְּמֹ; cf. ASV, NRSV). For further study, see R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel, 206-9.

[2:69]  ³⁸ sn The מָנִים (manim, cf. Neh 7:71, 72) is a measuring weight for valuable metals, equal to 1/60 of a talent or 60 shekels (BDB 584 s.v. מָנֶה; HALOT 599 s.v. מָנֶה). For further study, see R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel, 203-6.

[2:69]  ³⁹ tn Or “garments.”

[7:16]  ⁴⁰ tn Aram “find.”

[8:26]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “upon their hand.”

[8:26]  ⁴² tn Possibly “100 silver vessels worth [?] talents” or “silver vessels weighing 100 talents.”

[21:4]  ⁴³ tn Grk “out of what abounded to them.”

[21:4]  ⁴⁴ tn Or “put in her entire livelihood.”