Exodus 25:40

25:40 Now be sure to make ¹  them according to the pattern you were shown ²  on the mountain. ³ 

Exodus 26:30

26:30 You are to set up the tabernacle according to the plan ⁴  that you were shown on the mountain.

Exodus 27:8

27:8 You are to make the altar hollow, out of boards. Just as it was shown you ⁵  on the mountain, so they must make it. ⁶ 

Numbers 8:4

8:4 This is how the lampstand was made: ⁷  It was beaten work in gold; ⁸  from its shaft to its flowers it was beaten work. According to the pattern which the Lord had shown Moses, so he made the lampstand.

Numbers 8:1

Lighting the Lamps

8:1 ⁹ The Lord spoke to Moses:

Numbers 28:12

28:12 with three-tenths of an ephah of finely ground flour mixed with olive oil as a grain offering for each bull, and two-tenths of an ephah of finely ground flour mixed with olive oil as a grain offering for the ram,

Numbers 28:19

28:19 “‘But you must offer to the Lord an offering made by fire, a burnt offering of two young bulls, one ram, and seven lambs one year old; they must all be unblemished. ¹⁰ 

Acts 7:44

7:44 Our ancestors ¹¹  had the tabernacle ¹²  of testimony in the wilderness, ¹³  just as God ¹⁴  who spoke to Moses ordered him ¹⁵  to make it according to the design he had seen.

[25:40]  ¹ tn The text uses two imperatives: “see and make.” This can be interpreted as a verbal hendiadys, calling for Moses and Israel to see to it that they make these things correctly.

[25:40]  ² tn The participle is passive, “caused to see,” or, “shown.”

[25:40]  ³ sn The message of this section surely concerns access to God. To expound this correctly, though, since it is an instruction section for building the lampstand, the message would be: God requires that his people ensure that light will guide the way of access to God. The breakdown for exposition could be the instructions for preparation for light (one lamp, several branches), then instructions for the purpose and maintenance of the lamps, and then the last verse telling the divine source for the instructions. Naturally, the metaphorical value of light will come up in the study, especially from the NT. So in the NT there is the warning that if churches are unfaithful God will remove their lampstand, their ministry (Rev 2-3).

[26:30]  ⁴ tn The noun is מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat), often translated “judgment” or “decision” in other contexts. In those settings it may reflect its basic idea of custom, which here would be reflected with a rendering of “prescribed norm” or “plan.”

[27:8]  ⁵ tn The verb is used impersonally; it reads “just as he showed you.” This form then can be made a passive in the translation.

[27:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “thus they will make.” Here too it could be given a passive translation since the subject is not expressed. But “they” would normally refer to the people who will be making this and so can be retained in the translation.

[8:4]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew text literally has “and this is the work of the lampstand,” but that rendering does not convey the sense that it is describing how it was made.

[8:4]  ⁸ sn The idea is that it was all hammered from a single plate of gold.

[8:1]  ⁹ sn This chapter has three main sections to it: the lighting of the lamps (vv. 1-4), the separation of the Levites (vv. 5-22), and the work of the Levites (vv. 23-26). Many modern scholars assume that the chapter belongs to P and was added late. But the chapter reiterates some of the Mosaic material concerning the work of the Levites in the new sanctuary. For the chapter to make sense the historical setting must be accepted; if the historical setting is accepted, the chapter is necessary as part of that early legislation. For more reading, see M. Haran, “The Nature of the’ohel mo‘edh in the Pentateuchal Sources,” JSS 5 (1960): 50-65, and “The Priestly Image of the Tabernacle,” HUCA 36 (1965): 191-226; and C. L. Meyers, The Tabernacle Menorah.

[28:19]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “unblemished they will be to you.” So also in v. 31.

[7:44]  ¹¹ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

[7:44]  ¹² tn Or “tent.”

[7:44]  ¹³ tn Or “desert.”

[7:44]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “the one”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:44]  ¹⁵ tn The word “him” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context, but must be supplied for the modern English reader.