Exodus 26:7-14

26:7 “You are to make curtains of goats’ hair ¹  for a tent over the tabernacle; ²  you are to make ³  eleven curtains. 26:8 The length of each ⁴  curtain is to be forty-five feet, and the width of each curtain is to be six feet – the same size for the eleven curtains. 26:9 You are to join five curtains by themselves and six curtains by themselves. You are to double over ⁵  the sixth curtain at the front of the tent. 26:10 You are to make fifty loops along the edge of the end curtain in one set and fifty loops along the edge of the curtain that joins the second set. 26:11 You are to make fifty bronze clasps and put the clasps into the loops and join the tent together so that it is a unit. ⁶  26:12 Now the part that remains of the curtains of the tent – the half curtain that remains will hang over at the back of the tabernacle. ⁷  26:13 The foot and a half ⁸  on the one side and the foot and a half on the other side of what remains in the length of the curtains of the tent will hang over the sides of the tabernacle, on one side and the other side, to cover it. ⁹ 

26:14 “You are to make a covering ¹⁰  for the tent out of ram skins dyed red and over that a covering of fine leather. ¹¹ 

[26:7]  ¹ sn This chapter will show that there were two sets of curtains and two sets of coverings that went over the wood building to make the tabernacle or dwelling place. The curtains of fine linen described above could be seen only by the priests from inside. Above that was the curtain of goats’ hair. Then over that were the coverings, an inner covering of rams’ skins dyed red and an outer covering of hides of fine leather. The movement is from the inside to the outside because it is God’s dwelling place; the approach of the worshiper would be the opposite. The pure linen represented the righteousness of God, guarded by the embroidered cherubim; the curtain of goats’ hair was a reminder of sin through the daily sin offering of a goat; the covering of rams’ skins dyed red was a reminder of the sacrifice and the priestly ministry set apart by blood, and the outer covering marked the separation between God and the world. These are the interpretations set forth by Kaiser; others vary, but not greatly (see W. C. Kaiser, Jr., “Exodus,” EBC 2:459).

[26:7]  ² sn This curtain will serve “for a tent over the tabernacle,” as a dwelling place.

[26:7]  ³ tn Heb “you will make them”

[26:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “one”

[26:9]  ⁵ sn The text seems to describe this part as being in front of the tabernacle, hanging down to form a valence at the entrance (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 284).

[26:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “one”

[26:12]  ⁷ sn U. Cassuto (Exodus, 353) cites b. Shabbat 98b which says, “What did the tabernacle resemble? A woman walking on the street with her train trailing behind her.” In the expression “the half of the curtain that remains,” the verb agrees in gender with the genitive near it.

[26:13]  ⁸ tn Literally “cubit.”

[26:13]  ⁹ sn U. Cassuto states the following: “To the north and to the south, since the tent curtains were thirty cubits long, there were ten cubits left over on each side; these covered the nine cubits of the curtains of the tabernacle and also the bottom cubit of the boards, which the tabernacle curtains did not suffice to cover. It is to this that v. 13 refers” (Exodus, 353).

[26:14]  ¹⁰ sn Two outer coverings made of stronger materials will be put over the tent and the curtain, the two inner layers.

[26:14]  ¹¹ tn See the note on this phrase in Exod 25:5.