Discovery BoxExodus 36:3-38
Context36:3 and they received from Moses all the offerings the Israelites had brought to do 1 the work for the service of the sanctuary, and they still continued to bring him a freewill offering each morning. 2 36:4 So all the skilled people who were doing all the work on the sanctuary came from the work 3 they were doing 36:5 and told Moses, “The people are bringing much more than 4 is needed for the completion 5 of the work which the Lord commanded us to do!” 6
36:6 Moses instructed them to take 7 his message 8 throughout the camp, saying, “Let no man or woman do any more work for the offering for the sanctuary.” So the people were restrained from bringing any more. 9 36:7 Now the materials were more than enough 10 for them to do all the work. 11
36:8 All the skilled among those who were doing the work made the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twisted linen and blue and purple and scarlet; they were made with cherubim that were the work of an artistic designer. 36:9 The length of one curtain was forty-two feet, and the width of one curtain was six feet – the same size for each of the curtains. 36:10 He joined 12 five of the curtains to one another, and the other 13 five curtains he joined to one another. 36:11 He made loops of blue material along the edge of the end curtain in the first set; he did the same along the edge of the end curtain in the second set. 36:12 He made fifty loops on the first curtain, and he made fifty loops on the end curtain that was in the second set, with the loops opposite one another. 36:13 He made fifty gold clasps and joined the curtains together to one another with the clasps, so that the tabernacle was a unit. 14
36:14 He made curtains of goats’ hair for a tent over the tabernacle; he made eleven curtains. 15 36:15 The length of one curtain was forty-five feet, and the width of one curtain was six feet – one size for all eleven curtains. 36:16 He joined five curtains by themselves and six curtains by themselves. 36:17 He made fifty loops along the edge of the end curtain in the first set and fifty loops along the edge of the curtain that joined the second set. 36:18 He made fifty bronze clasps to join the tent together so that it might be a unit. 16 36:19 He made a covering for the tent out of ram skins dyed red and over that a covering of fine leather. 17
36:20 He made the frames 18 for the tabernacle of acacia wood 19 as uprights. 20 36:21 The length of each 21 frame was fifteen feet, the width of each 22 frame was two and a quarter feet, 36:22 with 23 two projections per frame parallel one to another. 24 He made all the frames of the tabernacle in this way. 36:23 So he made frames for the tabernacle: twenty frames for the south side. 36:24 He made forty silver bases under the twenty frames – two bases under the first frame for its two projections, and likewise 25 two bases under the next frame for its two projections, 36:25 and for the second side of the tabernacle, the north side, he made twenty frames 36:26 and their forty silver bases, two bases under the first frame and two bases under the next 26 frame. 36:27 And for the back of the tabernacle on the west he made six frames. 36:28 He made two frames for the corners of the tabernacle on the back. 36:29 At the two corners 27 they were doubled at the lower end and 28 finished together at the top in one ring. So he did for both. 36:30 So there were eight frames and their silver bases, sixteen bases, two bases under each frame.
36:31 He made bars of acacia wood, five for the frames on one side of the tabernacle 36:32 and five bars for the frames on the second side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the frames of the tabernacle for the back side on the west. 36:33 He made the middle bar to reach from end to end in the center of the frames. 36:34 He overlaid the frames with gold and made their rings of gold to provide places 29 for the bars, and he overlaid the bars with gold.
36:35 He made the special curtain of blue, purple, and scarlet yarn and fine twisted linen; he made 30 it with cherubim, the work of an artistic designer. 36:36 He made for it four posts of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold, with gold hooks, 31 and he cast for them four silver bases.
36:37 He made a hanging for the entrance of the tent of blue, purple, and scarlet yarn and fine twisted linen, the work of an embroiderer, 36:38 and its five posts and their hooks. He overlaid their tops 32 and their bands with gold, but their five bases were bronze. 33
[36:3] 1 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] 2 tn Heb “in the morning, in the morning.”
[36:4] 3 tn Heb “a man, a man from his work”; or “each one from his work.”
[36:5] 4 tn The construction uses the verbal hendiadys: מַרְבִּים לְהָבִיא (marbim lÿhavi’) is the Hiphil participle followed (after the subject) by the Hiphil infinitive construct. It would read, “they multiply…to bring,” meaning, “they bring more” than is needed.
[36:5] 5 tn Heb “for the service” (so KJV, ASV).
[36:5] 6 tn The last clause is merely the infinitive with an object – “to do it.” It clearly means the skilled workers are to do it.
[36:6] 7 tn The verse simply reads, “and Moses commanded and they caused [a voice] to cross over in the camp.” The second preterite with the vav may be subordinated to the first clause, giving the intent (purpose or result).
[36:6] 9 tn The verse ends with the infinitive serving as the object of the preposition: “from bringing.”
[36:7] 10 tn This part of the sentence comes from the final verb, the Hiphil infinitive – leave over, meaning, have more than enough (see BDB 451 s.v. יָתַר).
[36:7] 11 tn Heb “for all the work, to do it.”
[36:10] 12 tn The verb is singular since it probably is referring to Bezalel, but since he would not do all the work himself, it may be that the verbs could be given a plural subject: “they joined.”
[36:10] 13 tn The words “the other” have been supplied.
[36:14] 15 tn Heb “eleven curtains he made them.”
[36:18] 16 tn The construction uses the infinitive construct from the verb “to be” to express this purpose clause: “to be one,” or, “so that it might be a unit.”
[36:19] 17 tn See the note on this phrase in Exod 25:5.
[36:20] 18 tn There is debate whether the word הַקְּרָשִׁים (haqqÿrashim) means “boards” or “frames” or “planks” (see Ezek 27:6) or “beams,” given the size of them. The literature on this includes M. Haran, “The Priestly Image of the Tabernacle,” HUCA 36 (1965): 192; B. A. Levine, “The Description of the Tabernacle Texts of the Pentateuch,” JAOS 85 (1965): 307-18; J. Morgenstern, “The Ark, the Ephod, and the Tent,” HUCA 17 (1942/43): 153-265; 18 (1943/44): 1-52.
[36:20] 19 tn “Wood” is an adverbial accusative.
[36:20] 20 tn The plural participle “standing” refers to how these items will be situated; they will be vertical rather than horizontal (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 354).
[36:21] 21 tn Heb “the frame.”
[36:22] 23 tn Heb “two hands to the one frame.”
[36:22] 24 tn Heb “joined one to one.”
[36:24] 25 tn The clause is repeated to show the distributive sense; it literally says, “and two bases under the one frame for its two projections.”
[36:26] 26 tn Heb “under the one frame” again.
[36:29] 27 tn This is the last phrase of the verse, moved forward for clarity.
[36:29] 28 tn This difficult verse uses the perfect tense at the beginning, and the second clause parallels it with יִהְיוּ (yihyu), which has to be taken here as a preterite without the consecutive vav (ו). The predicate “finished” or “completed” is the word תָּמִּים (tammim); it normally means “complete, sound, whole,” and related words describe the sacrifices as without blemish.
[36:34] 29 tn Literally “houses”; i.e., places to hold the bars.
[36:35] 30 tn The verb is simply “he made” but as in Exod 26:31 it probably means that the cherubim were worked into the curtain with the yarn, and so embroidered on the curtain.
[36:36] 31 tn Heb “and their hooks gold.”
[36:38] 32 tn The word is “their heads”; technically it would be “their capitals” (so ASV, NAB, NRSV). The bands were bands of metal surrounding these capitals just beneath them. These are not mentioned in Exod 26:37, and it sounds like the posts are to be covered with gold. But the gradation of metals is what is intended: the posts at the entrance to the Most Holy Place are all of gold; the posts at the entrance to the tent are overlaid with gold at the top; and the posts at the entrance to the courtyard are overlaid with silver at the top (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 387, citing Dillmann without reference).
[36:38] 33 sn For a good summary of the differences between the instruction section and the completion section, and the reasons for the changes and the omissions, see B. Jacob, Exodus, 1022-23.
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