Exodus 40:2

40:2 “On the first day of the first month you are to set up ¹  the tabernacle, the tent of meeting.

Exodus 40:6

40:6 You are to put the altar for the burnt offering in front of the entrance to the tabernacle, the tent of meeting.

Exodus 38:21

The Materials of the Construction

38:21 This is the inventory ²  of the tabernacle, the tabernacle of the testimony, which was counted ³  by the order ⁴  of Moses, being the work ⁵  of the Levites under the direction ⁶  of Ithamar, son of Aaron the priest.

Exodus 39:32

Moses Inspects the Sanctuary

39:32 ⁷ So all the work of the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, was completed, and the Israelites did according to all that the Lord had commanded Moses – they did it exactly so.

Exodus 40:29

40:29 He also put the altar for the burnt offering by the entrance to the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, and offered on it the burnt offering and the meal offering, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

[40:2]  ¹ tn Heb “you will raise,” an imperfect of instruction.

[38:21]  ² tn The Hebrew word is פְּקוּדֵי (pÿqude), which in a slavishly literal way would be “visitations of” the tabernacle. But the word often has the idea of “numbering” or “appointing” as well. Here it is an accounting or enumeration of the materials that people brought, so the contemporary term “inventory” is a close approximation. By using this Hebrew word there is also the indication that whatever was given, i.e., appointed for the tabernacle, was changed forever in its use. This is consistent with this Hebrew root, which does have a sense of changing the destiny of someone (“God will surely visit you”). The list in this section will also be tied to the numbering of the people.

[38:21]  ³ tn The same verb is used here, but now in the Pual perfect tense, third masculine singular. A translation “was numbered” or “was counted” works. The verb is singular because it refers to the tabernacle as a unit. This section will list what made up the tabernacle.

[38:21]  ⁴ tn Heb “at/by the mouth of.”

[38:21]  ⁵ tn The noun is “work” or “service.” S. R. Driver explains that the reckonings were not made for the Levites, but that they were the work of the Levites, done by them under the direction of Ithamar (Exodus, 393).

[38:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “by the hand of.”

[39:32]  ³ sn The last sections of the book bring several themes together to a full conclusion. Not only is it the completion of the tabernacle, it is the fulfillment of God’s plan revealed at the beginning of the book, i.e., to reside with his people.