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Exodus 36

1“Bezalel and Oholiab, and everyone skilled of heart in whom Yahweh has put skill and understanding to know how to do all the work of serving the sanctuary, are to work according to everything Yahweh has commanded.”

2Moses called Bezalel and Oholiab and everyone skilled of heart in whose heart Yahweh had put skill, everyone whose heart lifted him to come near to the work and do it. 3They received from Moses all the contribution that the sons of Israel had brought for the work of serving the sanctuary, to carry it out. But the people still brought him freewill offerings morning by morning. 4All the skilled workers doing all the work of the sanctuary came, each from the work they were doing, 5and said to Moses, “The people are bringing more than is needed for the work of the service Yahweh has commanded us to do.” 6Moses gave a command, and they sent a proclamation through the camp: “No man or woman is to do any more work for the sanctuary contribution.” So the people were restrained from bringing. 7The materials were enough for them to do all the work, and more than enough.

8All those skilled of heart among the workers made the dwelling with ten curtains of fine twisted linen and blue, purple, and crimson yarn; he made them with cherubim, the work of a skilled designer. 9Each curtain was twenty-eight cubits long and four cubits wide. All the curtains had the same measure. 10He joined five curtains to one another, and the other five curtains he joined to one another. 11He made loops of blue yarn 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. 12He made fifty loops on the one curtain, and fifty loops along the edge of the curtain in the second set, with the loops opposite one another. 13He made fifty gold clasps and joined the curtains to one another with the clasps, so that the dwelling was one.

14He made curtains of goats' hair for a tent over the dwelling; he made eleven curtains. 15Each curtain was thirty cubits long and four cubits wide. The eleven curtains had the same measure. 16He joined five curtains by themselves and six curtains by themselves. 17He made fifty loops along the edge of the end curtain in the first set, and fifty loops along the edge of the curtain in the second set. 18He made fifty bronze clasps to join the tent together so that it was one. 19He made a covering for the tent of rams' skins dyed red, and a covering of tahash skins above it.

20He made the frames for the dwelling of acacia wood, standing upright. 21Each frame was ten cubits long and a cubit and a half wide. 22Each frame had two tenons fitted in relation to one another. He did this for all the frames of the dwelling. 23He made the frames for the dwelling, twenty frames for the south side, facing south. 24He made forty silver sockets beneath the twenty frames, two sockets beneath one frame for its two tenons and two sockets beneath the next frame for its two tenons. 25For the dwelling's other side, facing north, he made twenty frames, 26with their forty silver sockets, two sockets beneath one frame and two sockets beneath the next frame. 27For the rear of the dwelling, westward, he made six frames. 28He made two frames for the corners of the dwelling at the rear. 29They were paired below, and together they were complete at the top, at the one ring. He did the same for both of them, for the two corners. 30There were eight frames with their silver sockets, sixteen sockets, two sockets, two sockets beneath each frame.

31He made bars of acacia wood, five for the frames on one side of the dwelling, 32five bars for the frames on the dwelling's other side, and five bars for the frames of the dwelling at the rear, westward. 33He made the middle bar to run in the middle of the frames from end to end. 34He overlaid the frames with gold and made their rings of gold as holders for the bars; he overlaid the bars with gold. 35He made the veil of blue, purple, and crimson yarn and fine twisted linen; he made it with cherubim, the work of a skilled designer. 36He made four pillars of acacia for it and overlaid them with gold, their hooks of gold, and he cast four silver sockets for them. 37He made a screen for the entrance of the tent of blue, purple, and crimson yarn and fine twisted linen, the work of an embroiderer, 38and its five pillars with their hooks. He overlaid their tops and bands with gold, and their five sockets were bronze.

Translation notes 6

36:1–7 — More than enough. The opening continues Moses' instructions from the preceding chapter. The people bring willingly until they are told to stop because there is a surplus. “Materials” in verse 7 gives the contextual sense of a word otherwise used for work; the passage concerns what is available to carry out the work.

36:8 — They and he. The Hebrew moves from the skilled workers collectively to a singular maker. The singular can represent the work under its principal craftsman; no otherwise unexpressed name is inserted into this verse.

36:8–38 — The Greek construction account. The ancient Greek version has a shorter construction account and arranges some material differently, including the order of the garments and furnishings. This draft follows the Hebrew wording and sequence. Later Greek supplements that bring the account closer to Hebrew must be distinguished from the earlier Greek text.

36:9–19 — Curtains and coverings. The repeated construction account is retained in full. It distinguishes ten linen curtains from eleven goats' hair curtains and gold clasps from bronze clasps. Tahash remains an uncertain skin or leather term, not an established animal species.

36:20–30 — Framework. Frames, sockets, and tenons are provisional technical descriptions. Verse 29's paired and complete components follow the same difficult instructions as 26:24; the exact corner construction and “one” or “first” ring remain uncertain. Verse 30 retains the repeated two-sockets wording.

36:35–38 — Veil and entrance screen. These have different numbers of pillars and different socket materials. The report about the entrance pillars specifies gold overlay on their tops and bands; it is not expanded to repeat every detail from chapter 26.