Exodus 25: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

The LORD tells Moses to collect an offering from every Israelite who gives willingly, and lists the materials to be received: metals, dyed yarn, linen, skins, wood, oil, spices, and stones. He tells them to make him a sanctuary so that he may dwell among them, built according to the pattern he shows Moses. He then gives the measurements and construction details for the ark with its mercy seat and cherubim, the table with its bread and vessels, and the gold lampstand with its lamps and tools.

Claim by Claim

1. 25:1
   • The LORD spoke to Moses.
   • The LORD told Moses to say something.
2. 25:2
   • The LORD told Moses to speak to the children of Israel.
   • The Israelites are to bring the LORD an offering.
   • The offering is to be taken from every man whose heart moves him to give willingly.
   • The LORD calls the offering 'my offering'.
3. 25:3
   • This is the offering to be taken from them.
   • The offering includes gold.
   • The offering includes silver.
   • The offering includes copper or bronze.
4. 25:4
   • The offering includes blue material.
   • The offering includes purple material.
   • The offering includes crimson material dyed with scarlet worm.
   • The offering includes fine linen.
   • The offering includes goats' hair.
5. 25:5
   • The offering includes rams' skins dyed red.
   • The offering includes skins of an animal whose identity is uncertain, rendered as badgers' skins.
   • The offering includes acacia wood.
6. 25:6
   • The offering includes oil for the light.
   • The offering includes spices for the anointing oil.
   • The offering includes spices for the fragrant incense.
7. 25:7
   • The offering includes onyx stones.
   • The offering includes stones for setting.
   • These stones are for the ephod.
   • These stones are for the breastpiece.
8. 25:8
   • They are to make a sanctuary for the LORD.
   • The LORD will dwell among them.
9. 25:9
   • The making is to follow all that the LORD shows Moses.
   • The LORD shows Moses the pattern of the tabernacle.
   • The LORD shows Moses the pattern of all its furnishings.
   • They are to make it exactly so.
10. 25:10
    • They are to make an ark of acacia wood.
    • The ark's length is two and a half cubits.
    • The ark's width is a cubit and a half.
    • The ark's height is a cubit and a half.
11. 25:11
    • Moses is to overlay the ark with pure gold.
    • The ark is to be overlaid inside and outside.
    • Moses is to make a gold molding on the ark all around.
12. 25:12
    • Moses is to cast four gold rings for the ark.
    • The rings are to be put on the ark's four feet.
    • Two rings are to be on one side of the ark.
    • Two rings are to be on the other side of the ark.
13. 25:13
    • Moses is to make poles of acacia wood.
    • Moses is to overlay the poles with gold.
14. 25:14
    • Moses is to put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark.
    • The purpose of the poles is to carry the ark with them.
15. 25:15
    • The poles are to remain in the rings of the ark.
    • The poles are not to be removed from the ark.
16. 25:16
    • Moses is to put the testimony into the ark.
    • The LORD will give the testimony to Moses.
17. 25:17
    • Moses is to make a mercy seat of pure gold.
    • The mercy seat's length is two and a half cubits.
    • The mercy seat's width is a cubit and a half.
18. 25:18
    • Moses is to make two cherubim of gold.
    • The cherubim are to be made of hammered work.
    • The cherubim are to be at the two ends of the mercy seat.
19. 25:19
    • One cherub is to be at one end.
    • One cherub is to be at the other end.
    • The cherubim are to be made of one piece with the mercy seat.
    • The cherubim are to be on the two ends of the mercy seat.
20. 25:20
    • The cherubim are to spread their wings upward.
    • The cherubim are to cover the mercy seat with their wings.
    • The cherubim's faces are to be toward one another.
    • The faces of the cherubim are to be toward the mercy seat.
21. 25:21
    • Moses is to put the mercy seat on top of the ark.
    • Moses is to put the testimony into the ark.
    • The LORD will give the testimony to Moses.
22. 25:22
    • The LORD will meet with Moses there.
    • The LORD will speak with Moses from above the mercy seat.
    • The LORD will speak from between the two cherubim.
    • The two cherubim are upon the ark of the testimony.
    • The LORD will speak of all that he commands Moses for the children of Israel.
23. 25:23
    • Moses is to make a table of acacia wood.
    • The table's length is two cubits.
    • The table's width is one cubit.
    • The table's height is a cubit and a half.
24. 25:24
    • Moses is to overlay the table with pure gold.
    • Moses is to make a gold molding for it all around.
25. 25:25
    • Moses is to make a rim of a handbreadth around the table.
    • Moses is to make a gold molding for the rim all around.
26. 25:26
    • Moses is to make four gold rings for the table.
    • The rings are to be put on the four corners at the table's four legs.
27. 25:27
    • The rings are to be close to the rim.
    • The rings are to serve as holders for the poles.
    • The poles are for carrying the table.
28. 25:28
    • Moses is to make the poles of acacia wood.
    • Moses is to overlay the poles with gold.
    • The table is to be carried with the poles.
29. 25:29
    • Moses is to make the table's dishes.
    • Moses is to make the table's pans or spoons.
    • Moses is to make the table's jars.
    • Moses is to make the table's bowls.
    • These vessels are used for pouring out drink offerings.
    • These vessels are to be made of pure gold.
30. 25:30
    • Moses is to set the bread of the Presence on the table.
    • The bread is to be before the LORD continually.
31. 25:31
    • Moses is to make a lampstand of pure gold.
    • The lampstand is to be made of hammered work.
    • Its base and its shaft are part of it.
    • Its cups, its bulbs, and its blossoms are to be of one piece with it.
32. 25:32
    • Six branches are to come out of the lampstand's sides.
    • Three branches of the lampstand are to come out of one side.
    • Three branches of the lampstand are to come out of the other side.
33. 25:33
    • Three cups shaped like almond blossoms are to be on one branch, with a bulb and a blossom.
    • Three cups shaped like almond blossoms are to be on the next branch, with a bulb and a blossom.
    • This pattern applies to all six branches coming out of the lampstand.
34. 25:34
    • Four cups shaped like almond blossoms are to be on the lampstand itself.
    • These cups are to have their bulbs and their blossoms.
35. 25:35
    • A bulb is to be under the first pair of branches of the lampstand.
    • A bulb is to be under the second pair of branches of the lampstand.
    • A bulb is to be under the third pair of branches of the lampstand.
    • This corresponds to the six branches coming out of the lampstand.
36. 25:36
    • The bulbs and the branches are to be of one piece with the lampstand.
    • The whole lampstand is to be one hammered work of pure gold.
37. 25:37
    • Moses is to make seven lamps for the lampstand.
    • The lamps are to be set up.
    • The lamps are to give light in front of the lampstand.
38. 25:38
    • The lampstand's tongs are to be of pure gold.
    • The lampstand's trays are to be of pure gold.
39. 25:39
    • The lampstand is to be made of a talent of pure gold.
    • All these vessels are included in the talent of pure gold.
40. 25:40
    • Moses is to look and make them according to their pattern.
    • The pattern was shown to Moses on the mountain.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

25:1

"The LORD" in small capital letters stands for God's own name, which Israel treated as too holy to say out loud.

25:2

"Offering" here translates a Hebrew word (terumah) meaning something lifted out of one's own property and set aside for a sacred purpose, a contribution, not a sacrifice killed on an altar. The point of the verse is that it is voluntary: nobody is taxed.

25:3

The King James "brass" does not mean modern brass (copper and zinc). It renders a word for copper or, more often, bronze, copper hardened with tin, the standard metal for heavy fittings.

25:4

"Blue, purple, and scarlet" name dyed yarns, and the words carry their cost with them: the blue and purple came from a secretion of Mediterranean murex shellfish, gathered in tiny quantities, and the scarlet from a crushed insect. These were the dyes of royalty and great wealth.

25:5

"Badgers' skins" is the King James translators' guess at a Hebrew word (tachash) whose meaning is genuinely unknown; other proposals include dolphin or dugong hide, or simply a fine tanned or dyed leather. "Shittim wood" is acacia, a hard, dense, insect-resistant desert timber, one of the few usable woods available in the Sinai.

25:6

Anointing oil was olive oil blended with spices and poured or smeared on a person or object to mark it as set apart for sacred use. Incense was a compound of aromatic gums burned to produce fragrant smoke.

25:7

The ephod and the breastpiece were two parts of the high priest's dress: the ephod a sleeveless outer garment, the breastpiece a pouch worn on the chest and set with twelve stones. Both are described in detail in chapter 28. The stone the King James calls "onyx" cannot be identified with certainty; ancient gem names rarely map onto modern ones.

25:8

"Sanctuary" means simply a set-apart place, the word is built on the root for "holy," which in Hebrew means separated off for a particular use rather than morally pure.

25:9

The "tabernacle" is a portable tent-shrine; the Hebrew word (mishkan) is literally "dwelling place," from the same root as "dwell" in the previous verse. "Instruments" in the King James means furnishings and equipment, not musical instruments.

25:10

The "ark" here is a chest or box, an unrelated English word from the Noah story's vessel, though the King James uses "ark" for both. A cubit was roughly eighteen inches, about the length of a forearm from elbow to fingertip, so this chest was about three feet nine inches long and two feet three inches wide and high.

25:11

The King James "crown" here does not mean a headpiece; it means a raised rim or decorative molding running around the top edge.

25:12

The Hebrew word translated "corners" is literally "feet" or "steps," so translators differ over whether the rings sat at the four bottom corners or on four projecting feet.

25:13

"Staves" means carrying poles.

25:15

The poles stayed permanently in the rings so that the chest could be lifted and moved without anyone laying hands on the chest itself.

25:16

"The testimony" is a standing term for the stone tablets of the covenant terms, the word means a formal deposition or attested statement, the written evidence of the agreement between God and Israel. Hence "ark of the testimony" below.

25:17

"Mercy seat" is William Tyndale's coinage, followed by the King James. The Hebrew word (kapporet) means a cover or lid (it is the ark's golden top) and comes from a root associated with wiping away or atoning. It is not a seat, and modern versions often render it "atonement cover." No dimensions for its height are given.

25:18

Cherubim (the King James "cherubims" doubles the plural, since "-im" is already the Hebrew plural) are winged attendant figures of the divine court, known from Near Eastern art as composite creatures, often with animal bodies and human faces. They bear no relation to the plump winged infants of later European painting. "Beaten work" means hammered from a single piece of metal rather than cast or assembled.

25:22

"Commune with thee" in 1611 English means simply "speak with you," without any modern sense of communion or fellowship.

25:23

Two cubits by one cubit by a cubit and a half is roughly three feet long, eighteen inches wide, and a little over two feet high, so about the size of a small side table.

25:25

A handbreadth is the width of a palm across the base of the four fingers, about three inches.

25:29

The King James "spoons" renders a word for small pans or dishes, and "covers... and bowls to cover withal" are vessels for pouring, jars and bowls used for the drink offering, wine poured out as part of the sacrificial rite.

25:30

"Shewbread" (show-bread) is literally "bread of the face" or "bread of the presence": twelve loaves set out in God's presence on the table, replaced each sabbath and then eaten by the priests.

25:31

"Candlestick" is misleading, candles were not in use. This is a lampstand holding seven open oil lamps. "Knops" is an old word for buds or knobs, and the "bowls" are cup-shaped ornaments, so the whole object is described as a stylized flowering almond tree.

25:33

The "bowls" are cups shaped like almond flowers. Almond blossom is a five-petaled white or pale pink flower that opens on the bare branch before the leaves appear, and it was a familiar decorative motif.

25:37

These lamps were shallow open dishes of olive oil with a wick laid in a pinched lip, not enclosed or wicked lanterns.

25:38

"Tongs" are the pincers for adjusting or trimming a wick; "snuffdishes" are the trays for carrying away the burnt wick ends that were snuffed off.

25:39

A talent was the largest weight unit in use, roughly seventy-five pounds (about thirty-four kilograms), an enormous quantity of gold for a single object.

25:40

"The mount" is Mount Sinai, where Moses is receiving these instructions; "shewed" is simply the older spelling of "showed."