Exodus 26: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

The LORD continues his instructions to Moses for building the tabernacle. He gives the measurements and materials for the two sets of curtains that form the tent, the leather coverings that go over them, the upright boards and their silver bases, and the crossbars that hold the frame together. He then describes the veil that separates the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place, where the ark is placed, and the screen for the doorway, and tells Moses to set the tabernacle up according to the pattern he was shown on the mountain.

Claim by Claim

1. 26:1
   • The tabernacle is to be made with ten curtains.
   • The curtains are to be of finely twisted linen.
   • The curtains are to include blue yarn.
   • The curtains are to include purple yarn.
   • The curtains are to include crimson yarn.
   • Cherubim are to be worked into the curtains by a skilled designer.
2. 26:2
   • Each curtain is to be twenty-eight cubits long.
   • Each curtain is to be four cubits wide.
   • All the curtains are to be one measure.
3. 26:3
   • Five of the curtains are to be joined to one another.
   • The other five curtains are to be joined to one another.
4. 26:4
   • Loops of blue are to be made on the edge of the outermost curtain of the first set.
   • Loops are likewise to be made on the edge of the outermost curtain of the second set.
5. 26:5
   • Fifty loops are to be made on the one curtain.
   • Fifty loops are to be made on the edge of the curtain in the second set.
   • The loops are to be set opposite one another.
6. 26:6
   • Fifty clasps of gold are to be made.
   • The curtains are to be joined to one another with the clasps.
   • The tabernacle is then to be one whole.
7. 26:7
   • Curtains of goats' hair are to be made for a tent over the tabernacle.
   • Eleven such curtains are to be made.
8. 26:8
   • Each of these curtains is to be thirty cubits long.
   • Each of these curtains is to be four cubits wide.
   • All eleven curtains are to be one measure.
9. 26:9
   • Five of the curtains are to be joined by themselves.
   • Six of the curtains are to be joined by themselves.
   • The sixth curtain is to be doubled over at the front of the tent.
10. 26:10
    • Fifty loops are to be made on the edge of the outermost curtain of the first set.
    • Fifty loops are to be made on the edge of the curtain of the second set.
11. 26:11
    • Fifty clasps of bronze are to be made.
    • The clasps are to be put into the loops.
    • The tent is to be joined together so that it is one.
12. 26:12
    • The surplus that remains of the tent curtains, the half curtain left over, is to hang over the back of the tabernacle.
13. 26:13
    • A cubit on one side and a cubit on the other side of the surplus in the length of the tent curtains is to hang over the sides of the tabernacle on each side.
    • This overhang is to cover the tabernacle.
14. 26:14
    • A covering for the tent is to be made of rams' skins dyed red.
    • A covering of tachash skins is to be placed above that.
15. 26:15
    • Upright frames of acacia wood are to be made for the tabernacle.
16. 26:16
    • Each frame is to be ten cubits long.
    • Each frame is to be a cubit and a half wide.
17. 26:17
    • Each frame is to have two tenons joined to one another.
    • All the frames of the tabernacle are to be made this way.
18. 26:18
    • Frames are to be made for the tabernacle.
    • Twenty frames are to be for the south side.
19. 26:19
    • Forty silver bases are to be made under the twenty frames.
    • Two bases are to be under one frame for its two tenons.
    • Two bases are to be under the next frame for its two tenons.
20. 26:20
    • For the second side of the tabernacle, the north side, there are to be twenty frames.
21. 26:21
    • Their forty bases are to be of silver.
    • Two bases are to be under one frame.
    • Two bases are to be under the next frame.
22. 26:22
    • Six frames are to be made for the rear of the tabernacle, on the west.
23. 26:23
    • Two frames are to be made for the corners of the tabernacle at the rear.
24. 26:24
    • The corner frames are to be doubled at the bottom.
    • The corner frames are to be joined complete at the top into one ring.
    • It is to be so for both of them.
    • They are to serve for the two corners.
25. 26:25
    • There are to be eight frames.
    • Their bases are to be of silver.
    • There are to be sixteen bases.
    • Two bases are to be under one frame.
    • Two bases are to be under the next frame.
26. 26:26
    • Bars are to be made of acacia wood.
    • Five bars are to be for the frames of the one side of the tabernacle.
27. 26:27
    • Five bars are to be for the frames of the second side of the tabernacle.
    • Five bars are to be for the frames of the rear side of the tabernacle, on the west.
28. 26:28
    • The middle bar is to run in the midst of the frames.
    • The middle bar is to reach from end to end.
29. 26:29
    • The frames are to be overlaid with gold.
    • Their rings are to be made of gold as holders for the bars.
    • The bars are to be overlaid with gold.
30. 26:30
    • The tabernacle is to be set up according to its plan.
    • That plan was shown to Moses on the mountain.
31. 26:31
    • A veil is to be made of blue, purple, and crimson yarn and finely twisted linen.
    • The veil is to be made by a skilled designer.
    • Cherubim are to be worked into the veil.
32. 26:32
    • The veil is to be hung on four pillars of acacia wood.
    • The pillars are to be overlaid with gold.
    • The hooks of the pillars are to be of gold.
    • The pillars are to stand on four silver bases.
33. 26:33
    • The veil is to be hung under the clasps.
    • The ark of the testimony is to be brought inside, behind the veil.
    • The veil is to divide for you between the holy place and the most holy place.
34. 26:34
    • The mercy seat is to be put on the ark of the testimony.
    • The ark with the mercy seat is in the most holy place.
35. 26:35
    • The table is to be set outside the veil.
    • The lampstand is to be set opposite the table.
    • The lampstand is to be on the south side of the tabernacle.
    • The table is to be put on the north side.
36. 26:36
    • A screen is to be made for the entrance of the tent.
    • The screen is to be of blue, purple, and crimson yarn and finely twisted linen.
    • The screen is to be the work of an embroiderer.
37. 26:37
    • Five pillars of acacia wood are to be made for the screen.
    • The pillars are to be overlaid with gold.
    • Their hooks are to be of gold.
    • Five bronze bases are to be cast for them.

Words Worth Explaining

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

26:1

The tabernacle was a portable tent-shrine that the Israelites carried with them and set up wherever they camped. The Hebrew word means "dwelling place." Cherubim are winged composite creatures, familiar from the art of the ancient Near East, where such figures were shown guarding thrones and sanctuaries; the singular is cherub, and the King James "cherubims" is a double plural. The King James "cunning work" does not mean sly or crafty: in 1611 "cunning" meant skillful, and the Hebrew term refers to a designer-weaver, the most highly regarded of the textile crafts. Blue, purple, and scarlet were expensive dyes (the first two from a Mediterranean sea snail, the third from a scale insect) and their use signals costly, prestige cloth.

26:2

A cubit was roughly eighteen inches, about the length of a forearm from elbow to fingertip. Twenty-eight cubits is about forty-two feet; four cubits about six feet.

26:4

A selvedge is the self-finished edge that runs down the side of a piece of woven cloth and does not fray or need hemming.

26:6

"Taches" is an old English word for clasps or fasteners, related to the modern word "attach."

26:7

The Hebrew keeps two words apart here that both sound like "tent" in English: the tabernacle proper is the inner structure of linen curtains and framed boards, while the goat-hair layer over it is called the tent. Goat hair was the standard material for the black nomad tents of the region, hard-wearing and weatherproof.

26:9

The extra curtain doubled over at the entrance made a folded flap hanging at the front, where the covering took the most wear.

26:11

Where the King James says "brass," the metal is bronze, an alloy of copper and tin; brass in the modern sense, copper and zinc, was not in use at this period. Note the change of metal: gold clasps for the inner linen layer, bronze for the outer goat-hair one, with costlier materials used the closer you get to the inside.

26:14

The second skin is uncertain. The Hebrew word tachash is used almost nowhere else and its meaning was already lost by ancient times; guesses have included badger, dolphin or sea-cow hide, and a kind of fine tanned or dyed leather. Translations differ, and no one knows.

26:15

Acacia is a hard, dense desert hardwood, resistant to insects and rot, and the main timber available in the Sinai region. The King James "shittim" is simply the Hebrew word carried over untranslated. Whether these uprights were solid planks or open frames is debated: the Hebrew word means something like "standing thing," and solid boards of these dimensions would be extremely heavy to transport.

26:16

Ten cubits is about fifteen feet; a cubit and a half about twenty-seven inches.

26:17

A tenon is a projecting tongue cut at the end of a piece of wood, shaped to drop into a matching socket and hold the joint steady.

26:18

Twenty frames at a cubit and a half each make the long sides about forty-five feet, and the structure stood about fifteen feet high, so the tabernacle was roughly the footprint of a large modern room.

26:19

These bases were sockets, blocks of cast silver with a hollow that the pegs dropped into, heavy enough to hold the uprights steady and keep them from sinking into sand. Exodus 38:27 says each weighed a talent, on the order of seventy-five pounds.

26:22

West means the rear because the tabernacle was laid out on an east-west axis with its entrance facing east, toward the sunrise. Directions in this chapter assume that orientation.

26:23

How the corner boards fitted is one of the most obscure passages in the chapter; the Hebrew is compressed and interpreters have reconstructed the joint in several different ways.

26:26

The crossbars ran horizontally through gold rings on the outside of the uprights, bracing the whole wall so it stood as one rigid unit rather than a row of separate boards.

26:30

This refers back to Exodus 25:9 and 25:40, where Moses is told he is being shown a pattern or model on Mount Sinai and must build to match it.

26:31

The "veil" here is not a face covering but a heavy hanging curtain used as an interior partition, the same idea as a stage curtain. The Hebrew word, paroket, is used almost exclusively for this one screen.

26:33

The clasps mentioned are the row of gold clasps from verse 6, which fell at a fixed point along the roof and so marked where the partition hung. The ark is the gilded chest described in Exodus 25; "the testimony" is the pair of inscribed stone tablets kept inside it, so "ark of the testimony" means the chest that holds them. "Most Holy" translates a Hebrew phrase that literally reads "holy of holies," a way of forming a superlative in Hebrew, the holiest place of all.

26:34

The mercy seat was the solid gold lid of the ark, with two cherubim worked at its ends (Exodus 25:17–22). "Mercy seat" is William Tyndale's coinage; the Hebrew word kapporet is related to a root meaning both "cover" and "wipe away, atone," and translators have never agreed which sense governs, hence renderings ranging from "cover" to "atonement lid."

26:35

The table and the lampstand are the two objects described in Exodus 25:23–40: a gold-overlaid table for the bread set out before God, and a seven-branched lamp of hammered gold. The King James "candlestick" is misleading: it burned olive oil in lamps, not candles. "Over against" means opposite, facing.

26:36

The Hebrew distinguishes two grades of textile work. The veil inside (verse 31) is the work of the designer-weaver, with cherubim worked in; this outer entrance screen is the work of an embroiderer, plainer, with no figures. As with the metals, the workmanship becomes finer the further in you go.

26:37

Note the change of metal: the bases inside the tent are silver, but the ones at the outer entrance are bronze. The text keeps a consistent gradation, with costlier materials the further in you go.