Exodus 35: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Moses gathers the whole community of Israel, repeats the LORD's command about resting on the seventh day and lighting no fire on it, and then calls for a freewill offering of materials and for skilled workers to make the tabernacle, its furnishings, and the priests' garments. The people leave and come back bringing gold jewelry, colored yarn, fine linen, skins, acacia wood, silver, bronze, stones, spices, and oil, with skilled women spinning yarn and goat hair and the leaders bringing stones and spices. Moses then tells the Israelites that the LORD has called Bezaleel by name and filled him with the Spirit of God for every kind of craft, and has given both him and Aholiab the ability to teach.

Claim by Claim

1. 35:1
   • Moses assembled the whole community of the Israelites.
   • Moses spoke to them.
   • Moses said that these are the words the LORD has commanded.
   • Moses said the LORD commanded that they do these things.
2. 35:2
   • Work is to be done for six days.
   • The seventh day is to be holy for them.
   • The seventh day is a sabbath of complete rest to the LORD.
   • Anyone who does work on the seventh day is to be put to death.
3. 35:3
   • They are not to kindle a fire in any of their dwellings on the sabbath day.
4. 35:4
   • Moses spoke to the whole community of the Israelites.
   • Moses said that this is the thing the LORD commanded.
5. 35:5
   • Moses told them to take from among themselves a contribution for the LORD.
   • Everyone of a willing heart is to bring the LORD's contribution.
   • The contribution includes gold.
   • The contribution includes silver.
   • The contribution includes copper or bronze.
6. 35:6
   • The contribution includes blue yarn.
   • The contribution includes purple yarn.
   • The contribution includes crimson yarn.
   • The contribution includes fine linen.
   • The contribution includes goats' hair.
7. 35:7
   • The contribution includes ram skins dyed red.
   • The contribution includes hides of an animal whose identity is uncertain.
   • The contribution includes acacia wood.
8. 35:8
   • The contribution includes oil for the light.
   • The contribution includes spices for the anointing oil.
   • The contribution includes spices for the fragrant incense.
9. 35:9
   • The contribution includes onyx stones.
   • The contribution includes stones for setting.
   • The stones are for the ephod and for the breastpiece.
10. 35:10
    • Every skilled-hearted person among them is to come.
    • They are to make everything the LORD has commanded.
11. 35:11
    • The items to be made include the tabernacle.
    • The items include its tent.
    • The items include its covering.
    • The items include its clasps.
    • The items include its frames.
    • The items include its crossbars.
    • The items include its pillars.
    • The items include its bases.
12. 35:12
    • The items include the ark.
    • The items include the ark's carrying poles.
    • The items include the atonement cover.
    • The items include the screening curtain.
13. 35:13
    • The items include the table.
    • The items include the table's carrying poles.
    • The items include all the table's vessels.
    • The items include the bread of the Presence.
14. 35:14
    • The items include the lampstand for the light.
    • The items include the lampstand's utensils.
    • The items include its lamps.
    • The items include the oil for the light.
15. 35:15
    • The items include the altar of incense.
    • The items include the incense altar's carrying poles.
    • The items include the anointing oil.
    • The items include the fragrant incense.
    • The items include the screen for the entrance of the tabernacle.
16. 35:16
    • The items include the altar of burnt offering.
    • The items include the bronze grating belonging to that altar.
    • The items include the altar's carrying poles.
    • The items include all the altar's vessels.
    • The items include the basin.
    • The items include the basin's stand.
17. 35:17
    • The items include the hangings of the courtyard.
    • The items include the courtyard's pillars.
    • The items include the courtyard's bases.
    • The items include the screen for the gate of the courtyard.
18. 35:18
    • The items include the pegs of the tabernacle.
    • The items include the pegs of the courtyard.
    • The items include their cords.
19. 35:19
    • The items include the finely worked garments for serving in the holy place.
    • The items include the holy garments for Aaron the priest.
    • The items include the garments for Aaron's sons.
    • Aaron's sons' garments are for serving as priests.
20. 35:20
    • The whole community of the Israelites went out from before Moses.
21. 35:21
    • Everyone whose heart lifted him up came.
    • Everyone whose spirit made him willing came.
    • They brought the LORD's contribution for the work of the tent of meeting.
    • They brought it for all the service of the tent of meeting.
    • They brought it for the holy garments.
22. 35:22
    • The men came along with the women.
    • All who were willing of heart came.
    • They brought brooches.
    • They brought earrings or nose rings.
    • They brought signet rings.
    • They brought ornaments of a kind that is not certainly identified.
    • They brought all kinds of gold objects.
    • Every man who did so presented a wave offering of gold to the LORD.
23. 35:23
    • Every man who had blue, purple, or crimson yarn brought it.
    • Every man who had fine linen brought it.
    • Every man who had goats' hair brought it.
    • Every man who had ram skins dyed red brought them.
    • Every man who had hides of the unidentified animal brought them.
24. 35:24
    • Everyone presenting a contribution of silver or copper brought the LORD's contribution.
    • Everyone who had acacia wood for any part of the work of the service brought it.
25. 35:25
    • Every skilled-hearted woman spun with her hands.
    • They brought what they had spun.
    • What they brought included blue yarn.
    • What they brought included purple yarn.
    • What they brought included crimson yarn.
    • What they brought included fine linen.
26. 35:26
    • All the women whose hearts stirred them with skill spun the goats' hair.
27. 35:27
    • The leaders brought the onyx stones.
    • The leaders brought the stones for setting.
    • Those stones were for the ephod and for the breastpiece.
28. 35:28
    • The leaders brought the spice.
    • The leaders brought the oil.
    • The oil was for the light, for the anointing oil, and for the fragrant incense.
29. 35:29
    • Every man and woman whose heart made them willing brought an offering.
    • They brought it for all the work the LORD had commanded to be done.
    • The LORD commanded that work by the hand of Moses.
    • The Israelites brought a freewill offering to the LORD.
30. 35:30
    • Moses spoke to the Israelites.
    • Moses told them to see that the LORD has called by name Bezalel.
    • Bezalel is the son of Uri.
    • Uri is the son of Hur.
    • Bezalel is of the tribe of Judah.
31. 35:31
    • The LORD has filled Bezalel with the spirit of God.
    • He filled him with skill.
    • He filled him with understanding.
    • He filled him with knowledge.
    • He filled him with ability in every kind of craft.
32. 35:32
    • Bezalel is able to devise designs.
    • He is able to work in gold.
    • He is able to work in silver.
    • He is able to work in copper or bronze.
33. 35:33
    • He is able to cut stones for setting.
    • He is able to carve wood.
    • He is able to work in every kind of skilled craft.
34. 35:34
    • The LORD has put teaching in his heart.
    • This applies to Bezalel and to Oholiab.
    • Oholiab is the son of Ahisamach.
    • Oholiab is of the tribe of Dan.
35. 35:35
    • The LORD has filled them with skill of heart.
    • He filled them to do all the work of an engraver or craftsman.
    • He filled them to do the work of a designer.
    • He filled them to do the work of an embroiderer in blue, purple, and crimson yarn and in fine linen.
    • He filled them to do the work of a weaver.
    • They are workers of every kind of craft.
    • They are devisers of designs.

Words Worth Explaining

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

35:1

"The congregation of the children of Israel" means the whole assembled people of Israel, every family gathered in one place. Congregation here has nothing to do with a church; it is the nation standing together to hear an announcement.

35:2

The Sabbath is the seventh day of the week, kept as a day on which no work is done. The Hebrew word means simply "ceasing." The death penalty attached to it marked it as one of the community's defining obligations, alongside its other capital laws.

35:3

Lighting a fire was singled out because it was the first step in a day's labor, gathering fuel, cooking, firing a kiln or forge. Since the tabernacle work described here involved metalworking, the ban makes clear that even that work stopped on the Sabbath.

35:5

An "offering" here (Hebrew *terumah*) is not a sacrifice but a contribution: goods lifted out of a person's own property and set aside for sacred use. What follows is a materials list for a building project, and giving is explicitly voluntary.

35:6

Blue, purple and scarlet were the most expensive dyes in the ancient world. Blue and purple came from the glands of murex sea snails, harvested on the Phoenician coast; scarlet came from a scale insect. Yarn in these colors signaled wealth and royalty. "Fine linen" is a tightly woven Egyptian cloth.

35:7

"Badgers' skins" in the King James is a guess at a Hebrew word (*tachash*) whose meaning is genuinely unknown; suggestions have included dolphin or dugong hide, a fine tanned leather, or a color term. Acacia is a hard, dense, insect-resistant desert tree, the only good timber available in the Sinai.

35:8

Anointing oil was olive oil blended with spices and poured on a person or object to mark it out for a particular use. Incense was a resin mixture burned to produce fragrant smoke. Both were standard equipment of temples throughout the ancient Near East.

35:9

The ephod was a sleeveless garment, something like an apron, worn by the chief priest. The breastpiece was a pouch of cloth worn on his chest, set with twelve engraved gemstones. Onyx is a banded semi-precious stone.

35:10

"Wise hearted" does not mean philosophical. The Hebrew word for wisdom covers practical skill and craftsmanship just as much as good judgment, so this is a call for the community's best workers.

35:11

The tabernacle was a portable tent-sanctuary, designed to be dismantled and carried. Its walls were upright wooden frames standing in metal bases, held in line by crossbars, with fabric coverings clipped together over the top by clasps.

35:12

The ark was a wooden chest overlaid with gold, carried on poles slid through rings so that it need never be touched. The "mercy seat" is its solid gold lid; the Hebrew word means a cover, and the King James translation reflects an interpretation of the word rather than its plain sense. The curtain hung in front of it to keep it out of sight.

35:13

Twelve loaves were laid out on this table and replaced weekly, the "showbread," literally the bread of the Presence, so called because it sat continually in front of the place where God was understood to be present.

35:14

The lampstand was a branched stand holding seven lamps that burned olive oil. Its "equipment" was the tools that went with it: tongs for the wicks and trays for the trimmings.

35:15

"The hanging for the door" is a curtain. A tent has no hinged wooden door, so the entrance was closed by a decorated screen hung across the opening.

35:16

Burnt offerings were animals burned whole on the altar. The grating was a bronze mesh inside it to hold the fire. The basin held water for the priests to wash their hands and feet before serving.

35:17

The tabernacle stood inside a rectangular courtyard walled off by linen curtains hung on posts, with a single curtained gateway, an outer boundary marking off the sacred area from the camp.

35:18

The King James says "pins." They are tent pegs, stakes driven into the ground. Ropes ran from the tent to the pegs to hold it tight, just like a camping tent today.

35:19

A priest was a man authorised to perform the sacrifices and rituals on behalf of everyone else. Aaron was Moses' brother, appointed as chief priest, and the office passed to his sons after him. Their special clothing was part of their formal qualification for the role, not a personal honor.

35:21

The "tent of meeting" is another name for the same tabernacle: the place where God was said to meet with Moses and the people.

35:22

"Tablets" in the King James translates a Hebrew word for some kind of gold ornament, probably a pendant or bead, whose exact form is unknown. The gold is described in Hebrew as a "wave offering," meaning it was presented with a formal gesture of lifting or extending it toward the altar.

35:25

Spinning is twisting loose fiber into thread by hand, using a weighted spindle. It was slow, skilled work, and the finished thread was itself a valuable commodity.

35:26

Goat hair spun into coarse yarn made the standard black tent-cloth of the region, tough and weatherproof, the outer layer of the tabernacle's covering.

35:27

The "leaders" are the heads of the tribes and clans. They supplied the gemstones, the single most costly item on the list.

35:29

A freewill offering is one nobody owed. Israel's law required certain payments and sacrifices at fixed times; this was different, given only by people who chose to give and in whatever quantity they chose.

35:30

"Called by name" means singled out and named for the task, not simply chosen from a group. Judah was one of the twelve tribes descended from the sons of Jacob.

35:31

The Hebrew words rendered "skill" and "wisdom" here are the ordinary words for practical craftsmanship and know-how, not for philosophical wisdom. The same terms are used elsewhere in this chapter of the weavers and spinners.

35:32

"Curious works" in 1611 English meant carefully and intricately made, not strange or odd. The same word shift affects "cunning" in verses 33 and 35: it meant skillful, with no suggestion of trickery.

35:33

Cutting stones means shaping gems so they fit exactly into their gold settings, the way a jeweler works today.

35:34

Dan was another of the twelve tribes. Naming both a Judahite and a Danite spreads the work across the tribes rather than concentrating it in one.

35:35

These are four distinct trades: the engraver cut stone and metal, the designer worked out patterns, the embroiderer stitched colored yarn onto finished cloth, and the weaver worked the pattern into the cloth on the loom as it was made.