For Teaching

Exodus 36: What the Passage Says

97 claims across 38 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Exodus 36 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

Bezaleel, Aholiab, and the other skilled workers begin building the sanctuary with the materials the people have given, and the people keep bringing gifts every morning until the workers tell Moses there is more than enough and Moses has an order proclaimed to stop. The rest of the chapter describes the work itself: the ten linen curtains with their loops and gold clasps, the goat-hair curtains and outer coverings, the acacia-wood frames with their silver bases and crossbars, the veil on its four posts, and the screen for the tent door on five posts. It is the report of the tabernacle being made, matching the instructions given earlier.

Claim by Claim

36:1
- Bezalel, Oholiab, and every skilled-hearted man were to do all the work of the service of the sanctuary.
- The LORD had put wisdom and understanding in these men.
- The wisdom and understanding were given so they would know how to do all the work of the service of the sanctuary.
- The work was to be done according to all that the LORD had commanded.
36:2
- Moses summoned Bezalel and Oholiab.
- Moses summoned every skilled-hearted man in whose heart the LORD had put wisdom.
- Moses summoned everyone whose heart moved him to come to the work to do it.
36:3
- They received from Moses all the contribution the Israelites had brought for the work of the service of the sanctuary.
- The contribution was for carrying out that work.
- The people kept bringing freewill offerings to Moses morning after morning.
36:4
- All the skilled men who were doing the work of the sanctuary came.
- Each of them came away from the work he was doing.
36:5
- They spoke to Moses.
- They said the people were bringing much more than enough for the service of the work.
- They said the LORD had commanded that work to be done.
36:6
- Moses gave a command.
- A proclamation was sent throughout the camp.
- The proclamation said no man or woman should make anything more as a contribution for the sanctuary.
- The people were held back from bringing more.
36:7
- The material they had was enough for all the work to be done.
- There was material left over.
36:8
- Every skilled-hearted man among those doing the work made the tabernacle's ten curtains.
- The curtains were of fine twisted linen, blue, purple, and scarlet yarn.
- The curtains had cherubim on them.
- He made them as the work of a skilled designer.
36:9
- Each curtain was twenty-eight cubits long.
- Each curtain was four cubits wide.
- All the curtains had the same measurement.
36:10
- He joined five of the curtains to one another.
- He joined the other five curtains to one another.
36:11
- He made loops of blue on the edge of the outermost curtain of the first set.
- He did the same on the edge of the outermost curtain of the second set.
36:12
- He made fifty loops on the one curtain.
- He made fifty loops on the edge of the curtain that was in the second set.
- The loops were set opposite one another.
36:13
- He made fifty gold clasps.
- He joined the curtains to one another with the clasps.
- The tabernacle became one whole.
36:14
- He made curtains of goats' hair for a tent over the tabernacle.
- He made eleven such curtains.
36:15
- Each curtain was thirty cubits long.
- Each curtain was four cubits wide.
- All eleven curtains had the same measurement.
36:16
- He joined five of the curtains by themselves.
- He joined the other six curtains by themselves.
36:17
- He made fifty loops on the edge of the outermost curtain of the first set.
- He made fifty loops on the edge of the corresponding curtain of the second set.
36:18
- He made fifty bronze clasps.
- The clasps were to join the tent together so it would be one whole.
36:19
- He made a covering for the tent of rams' skins dyed red.
- He made an outer covering above it of skins whose animal is not identifiable.
36:20
- He made the frames for the tabernacle of acacia wood.
- The frames stood upright.
36:21
- Each frame was ten cubits long.
- Each frame was one and a half cubits wide.
36:22
- Each frame had two tenons.
- The two tenons were joined parallel to one another.
- He made all the frames of the tabernacle this way.
36:23
- He made the frames for the tabernacle.
- He made twenty frames for the south side.
36:24
- He made forty silver bases under the twenty frames.
- Two bases went under one frame for its two tenons.
- Two bases went under the next frame for its two tenons.
36:25
- For the second side of the tabernacle, the north side, he made twenty frames.
36:26
- He made forty silver bases for them.
- Two bases went under one frame.
- Two bases went under the next frame.
36:27
- For the rear of the tabernacle, toward the west, he made six frames.
36:28
- He made two frames for the corners of the tabernacle at the rear.
36:29
- The corner frames were paired at the bottom.
- They were joined complete together at the top into a single ring.
- He did this for both of them, for the two corners.
36:30
- There were eight frames.
- Their bases were of silver.
- There were sixteen bases.
- Two bases went under each frame.
36:31
- He made crossbars of acacia wood.
- He made five for the frames of one side of the tabernacle.
36:32
- He made five crossbars for the frames of the second side of the tabernacle.
- He made five crossbars for the frames at the rear of the tabernacle, toward the west.
36:33
- He made the middle crossbar to run through the middle of the frames from one end to the other.
36:34
- He overlaid the frames with gold.
- He made their rings of gold as holders for the crossbars.
- He overlaid the crossbars with gold.
36:35
- He made the veil of blue, purple, and scarlet yarn and fine twisted linen.
- He made it as the work of a skilled designer.
- It had cherubim on it.
36:36
- He made four pillars of acacia wood for the veil.
- He overlaid the pillars with gold.
- Their hooks were of gold.
- He cast four silver bases for them.
36:37
- He made a screen for the entrance of the tent.
- The screen was of blue, purple, and scarlet yarn and fine twisted linen.
- It was the work of an embroiderer.
36:38
- He made its five pillars and their hooks.
- He overlaid the tops of the pillars and their bands with gold.
- Their five bases were of bronze.

Words Worth Explaining

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

36:1: The sanctuary, or holy place, is the tabernacle: a portable tent-shrine that the Israelites carried with them and set up wherever they camped. This chapter describes the actual building of it, following item by item the instructions given earlier (Exodus 25–31), which is why much of the wording repeats what was said before.
36:2: The old words say his heart "stirred him up." It means he really wanted to help.
36:3: The "offering" here is not a sacrifice but a contribution of raw materials (gold, silver, bronze, dyed yarn, linen, skins, timber, gemstones) donated by the people for the construction, as described in the previous chapter. "Freely given" means no amount was assessed or required.
36:6: A camp is a big group of tents where people live. Israel was traveling, so everyone slept in tents.
36:7: The King James word "stuff" means supplies or materials, with none of the dismissive sense it carries now.
36:8: Cherubim (singular cherub) were winged composite creatures, part animal and part human, widely known in the ancient Near East as guardian figures flanking thrones and doorways; they are not the plump infants of later European art. The blue, purple and scarlet were the most expensive dyes of the age, blue and purple extracted from shellfish and scarlet from a crushed insect, so the colors themselves signaled costly, royal-grade fabric.
36:9: A cubit was roughly eighteen inches, about the length of a forearm from elbow to fingertip. Each curtain was therefore around forty-two feet long and six feet wide.
36:11: The "selvedge" is the finished edge of a piece of woven cloth, the side that will not fray because the weft threads turn back there. The loops were sewn along that sturdy edge so they would take the strain.
36:13: "Taches" is an old English word for clasps or hooks. They worked like large fasteners, catching the loops of one set of curtains to the loops of the other so the two halves hung as a single sheet.
36:14: Goat hair was the ordinary cloth of nomad tents in the region: coarse, dark, and swelling when wet so that it turned rain. This outer set of curtains was the weatherproof layer over the decorated linen ones.
36:18: "Brass" in the King James Version always means bronze, an alloy of copper and tin. True brass was not in use at this period.
36:19: The second covering translates a Hebrew word (tachash) whose meaning is genuinely uncertain. It has been taken as badger, dolphin or dugong hide, and as a kind of fine or specially treated leather; no one can now say which is right.
36:20: "Shittim" is acacia, the one tree of the Sinai region that yields substantial timber. It is hard, dense and resistant to insects, and was the standard wood for durable desert construction.
36:21: About fifteen feet tall and a little over two feet wide.
36:22: Tenons are projecting pegs cut into the bottom of each frame. They drop into matching holes in the bases below, the same joint a carpenter still calls mortise and tenon. Nothing is nailed; the whole building slots together and can be taken apart for travel.
36:24: The sockets, or bases, were heavy blocks of cast silver laid on the ground with holes in them; the pegs at the foot of each frame dropped into the holes, so the whole wall stood on a silver footing rather than being driven into the sand. Exodus 38:27 says each of these bases used a talent of silver, roughly seventy-five pounds.
36:27: The tabernacle was laid out on an east to west axis with its entrance facing east, toward the sunrise, so the west end described here is the closed rear wall, the far end from the door.
36:31: Bars are long poles. They slid across the boards to hold them all together.
36:33: The King James "shoot through" means run through. The middle crossbar passed along the whole length inside the frames rather than sitting in external rings, locking the wall into one rigid unit.
36:34: Overlaid with gold means covered with a thin layer of gold. The wood stayed inside, and the gold showed on the outside.
36:35: The veil was the inner curtain that divided the tabernacle into two rooms: an outer room and, behind the veil, the innermost room that held the ark. Only certain personnel could pass it, and only at set times.
36:36: "Pillars" here are posts, not stone columns. "Cast" means the silver bases were made by pouring molten metal into a mold rather than being hammered into shape.
36:37: The King James distinguishes two grades of textile work. The veil and the inner curtains were "cunning work", figures of cherubim worked into the fabric by a designer-weaver as it was woven. This door screen is "needlework," embroidery added afterwards with a needle, and it carries no cherubim.
36:38: "Chapiters" are capitals, the decorated tops of the posts. "Fillets" are the bands or rods running between the posts, either as connecting rails or as decorative rings around them.

Read Exodus 36