Exodus 38: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

This chapter reports the making of the altar of burnt offering, the bronze basin made from the women's mirrors, and the courtyard with its curtains, posts, bases, and gate curtain. It then gives the count of the metals used in the work, recorded at Moses' command as the work of the Levites under Ithamar. Bezalel and Aholiab are named as the workmen, and the silver is traced to a half shekel from each of the 603,550 men who were counted.

Claim by Claim

1. 38:1
   • He made the altar of burnt offering out of acacia wood.
   • The altar was five cubits long.
   • The altar was five cubits wide.
   • The altar was square.
   • The altar was three cubits high.
2. 38:2
   • He made horns for the altar on its four corners.
   • The horns were of one piece with the altar.
   • He overlaid the altar with bronze.
3. 38:3
   • He made all the utensils of the altar.
   • He made the pots.
   • He made the shovels.
   • He made the sprinkling basins.
   • He made the flesh hooks.
   • He made the firepans.
   • He made all the altar's utensils of bronze.
4. 38:4
   • He made a grating for the altar.
   • The grating was network of bronze.
   • The grating was set under the altar's ledge, below, reaching halfway up the altar.
5. 38:5
   • He cast four rings at the four corners of the bronze grating.
   • The rings were holders for the poles.
6. 38:6
   • He made the poles of acacia wood.
   • He overlaid the poles with bronze.
7. 38:7
   • He put the poles into the rings on the sides of the altar.
   • The poles were for carrying the altar.
   • He made the altar hollow, of boards.
8. 38:8
   • He made the basin of bronze.
   • He made the basin's stand of bronze.
   • He made them from the mirrors of the women who served at the entrance of the tent of meeting.
9. 38:9
   • He made the court.
   • On the south side the hangings of the court were of fine twined linen.
   • The hangings of the south side were a hundred cubits long.
10. 38:10
    • The pillars of that side were twenty.
    • Their sockets were twenty, of bronze.
    • The hooks of the pillars were of silver.
    • The bands of the pillars were of silver.
11. 38:11
    • On the north side the hangings were a hundred cubits.
    • Their pillars were twenty.
    • Their sockets were twenty, of bronze.
    • The hooks of the pillars were of silver.
    • The bands of the pillars were of silver.
12. 38:12
    • On the west side the hangings were fifty cubits.
    • Their pillars were ten.
    • Their sockets were ten.
    • The hooks of the pillars were of silver.
    • The bands of the pillars were of silver.
13. 38:13
    • On the east side, toward the sunrise, the measure was fifty cubits.
14. 38:14
    • The hangings on one side of the entrance were fifteen cubits.
    • Their pillars were three.
    • Their sockets were three.
15. 38:15
    • On the other side of the court gate, on this side and on that, the hangings were fifteen cubits.
    • Their pillars were three.
    • Their sockets were three.
16. 38:16
    • All the hangings around the court were of fine twined linen.
17. 38:17
    • The sockets for the pillars were of bronze.
    • The hooks of the pillars were of silver.
    • The bands of the pillars were of silver.
    • The overlaying of the tops of the pillars was of silver.
    • All the pillars of the court were banded with silver.
18. 38:18
    • The screen for the gate of the court was the work of an embroiderer.
    • The screen was of blue, purple, scarlet, and fine twined linen.
    • The screen was twenty cubits long.
    • Its height, in its width, was five cubits.
    • It corresponded to the hangings of the court.
19. 38:19
    • Its pillars were four.
    • Their sockets were four, of bronze.
    • Their hooks were of silver.
    • The overlaying of their tops was of silver.
    • Their bands were of silver.
20. 38:20
    • All the pegs of the tabernacle and of the court all around were of bronze.
21. 38:21
    • This is the inventory of the tabernacle, the tabernacle of the testimony.
    • The inventory was counted at the commandment of Moses.
    • The counting was the service of the Levites.
    • The service was under the direction of Ithamar, son of Aaron the priest.
22. 38:22
    • Bezalel was the son of Uri.
    • Uri was the son of Hur.
    • Bezalel was of the tribe of Judah.
    • Bezalel made all that the LORD commanded Moses.
23. 38:23
    • Oholiab son of Ahisamach was with Bezalel.
    • Oholiab was of the tribe of Dan.
    • Oholiab was an engraver.
    • Oholiab was a skilled designer.
    • Oholiab was an embroiderer in blue, purple, scarlet, and fine linen.
24. 38:24
    • All the gold used for the work, in all the work of the sanctuary, came from the wave offering.
    • The gold of the wave offering was twenty-nine talents.
    • The gold of the wave offering was also seven hundred and thirty shekels.
    • The weight was reckoned by the shekel of the sanctuary.
25. 38:25
    • The silver from those of the congregation who were numbered was a hundred talents.
    • The silver was also one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five shekels.
    • The weight was reckoned by the shekel of the sanctuary.
26. 38:26
    • The amount was a beka per head.
    • A beka is half a shekel by the shekel of the sanctuary.
    • The amount was paid by everyone who crossed over to those who were numbered.
    • Those numbered were from twenty years old and upward.
    • Those numbered were six hundred three thousand five hundred and fifty.
27. 38:27
    • The hundred talents of silver were used to cast the sockets of the sanctuary.
    • The hundred talents of silver were used to cast the sockets of the veil.
    • There were a hundred sockets from the hundred talents.
    • One talent went to each socket.
28. 38:28
    • From the one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five shekels he made hooks for the pillars.
    • He overlaid the tops of the pillars.
    • He made bands for the pillars.
29. 38:29
    • The bronze of the wave offering was seventy talents.
    • The bronze of the wave offering was also two thousand four hundred shekels.
30. 38:30
    • With the bronze he made the sockets for the entrance of the tent of meeting.
    • With the bronze he made the bronze altar.
    • With the bronze he made the bronze grating for the altar.
    • With the bronze he made all the utensils of the altar.
31. 38:31
    • With the bronze he made the sockets of the court all around.
    • With the bronze he made the sockets of the court gate.
    • With the bronze he made all the pegs of the tabernacle.
    • With the bronze he made all the pegs of the court all around.

Words Worth Explaining

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

38:1

A cubit was about eighteen inches (45 cm), roughly the length of a forearm from elbow to fingertip, so this altar was about seven and a half feet square and four and a half feet high. A "burnt offering" was a sacrifice burned up entirely on the altar rather than eaten. Acacia is a hard, dense desert wood.

38:2

The horns were four upward-pointing projections, one at each corner, carved as part of the altar rather than attached. Blood from sacrifices was smeared on them, and someone seeking protection could take hold of them.

38:3

The bowls were for catching and throwing sacrificial blood; the firepans were shovels or trays for carrying live coals and ash away from the altar. "Bronze" is what the King James calls "brass": an alloy of copper and tin, the ordinary hard metal of the period.

38:4

A grating is a metal mesh shelf fitted inside the altar partway up. It held the burning wood and let the ash drop through to be cleared out below.

38:5

To cast metal is to melt it and pour it into a mold shaped like the piece you want.

38:7

The altar was a hollow box of boards plated with bronze rather than a solid block, so that it stayed light enough to lift. Poles slid through rings at the sides and rested on shoulders. Everything described in this chapter was built to be taken apart and carried, because Israel was still on the move.

38:8

Mirrors then were discs of bronze polished until they reflected, not glass. The Hebrew word for what these women were doing at the entrance means to serve or do duty, the same word used elsewhere of the Levites' work at the sanctuary, and it is not stated here what their service consisted of.

38:9

The courtyard was the fenced open enclosure surrounding the tent, its wall made of linen curtains hung between posts. A hundred cubits is about a hundred and fifty feet.

38:10

The bases were heavy metal blocks that the posts stood in, holding them upright the way a weighted foot does. The bands were silver rings or rods running around the posts.

38:13

The entrance was on the east side, facing the sunrise. That side is described in more detail over the next few verses because the gateway broke the run of curtains.

38:15

Fifteen cubits of curtain on each side of a fifty cubit wall leaves a twenty cubit gap in the middle. That gap is the gateway, and verse 18 describes the special curtain hung across it.

38:17

"Chapiters" is the old English word for the tops, or capitals, of the posts.

38:18

Blue, purple, and scarlet were the costliest dyes known (the first two extracted from sea snails, the third from an insect), so the colors themselves signaled expense.

38:20

The King James "pins" are tent pegs, hammered into the ground to anchor the ropes that held the curtains and the tent taut.

38:21

"The testimony" means the two inscribed stone tablets kept inside the chest at the heart of the tent; the tent is named after them. The Levites were the tribe assigned to transport and care for the sanctuary. Ithamar was Aaron's youngest son.

38:22

Bezaleel is the same name the modern spelling gives as Bezalel.

38:23

In 1611 English "cunning" meant skilled and knowledgeable, not sly, so "a cunning workman" is a master craftsman. Aholiab is also spelled Oholiab. The two chief craftsmen come from tribes at opposite ends of the nation, Judah in the south and Dan in the far north.

38:24

A talent weighed roughly seventy-five pounds (34 kg) and contained three thousand shekels; a shekel was about two-fifths of an ounce (11.5 g). The gold here therefore came to about a ton. "By the sanctuary shekel" means measured against the official standard weight kept at the sanctuary, since local weights varied.

38:25

This silver was not donated freely but collected as a fixed payment from every man counted in the census, about three and three-quarter tons in all.

38:26

A beka was a standard weight of about a fifth of an ounce (5.7 g). Counting "from twenty years old and up" was the standard way of registering men old enough for military service, so the figure counts adult men only, not the whole population.

38:27

A talent of silver per base means each of these foundation blocks weighed about seventy-five pounds. The "inner curtain" is the screen dividing off the innermost room of the tent, where the chest holding the tablets stood.

38:29

About two and a half tons of bronze.