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The Torah · Old Testament

Exodus 38

The altar and courtyard are made and the materials are accounted for

General context

The burnt-offering altar is made of wood, overlaid with brass, with corner horns, utensils, a grating and carrying poles. It is square and hollow. The basin and its base are made from the mirrors of women associated with the meeting-tent entrance. The account then describes the courtyard's linen hangings, pillars, sockets and silver fittings, including its embroidered eastern gate hanging. Brass pins serve the tent and court. A material account follows, ordered by Moses and associated with Levite service under Ithamar, Aaron's son. Bezalel is credited with making what the Lord commanded, with Oholiab alongside him as a skilled worker. The totals of offered gold, census silver and brass are given. The silver is linked to half-shekel payments from 603,550 numbered men aged twenty and above. A hundred silver talents become a hundred sockets, and the remaining silver is used for pillar fittings. Brass is assigned to the entrance and court sockets, altar equipment and pins. The chapter joins a report of construction with an account of its materials.

Cited passages: Exodus 38:1, Exodus 38:2, Exodus 38:3, Exodus 38:4, Exodus 38:5, Exodus 38:6, Exodus 38:7, Exodus 38:8, Exodus 38:9, Exodus 38:10, Exodus 38:11, Exodus 38:12, Exodus 38:13, Exodus 38:14, Exodus 38:15, Exodus 38:16, Exodus 38:17, Exodus 38:18, Exodus 38:19, Exodus 38:20, Exodus 38:21, Exodus 38:22, Exodus 38:23, Exodus 38:24, Exodus 38:25, Exodus 38:26, Exodus 38:27, Exodus 38:28, Exodus 38:29, Exodus 38:30, Exodus 38:31

Exodus 38 (KJV)

1And he made the altar of burnt offering of shittim wood: five cubits was the length thereof, and five cubits the breadth thereof; it was foursquare; and three cubits the height thereof.

2And he made the horns thereof on the four corners of it; the horns thereof were of the same: and he overlaid it with brass.

3And he made all the vessels of the altar, the pots, and the shovels, and the basons, and the fleshhooks, and the firepans: all the vessels thereof made he of brass.

4And he made for the altar a brasen grate of network under the compass thereof beneath unto the midst of it.

5And he cast four rings for the four ends of the grate of brass, to be places for the staves.

6And he made the staves of shittim wood, and overlaid them with brass.

7And he put the staves into the rings on the sides of the altar, to bear it withal; he made the altar hollow with boards.

8And he made the laver of brass, and the foot of it of brass, of the lookingglasses of the women assembling, which assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

9And he made the court: on the south side southward the hangings of the court were of fine twined linen, an hundred cubits:

10Their pillars were twenty, and their brasen sockets twenty; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets were of silver.

11And for the north side the hangings were an hundred cubits, their pillars were twenty, and their sockets of brass twenty; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver.

12And for the west side were hangings of fifty cubits, their pillars ten, and their sockets ten; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver.

13And for the east side eastward fifty cubits.

14The hangings of the one side of the gate were fifteen cubits; their pillars three, and their sockets three.

15And for the other side of the court gate, on this hand and that hand, were hangings of fifteen cubits; their pillars three, and their sockets three.

16All the hangings of the court round about were of fine twined linen.

17And the sockets for the pillars were of brass; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver; and the overlaying of their chapiters of silver; and all the pillars of the court were filleted with silver.

18And the hanging for the gate of the court was needlework, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen: and twenty cubits was the length, and the height in the breadth was five cubits, answerable to the hangings of the court.

19And their pillars were four, and their sockets of brass four; their hooks of silver, and the overlaying of their chapiters and their fillets of silver.

20And all the pins of the tabernacle, and of the court round about, were of brass.

21This is the sum of the tabernacle, even of the tabernacle of testimony, as it was counted, according to the commandment of Moses, for the service of the Levites, by the hand of Ithamar, son to Aaron the priest.

22And Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made all that the Lord commanded Moses.

23And with him was Aholiab, son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, an engraver, and a cunning workman, and an embroiderer in blue, and in purple, and in scarlet, and fine linen.

24All the gold that was occupied for the work in all the work of the holy place, even the gold of the offering, was twenty and nine talents, and seven hundred and thirty shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary.

25And the silver of them that were numbered of the congregation was an hundred talents, and a thousand seven hundred and threescore and fifteen shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary:

26A bekah for every man, that is, half a shekel, after the shekel of the sanctuary, for every one that went to be numbered, from twenty years old and upward, for six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty men.

27And of the hundred talents of silver were cast the sockets of the sanctuary, and the sockets of the vail; an hundred sockets of the hundred talents, a talent for a socket.

28And of the thousand seven hundred seventy and five shekels he made hooks for the pillars, and overlaid their chapiters, and filleted them.

29And the brass of the offering was seventy talents, and two thousand and four hundred shekels.

30And therewith he made the sockets to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and the brasen altar, and the brasen grate for it, and all the vessels of the altar,

31And the sockets of the court round about, and the sockets of the court gate, and all the pins of the tabernacle, and all the pins of the court round about.

This page shows the King James Version. In the app, reading opens in the Berean Standard Bible unless you have chosen another translation. The reader includes five translations: the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), the King James Version (KJV), the World English Bible (WEB), the Bible in Basic English (BBE), and the American Standard Version (ASV). Search covers three of them: Berean Standard, King James, and World English. Basic English and American Standard readers search the King James words.

Historical context

The altar measures five by five by three cubits. The courtyard has hundred-cubit north and south sides and a fifty-cubit width; its gate hanging is twenty cubits long and five high. The basin's mirrors are connected in King James with women assembling and in American Standard with women ministering at the entrance. Their specific duties are not described. The account gives gold as twenty-nine talents and 730 shekels, silver as a hundred talents and 1,775 shekels, and brass as seventy talents and 2,400 shekels. These are reported in the source's units, without a modern weight or monetary conversion. The census count is not presented as a total population including everyone who left Egypt.

Cited passages: Exodus 38:1, Exodus 38:8, Exodus 38:9, Exodus 38:10, Exodus 38:11, Exodus 38:12, Exodus 38:13, Exodus 38:14, Exodus 38:15, Exodus 38:16, Exodus 38:17, Exodus 38:18, Exodus 38:19, Exodus 38:21, Exodus 38:22, Exodus 38:23, Exodus 38:24, Exodus 38:25, Exodus 38:26, Exodus 38:27, Exodus 38:28, Exodus 38:29, Exodus 38:30, Exodus 38:31

Literary context

Descriptions of making give way to a summary of counting. The first part emphasizes how parts fit together and what materials are used; the latter identifies oversight, craftsmen and totals. The silver account links a repeated contribution per numbered person with specific structural uses. The report thus keeps the donated materials visible after they have become parts of the sanctuary. Named workers appear alongside the collective contribution, rather than replacing it with a story of a single person's resources.

Cited passages: Exodus 38:1, Exodus 38:2, Exodus 38:3, Exodus 38:4, Exodus 38:5, Exodus 38:6, Exodus 38:7, Exodus 38:8, Exodus 38:9, Exodus 38:10, Exodus 38:11, Exodus 38:12, Exodus 38:17, Exodus 38:18, Exodus 38:19, Exodus 38:20, Exodus 38:21, Exodus 38:22, Exodus 38:23, Exodus 38:24, Exodus 38:25, Exodus 38:26, Exodus 38:27, Exodus 38:28, Exodus 38:29, Exodus 38:30, Exodus 38:31

Key moments

  1. The basin is made from women’s mirrors (Exodus 38:8). The basin and base use mirrors belonging to women at the meeting-tent entrance.
  2. An account is recorded under Moses’ command (Exodus 38:21). The material account names Ithamar in connection with the Levites’ service.
  3. The silver contribution is tied to a count (Exodus 38:26). The account records a half-shekel from each of 603,550 numbered men aged twenty and above.
  4. The silver becomes sanctuary sockets (Exodus 38:27). A hundred talents are used for a hundred sockets, a talent for each.

For reflection

What does the material account add to the preceding descriptions of construction?

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