Instructions for Making the Bronze Altar

¹ “And you will make the altar of acacia wood, five cubits long and five cubits wide; the altar will be square, and its height will be three cubits.

² And you will make its horns on its four corners; its horns will be ⌞of one piece with it⌟,¹ and you will overlay it with bronze.

1. Literally “from it”

³ And you will make its pots for removing its fat-soaked ashes and its shovels and its sprinkling bowls and its forks¹ and its fire pans; you will make all its equipment with bronze.

1. 1 Samuel 2:13 mentions a fork with “three teeth” used by priests

⁴ And you will make for it a grating, a work of bronze network, and you will make on the network four bronze rings on its four ends.

⁵ And you will put it under the ledge of the altar, below, and the network will be up to the middle of the altar.

⁶ And you will make poles for the altar, poles of acacia wood, and you will overlay them with bronze.

⁷ And the poles will be put into the rings, and the poles will be on the two sides of the altar when carrying it.

⁸ You will make it hollow with boards. As it was shown you on the mountain, so they will do.

Instructions for Making the Courtyard

⁹ “You will make the courtyard of the tabernacle; for the ⌞south⌟¹ side will be hangings for the courtyard of finely twisted linen, one hundred cubits long for the one side.

1. Literally “south southward”

¹⁰ And its twenty pillars and their twenty bases will be bronze; the hooks of the pillars and their bands will be silver.

¹¹ And likewise for the north side along the length will be hangings one hundred cubits long; and its twenty pillars and their bases will be bronze; the hooks of the pillars and their bands will be silver.

¹² And the width of the courtyard for the west¹ side will be hangings of fifty cubits, their ten pillars and their ten bases.

1. Or “sea”

¹³ And the width of the courtyard for the east side, toward sunrise, will be fifty cubits.

¹⁴ And hangings for the shoulder¹ will be fifteen cubits with their three pillars and their three bases.

1. Or “side,” referring to the span on one side of the courtyard’s entry

¹⁵ And fifteen cubits of hangings will be for the second shoulder¹ with their three pillars and their three bases.

1. Or “side,” referring to the span on one side of the courtyard’s entry

¹⁶ And for the gate of the courtyard there will be a screen of twenty cubits of blue and purple and crimson yarns and finely twisted linen, the work of an embroiderer; with their four pillars and their four bases.

¹⁷ “All the pillars of the courtyard all around will be banded with silver, and their hooks will be silver, and their bases will be bronze.

¹⁸ The length of the courtyard will be one hundred cubits and the width fifty cubits¹ and the height five cubits, of finely twisted linen, with their bronze bases.

1. Or “fifty with fifty.” Some suggest that the word for cubits has been accidentally omitted and the number fifty repeated in the Hebrew text. Others suggest that repetition of the number is original and indicates that the two ends of the courtyard are the same size

¹⁹ Bronze will be for all the equipment of the tabernacle in all its service and all its ⌞pegs⌟¹ and all the ⌞pegs⌟² of the courtyard.

1. Literally “hands”
2. Literally “hands”

Instructions for Making Oil for the Lampstand

²⁰ “And you will command the ⌞Israelites⌟,¹ and they will bring to you pure, beaten olive oil for the light, to cause a lamp to burn continually.

1. Literally “sons/children of Israel”

²¹ In the tent of assembly outside the curtain that is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons will arrange it, from evening until morning, before Yahweh as a lasting statute throughout their generations from the ⌞Israelites⌟.¹

1. Literally “sons/children of Israel”