Exodus 38

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The altar for burnt offerings

38 Bezalel used acacia wood to build the altar for burnt offerings.^[a] It was square, 2.2 metres long and 2.2 metres wide. It was 1.3 metres high. ² He made four horns, one at each corner of the altar. The horns and the altar itself were one piece of work. He covered the whole altar with bronze. ³ He made all the tools for the altar with bronze. He made pots to remove the ashes, and also spades and bowls. He made forks for the meat and dishes to carry the fire.

⁴ He used bronze to make a square net for the altar. He fixed it inside the altar, in the middle between the top and the ground. ⁵ He used bronze to make four rings. He fixed them to the four corners of the net. The poles would go through these rings. ⁶ He used acacia wood to make the poles. He covered them with bronze. ⁷ He put the poles through the rings on each side of the altar, to carry it. He used boards to make the altar so that it was empty inside.

⁸ He used bronze to make a large bowl for water, and a base for it to stand on. He used the bronze from small mirrors to make these things. The mirrors had belonged to women who worked at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.

The yard of the tabernacle

⁹ Bezalel made the yard around the tent. The south side of the yard was 45 metres long. It had curtains that were made from good linen. ¹⁰ He made 20 poles and 20 bronze bases to hold the poles. He used silver to make hooks and sticks to hold the curtains. ¹¹ The north side of the yard was also 45 metres long. It also had 20 poles and their bronze bases, as well as their silver hooks and sticks.

¹² The west end of the yard was 23 metres long. It had curtains with ten poles and their ten bronze bases. The poles had silver hooks and sticks. ¹³ The entrance of the yard was at its east end. That end was also 23 metres long. ^14-15 There were 7 metres of curtain on each side of the entrance. Three poles with their bases held the curtains on each side. ¹⁶ The workers used good linen to make all the curtains around the yard.

¹⁷ All the poles had bronze bases to hold them. But the workers used silver to make the hooks that were on the poles, and the sticks. They covered the tops of the poles with silver too. All the poles around the yard had silver sticks to join them together.

¹⁸ They used blue, purple and red material, as well as good linen, to make the curtain for the entrance of the yard. A worker used special skills so that it looked beautiful. It was 9 metres wide and 2.2 metres high. All the curtains around the yard were 2.2 metres high. ¹⁹ Four poles in bronze bases held the curtain at the entrance. The poles had silver hooks and silver sticks. Silver also covered the tops of the poles. ²⁰ The workers used bronze to make the pegs that fixed the tabernacle to the ground. They also made bronze pegs to fix all the curtains around the yard to the ground.

The materials for the tabernacle

²¹ This is a list of the materials that the workers used to make the tabernacle with the Covenant Box inside it. Moses commanded the Levites to write this list. Ithamar, the son of Aaron the priest, was the leader of this work.

²² Bezalel, the son of Uri and grandson of Hur, made all the things that the Lord had commanded Moses. Bezalel belonged to the tribe of Judah. ²³ Ahisamach's son Oholiab helped him. He belonged to the tribe of Dan. He had a special skill to draw things that he wanted to make. He could make beautiful pictures on cloth, with blue, purple and red materials, as well as good linen.

²⁴ The workers used 1,000 kilograms of gold to do all the work to make the tabernacle. That was its proper weight. The Israelites had lifted up this gold as an offering to the Lord.

²⁵ The people had also brought 3,430 kilograms of silver as an offering for the work. ²⁶ Each person who was 20 years old when Moses counted them had given the right amount, about ten grams. There were 603,550 men that Moses had counted.

²⁷ The workers used 34 kilograms of silver to make each base to hold the poles. There were 100 bases to hold the tabernacle and the special curtain inside it. So they used 3,400 kilograms of silver to make the bases. ²⁸ Then they used the 30 kilograms that still remained. With this, they made the hooks and the sticks for the poles, and they covered the tops of the poles.

²⁹ The people had also lifted up 2,425 kilograms of bronze as an offering to the Lord. ³⁰ The workers used this bronze to make the bases for the entrance to the tabernacle. They also used it to make the bronze altar, with its net and all its tools. ³¹ They used this bronze to make the bases for the curtains around the yard and for the entrance to the yard. They used it to make the pegs to fix the tabernacle and the curtain around the yard to the ground.