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Exodus

About this book

Instructions for the Tabernacle

Chapter 25

1 The Lord spoke to Moses, 2 “Tell the Israelites to take an offering for me; from every person motivated by a willing heart you are to receive my offering. 3 This is the offering you are to accept from them: gold, silver, bronze, 4 blue, purple, scarlet, fine linen, goats’ hair, 5 ram skins dyed red, fine leather, acacia wood, 6 oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and for fragrant incense, 7 onyx stones, and other gems to be set in the ephod and in the breastpiece. 8 Let them make for me a sanctuary, so that I may live among them.⁠ 9 According to all that I am showing you—the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings—you must make it exactly so.⁠ 10 “They are to make an ark of acacia wood—its length is to be 45 inches, its width 27 inches, and its height 27 inches. 11 You are to overlay it with pure gold—both inside and outside you must overlay it, and you are to make a surrounding border of gold over it. 12 You are to cast four gold rings for it and put them on its four feet, with two rings on one side and two rings on the other side. 13 You are to make poles of acacia wood, overlay them with gold, 14 and put the poles into the rings at the sides of the ark in order to carry the ark with them. 15 The poles must remain in the rings of the ark; they must not be removed from it. 16 You are to put into the ark the testimony that I will give to you. 17 “You are to make an atonement lid of pure gold; its length is to be 45 inches, and its width is to be 27 inches. 18 You are to make two cherubim of gold; you are to make them of hammered metal on the two ends of the atonement lid. 19 Make one cherub on one end and one cherub on the other end; from the atonement lid you are to make the cherubim on the two ends. 20 The cherubim are to be spreading their wings upward, overshadowing the atonement lid with their wings, and the cherubim are to face each other, looking toward the atonement lid. 21 You are to put the atonement lid on top of the ark, and in the ark you are to put the testimony I am giving you. 22 I will meet with you there,⁠ and from above the atonement lid, from between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will command you for the Israelites. 23 “You are to make a table of acacia wood; its length is to be 36 inches, its width 18 inches, and its height 27 inches. 24 You are to overlay it with pure gold, and you are to make a surrounding border of gold for it. 25 You are to make a surrounding frame for it about three inches broad, and you are to make a surrounding border of gold for its frame. 26 You are to make four rings of gold for it and attach the rings at the four corners where its four legs are. 27 The rings are to be close to the frame to provide places for the poles to carry the table. 28 You are to make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold, so that the table may be carried with them. 29 You are to make its plates, its ladles, its pitchers, and its bowls, to be used in pouring out offerings; you are to make them of pure gold. 30 You are to set the Bread of the Presence on the table before me continually. 31 “You are to make a lampstand of pure gold. The lampstand is to be made of hammered metal; its base and its shaft, its cups, its buds, and its blossoms are to be from the same piece.⁠ 32 Six branches are to extend from the sides of the lampstand, three branches of the lampstand from one side of it and three branches of the lampstand from the other side of it. 33 Three cups shaped like almond flowers with buds and blossoms are to be on one branch, and three cups shaped like almond flowers with buds and blossoms are to be on the next branch, and the same for the six branches extending from the lampstand. 34 On the lampstand there are to be four cups shaped like almond flowers with buds and blossoms, 35 with a bud under the first two branches from it, and a bud under the next two branches from it, and a bud under the third two branches from it, according to the six branches that extend from the lampstand. 36 Their buds and their branches will be one piece, all of it one hammered piece of pure gold. 37 “You are to make its seven lamps and then set its lamps up on it, so that it will give light to the area in front of it. 38 Its trimmers and its trays are to be of pure gold. 39 About 75 pounds of pure gold is to be used for it and for all these utensils. 40 Now be sure to make them according to the pattern you were shown on the mountain.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Exodus 25:9 and 1 Chronicles 28:19

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

1 Chronicles 28 says the Temple plan is a “pattern” God gives to David, which follows the Tabernacle pattern in Exodus. Samuel and Kings don't mention this pattern, so the Chronicler creates a link between David and Moses that earlier stories lack.

Passages

Exodus 25:9

Hebrew Bible
8 Let them make for me a sanctuary, so that I may live among them. 9 According to all that I am showing you—the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings—you must make it exactly so. 10 “They are to make an ark of acacia wood—its length is to be 45 inches, its width 27 inches, and its height 27 inches. 11 You are to overlay it with pure gold—both inside and outside you must overlay it, and you are to make a surrounding border of gold over it.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Exodus

1 Chronicles 28:19

Hebrew Bible
17 for the pure gold used for the meat forks, bowls, and jars; for the small gold bowls, including the weight for each bowl; for the small silver bowls, including the weight for each bowl; 18 and for the refined gold of the incense altar. He gave him the blueprint for the seat of the gold cherubim that spread their wings and provide shelter for the ark of the Lord’s covenant. 19 David said, “All this I put in writing as the Lord directed me and gave me insight regarding the details of the blueprints.” 20 David said to his son Solomon: “Be strong and brave! Do it! Don’t be afraid and don’t panic! For the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not leave you or abandon you before all the work for the service of the Lord’s temple is finished. 21 Here are the divisions of the priests and Levites who will perform all the service of God’s temple. All the willing and skilled men are ready to assist you in all the work and perform their service. The officials and all the people are ready to follow your instructions.”
400–301 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Chronicles

References

"... Like the Tabernacle in the wilderness, whose plans, dimensions, and vessels were dictated in detail by the Lord himself (Exodus 25–30), so too all the detailed plans of Solomon’s Temple and its vessels were delivered by the hand of the Lord to David who passed them on to Solomon, as previously mentioned (1 Chronicles 28:11–19). No such claim is made in Samuel-Kings, while the Chronicler uses the same word (“pattern”) for the plan of the Temple (1 Chronicles 28:11, 12, 18, 19) that is used in Exodus 25:9 (twice), and in 25:40, regarding the Tabernacle. This word refers specifically to the plan of the Tabernacle or the Temple only in these two contexts in the entire Hebrew Bible. Moreover, 2 Chronicles 2:13 and Exodus 31:4; 35:32, 33, 35 both use the same word (“design”) ..."
Isaac Kalimi, Writing and Rewriting the Story of Solomon in Ancient Israel (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019), 282–283.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Exodus 25:9 and 1 Chronicles 28:19

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