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Samaritan Exodus

Samaritan Penteteuch

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Chapter 38

1 And he made the altar of burned offering of acacia wood, its length was five cubits, its width five cubits, and its height three cubits. 2 And he made its horns on its four corners; its horns were [of one piece] with it, and he overlaid it with bronze. 3 And he made all the vessels of the altar, the pots, and the shovels, and the basins, and the meat forks, and the firepans; he made all its vessels of bronze. 4 And he made for the altar a grating of a network of bronze, under the ledge around its lower part, reaching halfway up. 5 And he cast four rings for the four ends of the grating of bronze, [to be] places for the poles. 6 And he made the poles of acacia wood, and overlaid them with bronze. 7 And he put the poles into the rings on the sides of the altar to carry it with them; he made it hollow with planks. 8 And he made the basin of bronze and its base of bronze, from the mirrors of the women who served at the entrance of the tent of meeting.⁠

9 And he made the courtyard; for the south side southward the hangings of the courtyard were of fine twisted linen, one hundred cubits; 10 and its pillars were twenty, and their sockets twenty; the hooks of the pillars and their bands were of silver. 11 And for the north side one hundred cubits, their pillars twenty, and their sockets twenty of bronze; the hooks of the pillars and their bands were of silver. 12 And for the west side were hangings of fifty cubits, their pillars ten, and their sockets ten; the hooks of the pillars and their bands were of silver. 13 And for the east side eastward fifty cubits. 14 The hangings for the one side [of the gate were] fifteen cubits; their pillars three and their sockets three; 15 and so for the other side; on either side of the gate of the courtyard there were hangings of fifteen cubits; their pillars three and their sockets three. 16 All the hangings of the courtyard all around were of fine twisted linen. 17 And the sockets for the pillars were of bronze; their hooks of silver; and the overlaying of their capitals of silver; and they were fastened with silver to all the pillars of the courtyard. 18 And the screen for the gate of the courtyard was the work of the embroiderer of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twisted linen; and its length was twenty cubits, and it measured five cubits from top to bottom, corresponding to the hangings of the courtyard. 19 And their pillars were four and their sockets four of bronze; their hooks of silver, and the overlaying of their capitals and their bands of silver. 20 And all the pegs of the tabernacle and of the courtyard all around were of bronze.

21 This is the inventory of [the things for] the tabernacle, the tabernacle of the testimony, as they were numbered according to the commandment of Moses, for the service of the Levites, under the direction of Ithamar, the son of Aaron the priest. 22 And Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made all that Shema commanded Moses. 23 And with him was Oholiab the son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan, an engraver and a skilled craftsman and an embroiderer in blue and in purple and in scarlet and in fine linen. 24 All the gold that was used for the work in all the work of the sanctuary, the gold of the offering, was twenty-nine talents and seven hundred and thirty shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary.

25 And the silver of those who were numbered of the congregation was one hundred talents and one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five shekels, 26 a beka per person. Half a shekel—according to the shekel of the sanctuary—for everyone who was numbered in the census, from twenty years old and older, for six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty [men]. 27 And the hundred talents of silver were for casting the sockets of the sanctuary and the sockets of the veil; one hundred sockets for the hundred talents, a talent for a socket. 28 And from the one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five [shekels] he made hooks for the pillars and overlaid their capitals and made bands for them.

29 And the bronze of the offering was seventy talents and two thousand four hundred shekels. 30 And with it he made the sockets to the entrance of the tent of meeting and the bronze altar and the bronze grating for the altar and all the vessels of the altar, 31 and the sockets of the courtyard all around, and the sockets of the gate of the courtyard, and all the pegs of the tabernacle, and all the pegs of the courtyard all around.

Texts in conversation

Compare Exodus 38:8 and Samaritan Exodus 38:8

Hebrew Bible · Samaritan

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Summary

In Exodus, priests wash hands and feet at a bronze basin made from women’s mirrors before entering the tabernacle. In the Samaritan Pentateuch, “serving women” and “armies” sound alike, suggesting the basin’s design may represent an army of angels.

Passages

Exodus 38:8

Hebrew Bible
6 He made the poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with bronze. 7 He put the poles into the rings on the sides of the altar, with which to carry it. He made the altar hollow, out of boards. 8 He made the large basin of bronze and its pedestal of bronze from the mirrors of the women who served at the entrance of the tent of meeting. 9 Bezalel made the courtyard. For the south side the hangings of the courtyard were of fine twisted linen, 150 feet long, 10 with their twenty posts and their twenty bronze bases, with the hooks of the posts and their bands of silver.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Exodus

Samaritan Exodus 38:8

Samaritan · Samaritan Penteteuch
6 And he made the poles of acacia wood, and overlaid them with bronze. 7 And he put the poles into the rings on the sides of the altar to carry it with them; he made it hollow with planks. 8 And he made the basin of bronze and its base of bronze, from the mirrors of the women who served at the entrance of the tent of meeting. 9 And he made the courtyard; for the south side southward the hangings of the courtyard were of fine twisted linen, one hundred cubits; 10 and its pillars were twenty, and their sockets twenty; the hooks of the pillars and their bands were of silver.
130–120 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Samaritan Exodus

References

"... Exodus 38:8: The Israelite Samaritan commentators and translators understood “the visions of the armies” as angels who were always at the gate of the tent of meeting ..."
Benyamim Tsedaka and Sharon Sullivan, eds., The Israelite Samaritan Version of the Torah: First English Translation Compared with the Masoretic Version, trans. Benyamim Tsedaka (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2013), 220.

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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