Exodus 25

Gifts offered for the dwelling

1 The LORD said to Moses:
2 Tell the Israelites to collect gift offerings for me. Receive my gift offerings from everyone who freely wants to give.
3 These are the gift offerings that you should receive from them: gold, silver, and copper;
4 blue, purple, and deep red yarns; fine linen; goats' hair;
5 rams' skins dyed red; beaded leather; acacia wood;
6 oil for the lamps; spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet-smelling incense;
7 gemstones; and gems for setting in the priest's vest and chest piece.
8 They should make me a sanctuary so I can be present among them.
9 You should follow the blueprints that I will show you for the dwelling and for all its equipment.

Instructions for building the chest containing the covenant

10 Have them make an acacia-wood chest. It should be forty-five inches long, twenty-seven inches wide, and twenty-seven inches high.
11 Cover it with pure gold, inside and out, and make a gold molding all around it.
12 Cast four gold rings for it and put them on its four feet, two rings on one side and two rings on the other.
13 Make acacia-wood poles and cover them with gold.
14 Then put the poles into the rings on the chest's sides and use them to carry the chest.
15 The poles should stay in the chest's rings. They shouldn't be taken out of them.
16 Put the covenant document that I will give you into the chest.
17 Then make a cover of pure gold, forty-five inches long and twenty-seven inches wide.
18 Make two winged heavenly creatures of hammered gold, one for each end of the cover.
19 Put one winged heavenly creature at one end and one winged heavenly creature at the other. Place the winged heavenly creatures at the cover's two ends.
20 The heavenly creatures should have their wings spread out above, shielding the cover with their wings. The winged heavenly creatures should face each other toward the cover's center.
21 Put the gold cover on top of the chest and put the covenant document that I will give you inside the chest.
22 There I will meet with you. From there above the cover, from between the two winged heavenly creatures that are on top of the chest containing the covenant, I will deliver to you all that I command you concerning the Israelites.

Instructions for the table

23 Make an acacia-wood table, three feet long, eighteen inches wide, and twenty-seven inches high.
24 Cover it with pure gold and make a gold molding all around it.
25 Make a frame around it that is four inches wide and a gold molding around the frame.
26 Make four gold rings for the table. Fasten the rings to the four corners at its four legs.
27 The rings that house the poles used for carrying the table should be close to the frame.
28 Make the poles from acacia wood and cover them with gold. The table should be carried with these poles.
29 Make its plates, dishes, jars, and bowls for pouring drink offerings. Make them of pure gold.
30 Set the bread of the presence on the table so it is always in front of me.

Instructions for the lampstand

31 Make a lampstand of pure hammered gold. The lampstand's base, branches, cups, flowers, and petals should all be attached to it.
32 It should have six branches growing out from its sides, three branches on one side of the lampstand and three branches on the other side of the lampstand.
33 One branch will have three cups shaped like almond blossoms, each with a flower and petals, and the next branch will also have three cups shaped like almond blossoms, each with a flower and petals. So it will be for the six branches that grow out of the lampstand.
34 In addition, on the lampstand itself there will be four cups shaped like almond blossoms, each with its flower and petals.
35 There will be a flower attached under the first pair of branches, a flower attached under the next pair of branches, and a flower attached under the last pair of branches. So it will be for the six branches that grow out of the lampstand.
36 Their flowers and their branches will be permanently attached to it. The whole lampstand should be one piece of pure hammered gold.
37 Make its seven lamps and set up its lamps so that they direct their light in front of the lampstand.
38 You should also make its tongs and fire pans out of pure gold.
39 All these items should be made from pure gold weighing one kikkar.
40 See to it that you make them according to the blueprint for them that you were shown on the mountain.

Footnotes 2

Exodus 25 Commentaries

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