Exodus 36:1-9

Bezalel and Oholiab

1 So Bezalel, Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the LORD has given skill and ability to know how to carry out all the work of constructing the sanctuary are to do the work just as the LORD has commanded.”

2 Then Moses summoned Bezalel and Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the LORD had given ability and who was willing to come and do the work.

3 They received from Moses all the offerings the Israelites had brought to carry out the work of constructing the sanctuary. And the people continued to bring freewill offerings morning after morning.

4 So all the skilled workers who were doing all the work on the sanctuary left what they were doing

5 and said to Moses, “The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the LORD commanded to be done.”

6 Then Moses gave an order and they sent this word throughout the camp: “No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.” And so the people were restrained from bringing more,

7 because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work.

The Tabernacle

8 All those who were skilled among the workers made the tabernacle with ten curtains of finely twisted linen and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, with cherubim woven into them by expert hands.

9 All the curtains were the same size—twenty-eight cubits long and four cubits wide.^[a]

Exodus 36:1-9 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EXODUS 36

Bezaleel and Aholiab, with the artificers under them, having a call as well as qualifications for the service of the sanctuary, and having received from Moses the materials for it, set about it, Ex 36:1-3 but the people bringing more than was necessary, they acquaint Moses with it, who by a proclamation restrained from it, Ex 36:4-7 and next an account is given of the several things that were wrought by them, as first the curtains for the tabernacle, both of linen and goats' hair, and the coverings of them, Ex 36:8-19 next the boards for the tabernacle, and the sockets they were set in, and the bars for the boards, Ex 36:20-34 and then the vail which parted the most holy place from the holy place, and the hanging which divided between the holy place and the court, Ex 36:35-38.

Cross References

• 1. S Exodus 28:3
• 2. Exodus 25:8
• 3. S Exodus 31:2
• 4. S Exodus 31:6
• 5. S Exodus 25:2; Exodus 35:21,26; 1 Chronicles 29:5
• 6. S Exodus 35:29
• 7. 2 Chronicles 24:14; 2 Chronicles 31:10; 2 Corinthians 8:2-3
• 8. 1 Kings 7:47

Footnotes

• [a]. That is, about 42 feet long and 6 feet wide or about 13 meters long and 1.8 meters wide