the First Week of Advent
Click here to join the effort!
Bible Encyclopedias
Tabernacle
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or is the rendering, in the A. V., of the following Heb. and Gr. words;
1. אֹהֶל, ohel, the most frequent term, but often signifying and rendered a common "tent;"
2. משְֹׁכָּן, mishken, the distinctive term, always so rendered, except ("dwelling") in 1 Chronicles 6:32; Job 18:21; Job 21:28; Job 39:6; Psalms 26:8; Psalms 49:11; Psalms 74:7; Psalms 87:2; Isaiah 32:18; Jeremiah 9:19; Jeremiah 30:8; Jeremiah 51:30; Ezekiel 25:4; Hebrews 1:6; ("habitation") 2 Chronicles 29:6; Psalms 78:28; Psalms 132:5; Isaiah 22:16; Isaiah 54:2; ("tent") Song of Solomon 1:8;
3. סֹךְ [once שׂךְ, Lamentations 2:6], suk (Psalms 76:2), סֻכָּה, sukkah (Leviticus 23:34; Deuteronomy 16:13; Deuteronomy 16:16; Deuteronomy 31:10; 2 Chronicles 8:13; Ezra 3:4; Job 36:29; Isaiah 4:6; Amos 9:11; Zechariah 14:16; Zechariah 14:18-19), or סַכּוּת, sikkuth (Amos 5:26), all meaning a booth, as often rendered;
4. σκηνή, σκῆνος (2 Corinthians 5:1; 2 Corinthians 5:4) or σκήνωμα (Acts 7:46 [rather habitation]; 2 Peter 1:13-14), a tent. Besides occasional use for an ordinary dwelling, the term is specially employed to designate the first sacred edifice of the Hebrews prior to the time of Solomon; fully called אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד, the tent of meeting, or (especially in Numbers) מַשְׁכִּן הָעֵדוּת, tabernacle of the congregation (Sept. σκηνὴ ) [1 Kings 8:4; 1 Kings 8:6, σκήνωμα ] τοῦ μαρτυρίου; Philo, ἱερὸν φορητόν, Opp. 2 146; Josephus, μεταφερόμενος καὶ συμπερινοστῶν ναός, Ant. 3, 6, 1). (In the discussion of this interesting subject we have availed ourselves of MS. contributions from Prof. T Paine, LL.D., author of Solomon's Temple, etc., in addition to the suggestions in the book itself. For an exhaustive treatment we refer to the most recent Volume and charts, entitled The Tabernacle of Israel in the Desert, by Prof. James Strong, Providence, 1888.)
I. Terms and Synonyms. —
1. The first word thus used (Exodus 25:9) is מַשְׁכָּן, mishkan, from
שָׁכִן, to lie down or dwell, and thus itself equivalent to dwelling. It connects itself with the Jewish, though not scriptural, word Shechinah (q.v.), as describing the dwelling place of the divine glory. It is noticeable, however, that it is not applied in prose to the common dwellings of men, the tents of the patriarchs in Genesis, or those of Israel in the wilderness. It seems to belong rather to the speech of poetry (Psalms 87:2; Song of Solomon 1:8). The loftier character of the word may obviously have helped to determine its religious use, and justifies translators who have the choice of synonyms like "tabernacle" and "tent" in a like preference. In its application to the sacred building, it denotes (a) the ten tri-colored curtains; (b) the forty-eight planks supporting them; (c) the whole building, including the roof. (See DWELLING).
2. Another word, however, is also used, more connected with the common life of men; אֹהֶל, ohel, the tent of the patriarchal age, of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob (Genesis 9:21, etc.). For the most part, as needing something to raise it, it is used, when applied to the sacred tent, with some distinguishing epithet. In one passage only (1 Kings 1:39) does it appear with this meaning by itself. The Sept., not distinguishing between the two words, gives σκηνή for both. The original difference appears to have been that אֹהֶל represented the uppermost covering, the black goats-hair roof, which was strictly a tent, in distinction from the lower upright house-like part built of boards. The two words are accordingly sometimes joined, as in Exodus 39:32; Exodus 40:2; Exodus 6:29 (A.V. "the tabernacle of the tent"). Even here, however, the Sept. gives σκηνή only, with the exception of the var. lect. of ἡ σκηνὴ τῆς σκεπῆς in Exodus 40:29. In its application to the tabernacle, the term ohel means (a) the tent-roof of goats-hair; (b) the whole building. (See TENT).
3. בִּיַת, bayith, house (οικος, domus), is applied to the tabernacle in Exodus 23:19; Exodus 34:26; Joshua 6:24; Joshua 9:23; Judges 18:31; Judges 20:18, as it had been, apparently, to the tents of the patriarchs (Genesis 33:17).
So far as it differs from the two preceding words, it expresses more definitely the idea of a fixed settled habitation. It was therefore fitter for the sanctuary of Israel after the people were settled in Canaan than during their wanderings. For us the chief interest of the word lies in its having descended from a yet older order, the first word ever applied in the Old Test. to a local sanctuary, Bethel, "the house of God" (Genesis 28:17; Genesis 28:22), keeping its place, side by side, with other words — tent, tabernacle, palace, temple, synagogue-and at last outliving all of them; rising, in the Christian Ecclesia, to yet higher uses (1 Timothy 3:15). (See HOUSE).
4. קֹדֶשׁ, kó desh, or מַקְדָּשׁ . mikdash (ἁγίασμα, ἁγιαστήριον, τὸ ἃγιον, τὰ ἃγια, sanctuarium'), the holy, consecrated place, and therefore applied, according to the graduated scale of holiness of which the tabernacle bore witness, sometimes to the whole structure (Exodus 25:8; Leviticus 12:4), sometimes to the court into which none but the priests might enter (Leviticus 4:6; Numbers 3:38; Numbers 4:12), sometimes to the innermost sanctuary of ail, the Holy of Hohes. (Leviticus 16:2). Here also the word had an earlier starting-point and a far-reaching history. En-Mishpat, the city of judgment, the seat of some old oracle, had been also Kadesh, the sanctuary (Genesis 14:7; Ewald, Gesch. Isr. 2, 307). The name El-Kuds still clings to the walls of Jerusalem. (See SANCTUARY).
5. הֵיכָל, heykal, temple (ναός, templum), as meaning the stately building, or palace of Jehovah (1 Chronicles 29:1; 1 Chronicles 29:19), is applied more commonly to the Temple (2 Kings 24:13, etc.), but was used also (probably at the period when the thought of the Temple had affected the religious nomenclature of the time) of the tabernacle at Shiloh. (1 Samuel 1:9; 1 Samuel 3:3) and Jerusalem (Psalms 5:7). In either case the thought which the word embodies is that the "tent," the "house," is royal, the dwelling-place of the great king. (See TEMPLE).
The first two of the above words receive a new meaning in combination with מוֹעֵד (moed), and with הָעֵדוּת(ha-eduth). To understand the full meaning of the distinctive titles thus formed is to possess the key to the significance of the whole tabernacle.
(a.) The primary force of יָעִד is "to meet by appointment," and the phrase אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד has therefore the meaning of "a place of or for a fixed meeting." Acting on the belief that the meeting in this case was that of the worshippers, the A.V. has uniformly rendered it by "tabernacle of the congregation" (so Seb. Schmidt, "tentorium convents;" and Luther, "Stiftshutte" in which Stift = Pfarrkirche) while the Sept. and Vulg., confounding it with the other epithet, have rendered both by ἡ σκηνὴ τοῦ μαρτυρίου, and "tabernaculum testimonii." None of these renderings, however, bring out the real meaning of the word. This is to be found in what may be called the locus classicus, ῥ as the interpretation of all words connected with the tabernacle. "This shall be a continual burnt-offering at the door of the tabernacle of meeting (מוֹעֵד ) where I will meet you (אַוָּעֵד, γνωσθήσομαι ) to speak there unto thee. And there will I meet (נֹעִדנְתּי, τάξομαι ) with the children of Israel. And I will sanctify (קַדִּשְׁתַּי ) the tabernacle of meeting... and I will dwell (שָׁכִנְתַּי ) among the children of Israel, and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God" (Exodus 29:42-46). The same central thought occurs in Exodus 25:22, "There I will meet with thee" (comp. also 30:6, 36; Numbers 17:4). It is clear, therefore, that "congregation" is inadequate. Not the gathering of the worshippers, but the meeting of God with his people, to commune with them, to make himself known to them, was what the name embodied. Ewald has accordingly suggested Offenbarungszelt= tent of revelation, as the best equivalent (Alterthü mer, p. 130). This made the place a sanctuary. Thus it was that the tent was the dwelling, the house of God (Bahr, Symb. 1, 81). (See CONGREGATION).
(b.) The other compound phrase, אֹהֶל הָעֵדנְת, as connected with עוּד (= to bear witness), is rightly rendered by ἡ σκηνὴ τοῦ μαρτυρίου, tabernaculum testimonii, die Wohnung des Zeugnisses, "the tent of the testimony" (Numbers 9:15) "the tabernacle of witness" (Numbers 17:7; Numbers 18:2). In this case the tent derives its name from that which is the center of its holiness. The two tables of stone within the ark are emphatically the testimony (Exodus 25:16; Exodus 25:21; Exodus 31:18). They were to all Israel the abiding witness of the nature and will of God. The tent, by virtue of its relation to them, became the witness of its own significance as the meeting-place of God and man. The probable connection of the two distinct names, in sense as well as in sound (Bahr, Synb. 1, 83; Ewald, Alt. p. 230), gave, of course, a force to each which no translation can represent. (See TESTIMONY).
II. History. —
1. We may distinguish in the Old Test. three sacred tabernacles:
(1.) The Ante-Sinaitic, which was probably the dwelling of Moses, and was placed by the camp of the Israelites in the desert, for the transaction of public business. Exodus 33:7-10, "Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the Congregation. And it came to pass, that every one which sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp. And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle, that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent- door, and looked after Moses until he was gone into the tabernacle. And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses. And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle-door: and all the people rose up and worshipped, every one in his tent-door." This was neither the sanctuary of the tabernacle described in ch. 25 sq., which was not made till after the perfect restoration of the covenant (ch. 35 sq.), nor another sanctuary that had come down from their forefathers and was used before the tabernacle proper was built (as Le Clerc, J. D. Michaelis, and Rosenmü ller supposed); but an ordinary tent used for the occasion and purpose (Keil, Comment. ad loc.).
(2.) The Sinaitic tabernacle superseded the tent which had served for the transaction of public business probably from the beginning of the Exode. This was constructed by Bezaleel and Aholiab as a portable mansion- house, guildhall, and cathedral, and set up on the first day of the first month in the second year after leaving Egypt. Of this alone we have accurate descriptions. It was the second of these sacred tents, which, as the most important, is called the tabernacle par excellence. Moses was commanded by Jehovah to have it erected in the Arabian desert, by voluntary contributions of the Israelites, who carried it about with them in their migrations until after the conquest of Canaan, when it remained stationary for longer periods in various towns of Palestine (as below).
(3.) The Davidic tabernacle was erected by David, in Jerusalem, for the reception of the ark (2 Samuel 6:12); while the old tabernacle remained to the days of Solomon at Gibeon, together with the brazen altar, as the place where sacrifices were offered (1 Chronicles 16:39; 2 Chronicles 1:3).
2. Varied Fortunes of the Sinaitic Tabernacle.
(1.) In the Wilderness. — The outward history of the tabernacle begins with Exodus 25. It comes after the first great group of laws (ch. 19-23), after the covenant with the people, after the vision of the divine glory (ch. 24). For forty days and nights Moses is in the mount. Before him there lay a problem, as measured by human judgment, of gigantic difficulty. In what fit symbols was he to embody the great truths without which the nation would sink into brutality? In what way could those symbols be guarded against the evil which he had seen in Egypt, of idolatry the most degrading? He was not left to solve the problem for himself. There rose before him, not without points of contact with previous associations, yet in no degree formed out of them, the "pattern" of the tabernacle. The lower analogies of the painter and the architect seeing, with their inward eye, their completed work before the work itself begins, may help us to understand how it was that the vision on the mount included all details of form, measurement, materials, the order of the ritual, the apparel of the priests. lie is directed in his choice of the two chief artists, Bezaleel of the tribe of Judah, Aholiab of the tribe of Daniel (Exodus 31). The sin, of the golden calf apparently postpones the execution. For a moment it seems as if the people were to be left without the Divine Presence itself without any recognized symbol of it (Exodus 33:3). As in a transition period, the whole future depending on the patience of the people, on the intercession of their leader, a tent is pitched (probably that of Moses himself, which had hitherto been the headquarters of consultation), outside the camp, to be provisionally the tabernacle of meeting. There the mind of the lawgiver enters into ever-closer fellowship with the mind of God (Exodus 33:11), learns to think of him as "merciful and gracious" (Exodus 34:6); in the strength of that thought is led back to the fulfillment of the plan which had seemed likely to end, as it began, in vision. Of this provisional tabernacle it has to be noticed that there was as yet no ritual and no priesthood. The people went out to it as to an oracle (Exodus 33:7). Joshua, though of the tribe of Ephraim, had free access to it (Exodus 33:11).
Another outline law was, however, given; another period of solitude, like the first; followed. The work could now be resumed. The people offered the necessary materials in excess of what was wanted (Exodus 36:5-6). Other workmen (Exodus 36:2) and workwomen (Exodus 35:25) placed themselves under the direction of Bezaleel and Aholiab. The parts were completed separately, and then, on the first day of the second year from the Exode, the tabernacle itself was erected and the ritual appointed for it begun (Exodus 40:2).
The position of the new tent was itself significant. It stood, not, like the provisional tabernacle, at a distance from the camp, but in its very center. The multitude of Israel, hitherto scattered with no fixed order, were now, within a month of its erection (Numbers 2:2), grouped round it, as around the dwelling of the unseen Captain of the Host, in a fixed order, according to their tribal rank. The priests on the east, the other three families of the Levites on the other sides, were closest in attendance, the "body-guard" of the Great King. (See LEVITE). In the wider square, Judah, Zebulun, Issachar, were on the east; Ephraim, Manasseh, Benjamin, on the west; the less conspicuous tribes, Dan, Asher, Naphtali, on the north; Reuben, Simeon, Gad, on the south side. When the army put itself in order of march, the position of the tabernacle, carried by the Levites, was still central, the tribes of the east and south in front, those of the north and west in the rear (ch. 2). Upon it there rested the symbolic cloud, dark by day and fiery-red by night (Exodus 40:38). When the cloud removed, the host knew that it was the signal for them to go forward (Exodus 40:36-37; Numbers 9:17). As long as it remained — whether for a day, or month, or year they continued where they were (Exodus 40:15-23). Each march, it must be remembered, involved the breaking up of the whole structure, all the parts being carried on wagons by the three Levitical families of Kohath, Gershon, and Merari, while the "sons of Aaron" prepared for the removal by covering everything in the Holy of Holies with a purple cloth (Exodus 4:6-15). (See ENCAMPMENT).
In all special facts connected with the tabernacle, the original thought reappears. It is the place where man meets with God. There the Spirit "comes upon" the seventy elders, and they prophesy (Numbers 11:24-25). Thither Aaron and Miriam are called out when they rebel against the servant of the Lord (Numbers 12:4). There the "glory of the Lord" appears after the unfaithfulness of the twelve spies (Numbers 14:10) and the rebellion of Korah and his company (Numbers 16:19; Numbers 16:42) and the sin of Meribah (Numbers 20:6). Thither, when there is no sin to punish, but a difficulty to be met, do the daughters of Zelophe had come to bring their cause "before the Lord" (Numbers 27:2). There, when the death of Moses draws near, is the solemn "charge" given to his successor (Deuteronomy 31:14).
(2.) In Palestine. — As long as Canaan remained unconquered and the people were still therefore an army, the tabernacle was probably moved from place to place, wherever the host of Israel was for the time encampedat Gilgal (Joshua 4:19), in the valley between Ebal and Gerizim (Joshua 8:30-35), again, at the headquarters of Gilgaal (Joshua 9:6; Joshua 10:15; Joshua 10:43); and, finally, as at "the place which the Lord had chosen," at Shiloh (Joshua 9:27; Joshua 18:1). The reasons of this last choice are not given. Partly, perhaps, its central position, partly its belonging to the powerful tribe of Ephraim, the tribe of the great captain of the host, may have determined the preference. There it continued during the whole period of the judges, the gathering-point for "the heads of the fathers" of the tribes (Joshua 19:51), for councils of peace or war (Joshua 22:12; Judges 21:12), for annual solemn dances, in which the women of Shiloh were conspicuous (Judges 21:21). There, too, as the religion of Israel sank towards the level of an orgiastic heathenism, troops of women assembled, shameless as those of Midian, worshippers of Jehovah, and, like the ἱερόδουλοι of heathen temples, concubines of his priests (1 Samuel 2:22). It was far, however, from being what it was intended to be, the one national sanctuary, the witness against a localized and divided worship. The old religion of the high places kept its ground. Altars were erected, at first under protest, and with reserve, as being not for sacrifice (Joshua 22:26), afterwards freely and without scruple (Judges 6:24; Judges 13:19). Of the names by which the one special sanctuary was known at this period, those of the "house" and the "temple" of Jehovah (1 Samuel 1:9; 1 Samuel 1:24; 1 Samuel 3:3; 1 Samuel 3:15) are most prominent.
A state of things which was rapidly assimilating the worship of Jehovah to that of Ashtaroth or Mylitta needed to be broken up. The ark of God was taken, and the sanctuary lost its glory; and the tabernacle, though it did not perish, never again recovered it (1 Samuel 4:22). Samuel, at once the Luther and the Alfred of Israel, who had grown up within its precincts, treats it as an abandoned shrine (so Psalms 78:60), and sacrifices elsewhere-at Mizpeh (1 Samuel 7:9), at Ramah (1 Samuel 9:12; 1 Samuel 10:3), at Gilgal (1 Samuel 10:8; 1 Samuel 11:15). It probably became once again a movable sanctuary; less honored, as no longer possessing the symbol of the Divine Presence, yet cherished by the priesthood, and some portions at least of its ritual kept up. For a time it seems, under Saul, to have been settled at Nob (1 Samuel 21:1-6)., which thus became what it had not been before — a priestly city. The massacre of the priests and the flight of Abiathar must, however, have robbed it yet further of its glory. It had before lost the ark. It now lost the presence of the high-priest, and with it the oracular ephod, the Urim and Thummim (1 Samuel 22:20; 1 Samuel 23:6). What change of fortune then followed we do not know.
The fact that all Israel was encamped, in the last days of Saul, at Gilboa, and that there Saul, though without success, inquired of the Lord by Urim (1 Samuel 28:4-6), makes it probable that the tabernacle, as of old, was in the encampment, and that Abiathar had returned to it. In some way or other it found its way to Gibeon (1 Chronicles 16:39). The anomalous separation of the two things which, in the original order, had been joined brought about yet greater anomalies, and while the ark remained at Kirjath-jearim, the tabernacle at Gibeon connected itself with the worship of the high-places (1 Kings 3:2). The capture of Jerusalem, and the erection there of a new tabernacle, with the ark, of which the old had been deprived (2 Samuel 6:17; 1 Chronicles 15:1), left it little more than a traditional, historical sanctity. It retained only the old altar of burnt-offerings (1 Chronicles 21:29). Such as it was, however, neither king nor people could bring themselves to sweep it away. The double service went on; Zadok, as high- priest, officiated at Gibeon (1 Chronicles 16:39); the more recent, more prophetic service of psalms and hymns and music, under Asaph, gathered round the tabernacle at Jerusalem (1 Chronicles 16:4; 1 Chronicles 16:37). The divided worship continued all the days of David. The sanctity of both places was recognized by Solomon on his accession (1 Kings 3, 15; 2 Chronicles 1:3). But it was time that the anomaly should cease. As long as it was simply tent against tent, it was difficult to decide between them. The purpose of David, fulfilled by Solomon, was that the claims of both should merge in the higher glory of the Temple. Some, Abiathar probably among them, clung to the old order, in this as in other things; but the final day at last came, and the tabernacle of meeting was either taken down or left to perish and-be forgotten. So a page in the religious history of Israel was closed. Thus the disaster of Shiloh led to its natural consummation.
III. Description. — The written authorities four the restoration of the tabernacle are, first, the detailed account to be found in Exodus 26 and repeated in Exodus 36:8-38, without any variation beyond the slightest possible abridgment; secondly, the account given of the building by Josephus (Ant. 3, 6), which is so nearly a repetition of the account found in the Bible, that we may feel assured that he had no really important authority before him except the one which is equally accessible to us. Indeed, we might almost put his account on one side if it were not that, being a Jew, and so much nearer the time, he may have had access to some traditional accounts which may have enabled him to realize its appearance more readily than we can do, and his knowledge of Hebrew technical terms may have assisted him to understand what we might otherwise be unable to explain. The additional indications contained in the Talmud and in Philo are so few and indistinct, and are, besides, of such doubtful authenticity, that they practically add nothing to our knowledge, and may safely be disregarded.
For a complicated architectural building, these written authorities probably would not suffice without some remains or other indications to supplement them; but the arrangements of the tabernacle were so simple that they are really all that are required. Every important dimension was either five cubits or a multiple of five cubits, and all the arrangements in plan were either squares or double squares, so that there is, in fact, no difficulty in putting the whole together, and none would ever have occurred, were it not that the dimensions of the sanctuary, as obtained from the "boards" that formed its walls, appear at first sight to be one thing, while those obtained from the dimensions of the curtains Which covered it appear to give another. The apparent discrepancy is, however, easily explained, as we shall presently see, and never would have occurred to any one who had lived long under canvas or was familiar with the exigencies of tent architecture.
The following close translation of Exodus 26 will set the subject generally before the reader. We have indicated, by the use of italics, marked variations from the A.V.
1. And the tabernacle (מַשְׁכָּן ) thou shalt make ten curtains; twisted linen, and violet and purple and crimson of cochineal: cherubs, work of (an) artificer, thou shalt
2. make them. (The) length of the one curtain (shall be) eight and twenty by the cubit, and (the breadth) four by the cubit, the one curtain: one measure (shall be)
3. to all the curtains. Five of the curtains shall be joining each to its fellow, and five of the curtains joining
4. each to its fellow. And thou shalt make loops (לוּל ) of violet upon (the) edge of the one curtain from (the) end in the joining, and so shall thou make in (the) edge
5. of the endmost curtain in the second joining: fifty loops shalt thou. make in the one curtain, and fifty loops shalt thou make in (the) end of the curtain which is in the second joining, the loops standing opposite (מִקְבַּלוֹת )
6. the one to its fellow. And thou shalt make fifty taches I (קֵרֶס ) of gold, and thou shalt join the curtains one to its fellow with the taches, and the tabernacle shall be one.
7. And thou shalt make curtains of goats (hair) for a tent (אֹהֶל ) upon the tabernacle, eleven curtains shalt
8. thou make them. (The) length of the one curtain (shall be) thirty by the cubit, and (the) breadth four by the cubit, the one curtain: one measure (shall be) to
9. (the) eleven curtains. And thou shalt join five of the curtains separately, and six of the curtains separately; and thou shalt double the sixth curtain towards (the)
10. fore front of the tent. And thou shalt make fifty loops upon (the) edge of the one curtain-the endmost in the joining, and fifty loops upon (the) edge of the cur-
11. tain — the second joining. And thou shalt make taches of copper-fifty; and shalt bring the taches in the loops, and thou shalt join the tent, and (it) shall be
12. one. And (the) overplus hang in (the) curtains of the tent- half of the overplus curtain shall hang upon
13. the back of the tabernacle; and the cubit from this (side) and the cubit from that (side) in the overplus in (the) length of (the) curtains of the tent shall be hung, upon (the) sides of the tabernacle from this (side) and from that (side), to cover it.
14. And thou shalt make (a) covering to the tent, skins of rams reddened, and (a) covering of skins of tach-ashes from above.
15. And thou shalt make the planks (קֶרֶשׁ ) for the tabernacle, trees [wood] of acacias (שַׁטַים ), standing.
16. Ten cubits (shall he the) length of the plank; and (a) cubit and (the) half of the cubit (the) breadth of the
17. one plank. Two hands [teons] (shall there be) to the one plank, joined (מְשְׁלָּבוֹת, others corresponding) [comp. Exodus 36:22] each to its fellow: so shalt thou
18. make [or do] for all (the) planks of the tabernacle. And thou shalt make the planks for the tabernacle, twenty planks for (the) Nogeb [south] quarter towards Tey-
19. man [the south]. And forty bases (אֶדֶן ) of silver shalt thou make under the twenty planks, two bases under the one plank four its two hands, and two bases under
20. the one [next] plank for its two hands., And for the second rib [flank] of the tabernacle to (the) Tsaphrnm
21. [north] quarter (there shall be) twenty planks; and their forty bases of silver, two bases under the one plank, and two bases under the one [next] plank.
22. And for (the) thighs [rear] of the tabernacle seaward
23. [west] thou shalt make six planks. And two planks shalt thou make for (the) angles (מַקְצוֹע, cutting off)
24. of the tabernacle in the thighs [rear]: and (they) shall be twinned (תֹּאֲמַים, perhaps jointed, hinged, or bolted) from below together, and shall be twins upon its head [top] towards the one ring: so shall (it) be too both of them; for the two angles shall (they) be.
25. And (there) shall be eight planks, and their bases of silver-sixteen bases, two bases under the one plank, and two bases under the one [next] plank.
26. And thou shalt make bars (בְּרַיחִ ) of trees [wood] of acacias [Shittim]; five for (the) planks of the one rib
27. [flank] of the tabernacle, and five bars for (the) planks of the second rib [flank] of the tabernacle, and five bars for (the) planks of (the) rib [flank] of the taber-
28. nacle for the thighs [rear] seaward [west]. And the middle bar, in (the) middle of the planks (shall) bar (מִבְרַיחִ, be bolting through) from the end to the end.
29. And the planks thou shalt overlay (with) gold, and the rings then shalt make (of) gold, (as) houses [places] for the bars; and thou shalt overlay the bars (with) gold.
30. And thou shalt rear the tabernacle like it — judgment [style] which I made thee see in the mountain.
Copyright Statement
These files are public domain.
