Exodus 38 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
~1446 BC by the traditional dating, or ~1260 BC by the later dating, in the first year after the exodus
Location
The Israelite camp at Mount Sinai in the Sinai wilderness
Audience
The Israelites of the wilderness generation and their descendants, reading a public account of how the donated metals were used
Situation
The craftsmen build the bronze altar for burnt offerings, the bronze basin for washing, and the curtained courtyard that surrounds the sacred tent. The chapter closes with an audited tally of exactly how much gold, silver and bronze went into the project.
Key Background
The silver in the tally comes from a head count payment of half a shekel per adult male, which doubles as a census record and lets the totals be checked against the population figure. Publishing an itemised metal inventory was standard practice for temple treasuries in Egypt and Mesopotamia, where scribes recorded weights so officials could be held answerable for what passed through their hands. The bronze basin is said to be made from mirrors donated by women who served at the entrance of the tent, and polished bronze was in fact the normal material for hand mirrors in Egypt at the time.
He built the for out of — it was square, seven and a half feet long and seven and a half feet wide, and four and a half feet tall.
He made on each of its four corners — they were all one piece with the altar — and he covered the whole thing in bronze.
He made all the equipment for the altar: the pots for removing ashes, the shovels, the the meat forks, and the firepans. He made all these tools out of bronze.
He made a for the altar — a mesh network of bronze — and placed it under the altar's rim, halfway down from the top.
He cast four rings for the four corners of the bronze grating to hold the carrying poles.
He made the carrying poles out of acacia wood and covered them in bronze.
He slid the poles through the rings on the sides of the altar for carrying it. He built the altar hollow, out of planks.
He made the bronze and its bronze stand from the donated by the who at the entrance of the
Then he made the The south side had curtains of a hundred and fifty feet long,
with twenty posts and twenty bronze bases, and with silver hooks and bands on the posts.
The north side was also a hundred and fifty feet long, with twenty posts, twenty bronze bases, and silver hooks and bands on the posts.
The west side had curtains seventy-five feet long, with ten posts and ten bases, and silver hooks and bands on the posts.
The east side — the front — was also seventy-five feet wide.
Curtains twenty-two and a half feet long were on one side of the entrance, with three posts and three bases.
And the same on the other side of the courtyard entrance — curtains twenty-two and a half feet long, with three posts and three bases.
All the curtains around the courtyard were made of finely woven linen.
The bases for the posts were bronze, the hooks and bands were silver, and the tops of the posts were covered in silver. All the posts of the courtyard had silver bands.
The screen for the courtyard entrance was embroidered with and and finely woven linen. It was thirty feet long and seven and a half feet tall, matching the height of the courtyard curtains.
It had four posts with four bronze bases, silver hooks, and their tops and bands were covered in silver.
All the tent pegs for the and for the surrounding courtyard were bronze.
Here is the inventory of materials used for the — the of the — as recorded by the under the direction of son of Aaron the priest, at Moses' command.
son of Uri, son of Hur, from the tribe of Judah, made everything Yahweh had commanded Moses.
Working with him was son of Ahisamach, from the tribe of Dan — a skilled craftsman, designer, and embroiderer in blue, purple, and scarlet yarn and fine linen.
The total gold used for all the work on the for came to just over 2,195 pounds, measured by the at
The silver collected from the came to about 7,545 pounds, measured by the at
That was one piece of silver per person, half a shekel by the at for everyone twenty years old or older who was counted in the census: 603,550 men.
The 7,500 pounds of silver was used to cast the hundred bases for the place kept for God and for the curtain, a hundred bases from 7,500 pounds, about seventy-five pounds per base.
With the remaining forty-five pounds he made the hooks for the posts, covered their tops, and made bands for them.
The bronze from the came to about 5,310 pounds.
With it he made the bases for the entrance of the meeting tent, the bronze altar with its bronze grating, and all the equipment for the altar,
the bases for the surrounding courtyard, the bases for the courtyard entrance, and all the tent pegs for the tabernacle and the surrounding courtyard.