1And YHWH spoke to Moses, saying,
2“Speak to the children of Israel that they shall take a donation for me. You shall take my donation from every man whose heart will move him.
25:2. Speak to the children of Israel that they shall take a donation for me. You shall take my donation from every man whose heart will move him. The command is to all the people—to take from individuals, who are themselves part of the people. It is strange linguistically. The whole people is not commanded to give. People only have to give if they are individually moved to do so. But the whole people is commanded to collect it. It is like when someone says that he gave a gift to his congregation when he himself is a member of the congregation.
3And this is the donation that you shall take from them: gold and silver and bronze
4and blue and purple and scarlet and linen and goats’ hair
5and rams’ skins dyed red and leather skins and acacia wood,
25:5. leather. Hebrew: skins that are t
šîm. No one knows what this means. It has been understood to be dolphin skins, badger skins, goatskins, and skins of a particular color. It is cognate to an Arabic word meaning dolphin; but, since this word does not occur in the list of sea or land animals that are forbidden or permitted for food in Leviticus 11, it may not refer to a particular species of animal at all. It may just mean skins that have been tanned; that is: leather.
6oil for lighting, spices for the anointing oil and for the incense fragrances,
7onyx stones and stones to be set for the ephod and for the breastplate.
8And they shall make me a holy place, and I shall tent among them.
25:8. I shall tent among them. Forms of this Hebrew verb (škantî) are frequently taken to mean “to dwell”; but when it refers to God, this verb is a denominative from the noun miškn: Tabernacle. As God explains to David, “I haven’t lived in a house from the day I brought the children of Israel up from Egypt to this day, but I’ve been going about in a tent and in a Tabernacle” (2 Sam 7:6). The creator cannot be pictured as residing on the earth but rather is understood to tent among humans, that is, to be present in association with a non permanent, movable structure. Even after the Temple is built, God is associated with the Tabernacle, which is housed there (1 Kings 8:4; Babylonian Talmud Tractate So
a 9a) and represented by the space under the wings of the cherubs in the Holy of Holies (Ps 61:5).
9According to everything that I show you: the design of the Tabernacle and the design of all its equipment. And you shall do so.
25:9. Tabernacle. There is more about the Tabernacle and its contents than any other subject in the Torah. There are long chapters dealing with the building of the Tabernacle, filled with details of materials and measurements in cubits. Tedious reading though it may be for most readers, it conveys the significance of the Tabernacle as the channel to YHWH. Exodus notes explicitly that the function of the Tabernacle is: “I shall meet there with the children of Israel … ” (29:43; 25:22). The book of Exodus culminates in the Tabernacle’s consecration (Exodus 40).
10“And they shall make an ark of acacia wood, its length two and a half cubits and its width a cubit and a half and its height a cubit and a half.
11And you shall plate it with pure gold. You shall plate it inside and outside. And you shall make a border of gold all around on it.
12And you shall cast four rings of gold for it and place them on its four bases: and two rings on its one side and two rings on its second side.
13And you shall make poles of acacia wood and plate them with gold,
14and bring the poles through the rings on the ark’s sides, in order to carry the ark with them.
15The poles shall be in the ark’s rings; they shall not depart from it.
16And you shall place in the ark the Testimony that I shall give you.
17And you shall make an atonement dais of pure gold, its length two and a half cubits and its width a cubit and a half.
18And you shall make two cherubs of gold—you shall make them of hammered work—at the two ends of the atonement dais.
19And make one cherub at this end and one cherub at that end. You shall make the cherubs from the atonement dais on its two sides.
20And the two cherubs will be spreading wings above, covering over the atonement dais with their wings, and their faces each toward its brother: the cherubs’ faces shall be toward the atonement dais.
21And you shall place the atonement dais on the ark, from above, and you shall place in the ark the Testimony that I shall give you.
22And I shall meet with you there and speak with you from above the atonement dais, from between the two cherubs that are on the Ark of the Testimony, everything that I shall command you to the children of Israel.
25:22. meet. The term denotes meeting at an appointed place or at an appointed time. Thus the Tabernacle itself is known as the Tent of Meeting.
23“And you shall make a table of acacia wood, its length two cubits and its width a cubit and its height a cubit and a half.
24And you shall plate it with pure gold and make a border of gold all around for it
25and make a rim of a handbreadth for it all around and make a border of gold for its rim all around.
26And you shall make four rings of gold for it and put the rings on the four corners that its four legs have.
27The rings shall be in juxtaposition to the rim as housings for the poles in order to carry the table.
28And you shall make the poles of acacia wood and plate them with gold, and the table will be carried with them.
29And you shall make its dishes and its pans and its jars and its bowls with which libations will be poured. You shall make them of pure gold.
30And you shall place show bread on the table in front of me always.
31“And you shall make a menorah of pure gold. The menorah shall be made of hammered work—its shaft and its branch, its cups, its ornaments, and its flowers shall be part of it—
32and six branches coming out from its sides, three of the menorah’s branches from its one side and three of the menorah’s branches from its second side,
33three almond-shaped cups in the one branch, with ornament and flower, and three almond-shaped cups in the other branch, with ornament and flower. So it is for the six branches that come out from the menorah,
34and four almond-shaped cups within the menorah, with its ornaments and its flowers,
35and an ornament under the two branches from it, and an ornament under the two branches from it, and an ornament under the two branches from it, for the six branches that come out from the menorah.
36Their ornaments and their branches shall be part of it, all of it one hammered work of pure gold.
37And you shall make its lamps seven, and it will hold up its lamps and light the area in front of it.
38And its tongs and its fire-holders of pure gold.
39He shall make it—all of these items—of a talent of pure gold.
40And see and make them by their design that you are shown in the mountain.
