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  • Exodus 26

    Instructions for building the dwelling

    26 Make the dwelling with ten curtains of fine twisted linen and blue, purple, and deep red yarns. Work figures of winged heavenly creatures into their design. Each curtain should be forty-two feet long and each curtain six feet wide. All the curtains should be the same size. Five curtains will be joined to each other as one set, while the other five curtains will be joined together as a second set. Make loops of blue thread on the edge of the outer curtain in the first set. Do the same on the edge of the outer curtain in the second set. Make fifty loops on the one curtain in the first set and fifty loops on the edge of the curtain that is in the second set. The loops should be opposite each other. Then make fifty gold clasps. Join the curtains to each other with the clasps so that the dwelling becomes one whole structure.

    You should also make curtains of goats’ hair for a tent over the dwelling. Make eleven curtains. Each curtain should be forty-five feet long and each curtain six feet wide. The eleven curtains should all be the same size. Join five of the curtains together, and join the six other curtains together. Double over the sixth curtain at the front of the tent. 10 Make fifty loops on the edge of the outer curtain in one set and fifty loops on the edge of the outer curtain in the second set.

    11 Make fifty copper clasps. Put the clasps into the loops and join the tent together so that it becomes one whole structure. 12 The extra cloth that is left over from the tent curtains, that is, the half curtain that remains, should hang over the back of the dwelling. 13 Eighteen inches on one side and eighteen inches on the other side of the leftover length of the tent’s curtains will hang over the two sides of the dwelling to cover it. 14 Then for the tent, make a covering of rams’ skins dyed red and an outer covering of beaded leather.

    15 Make acacia-wood boards to stand upright as a frame for the dwelling. 16 Each board will be fifteen feet long and twenty-seven inches wide. 17 Put two pegs on each board for joining them to each other. Do this for all the dwelling’s boards. 18 Make twenty boards for the dwelling’s southern side. 19 Then make forty silver bases to go under the twenty boards. There will be two bases under the first board for its two pegs, two bases under the next board for its two pegs, and so on. 20 For the dwelling’s other side on the north, make twenty boards 21 and their forty silver bases, two bases under the first board, two bases under the next board, and so on. 22 For the back of the dwelling on the west, make six boards. 23 Make two additional boards for the dwelling’s rear corners. 24 They should be spread out at the bottom but joined together at the top with one ring. In this way, these two boards will form the two corners. 25 And so there will be eight boards with their sixteen silver bases, two bases under the first board, two bases under the next board, and so on.

    26 You should also make acacia-wood bars: five for the boards on one side of the dwelling, 27 five bars for the boards on the other side of the dwelling, and five bars for the boards on the back wall of the dwelling on the west. 28 The middle bar, halfway up the boards, should run from one end to the other. 29 Cover the boards with gold. Make gold rings to house the bars. Cover the bars with gold. 30 Then set up the dwelling according to the plan for it that you were shown on the mountain.

    31 Make a veil of blue, purple, and deep red yarns and of fine twisted linen. Work figures of winged heavenly creatures into its design. 32 Hang it on four acacia-wood posts covered in gold. They should have gold hooks and stand on four silver bases. 33 Hang the veil under the clasps, and put the chest containing the covenant there behind the veil. The veil will separate for you the holy from the holiest space. 34 Place the gold cover on the chest containing the covenant in the holiest space. 35 Place the table outside the veil, and set the lampstand opposite the table by the south wall of the dwelling. Place the table by the north wall.

    36 Make a screen for the tent’s entrance of blue, purple, and deep red yarns and of fine twisted linen, decorated with needlework. 37 Make five acacia-wood posts for the screen. Cover the posts with gold. Their hooks should be gold. Cast five copper bases for the posts.