Exodus 38

The altar where you will burn animals as gifts

1The workers built the altar where Israelites would burn animals as gifts. They made it out of acacia wood. It was 1¼ metres high and the top was square. The top was 2¼ metres long and 2¼ metres wide. 2They made a horn at each corner. The four horns and the altar were all one whole piece. Then they covered the altar with bronze. 3They made all its tools out of bronze. They made pots to remove the ashes. They made spades, dishes and forks for the meat. They made buckets out of metal, to carry the fire.

4They made a net out of bronze and they fixed it under the altar. It was between the top and the ground. 5They made rings out of bronze to hold the sticks for the four corners of the net. 6They made the sticks out of acacia wood and they covered them with bronze. 7They put the sticks into the rings on each side of the altar, to carry it. The altar was empty because the workers made it with boards.

8Then they made a very large dish for water from bronze. And they made a special piece of bronze for the pot to stand on. They used the bronze from many small mirrors to make these things. The women who were servants at the Tent of Meeting gave these mirrors.

The yard

9The next thing that they made was the yard. The south side of the yard was 46 metres long. It had curtains that they had made out of soft white material. 10For these curtains, there were 20 sticks and 20 pieces of bronze with holes in them. They put the sticks in the holes. There were also small pieces of silver and rings on the sticks. These were to fasten the curtains. 11The north side of the yard was also 46 metres long. It also had curtains with sticks, and things to fasten them, each one to the other.

12The west end of the yard was 23 metres wide. It had curtains with 10 sticks that they put into 10 pieces of bronze. On the sticks were silver pieces and rings. 13The east end of the yard looked toward the sunrise and it was 23 metres wide. 14The workers made curtains, 7 metres long. They hung these on one side of the open space in front of the yard. They hung the curtains on three sticks that they put on three pieces of bronze. 15On the other side of the open space they did the same thing. 16They made all the curtains round the yard out of soft white material.

17All the sticks stood on pieces of bronze. All the pieces of metal and the rings on the sticks were silver. They covered the tops of the sticks with silver also. So all the sticks in the yard had silver rings.

18The curtain at the open space of the yard was blue, purple, red and soft white material. A person who could do wise work with cloth made the curtain. It was 9 metres long and 2¼ metres wide. The curtains of the yard were also 2¼ metres wide. 19The curtain had four sticks that the workers put on four pieces of bronze. On the sticks were pieces of silver and rings. And they covered the tops of the sticks with silver. 20They made small, sharp pieces of bronze to fix the tabernacle and the yard to the ground.

The workers used these materials

21The workers used these amounts of materials when they made the tabernacle of witness. Moses commanded Ithamar, son of Aaron the priest, to write down these amounts. And Ithamar caused the Levites to write them down. 22Bezalel, the son of Uri and grandson of Hur, made everything that the LORD commanded Moses. Bezalel was from the big family of Judah and Oholiab worked with him. 23Oholiab was the son of Ahisamach, from the big family of Dan. He was a very wise worker who could draw good plans. He also made beautiful pictures on cloth, with blue, purple and red materials. And he worked with soft white material.

24The workers used 994 kilos of gold to do all the work of the Holy Place. This gold was offered as a gift by the Israelites.

25All those Israelites that Moses had counted had given gifts of silver. They had given about 3600 kilos of silver. 26Each person who was 20 years old or more had given about 6 grams. Moses had counted the people and there were 603 550 men.

27The workers used much of the silver to make the bases for the Holy Place and for the curtains. They needed 34 kilos of silver to make each base. 28Then they used the silver that they had not used before. With this, they made the pieces and the rings to fasten the curtains to the sticks. They also used this silver to cover the tops of the sticks.

29The amount of bronze that the Israelites gave was about 2500 kilos. 30The workers used it to make the bases for the open space in the Tent of Meeting. They also used the bronze to make the bronze altar, the net and all the tools. 31They made the bases for the yard that was round the Tent of Meeting and for its open space. They made the small sharp pieces of metal to fix the tabernacle and the yard to the ground. They made all these things out of bronze that the Israelites had given.