Chapter Thirty-Eight

1–7. Construction of the burnt offering altar. 8. Construction of the basin. 9–20. The court of the tabernacle. 21–31. The total of the people’s offerings.

Exodus 38:1. And he made the altar of burnt offering of acacia wood: five cubits was its length, and five cubits its width, foursquare; and three cubits its height; Exodus 38:2. And he made horns on its four corners, so that the horns went out from it, and he overlaid it with bronze. Exodus 38:3. And he made all the utensils of the altar: the pots, the shovels, the basins, the forks and the fire pans; all the utensils of it he made of bronze. Exodus 38:4. And he made for the altar a grating of bronze network, around its opening, under the ledge, extending halfway up the altar; Exodus 38:5. And he cast four rings on the four corners of the bronze grating to hold the bars. Exodus 38:6. And he made bars of acacia wood, and overlaid them with bronze, Exodus 38:7. And he inserted the bars into the rings on the sides of the altar, to carry it by them; he made the altar hollow, of boards. Construction of the burnt offering altar. See the commentary on verses 1–8 of chapter 27.

Exodus 38:8. And he made the basin of bronze and its stand of bronze from the mirrors of the women who served at the entrance of the tent of meeting. Construction of the basin. The account in verse 18 of chapter 30 concerning the construction of the basin receives one important addition here, noting that it was made from the “mirrors of the women who gathered” (bemarot hazzoboth). According to the LXX translation (“from the mirrors of the fasting women”). Philo, Josephus, and all Jewish tradition understand by “bemarot” precisely women’s mirrors, assuming that they entered into the composition of the basin while retaining their external appearance, being soldered to it. According to Philo, the priests, washing their hands in the basin, saw their reflection in the mirrors that had been there. As for the Russian rendering, it arose because the word “bemarot” was understood in the general sense of “image, representation,” and the expression “hazzoboth” was derived from a root meaning “beauty, elegance.” But what kind of images these were, the text does not explain further by saying: “adorning the entrance of the tent of meeting.” Perhaps they were images of cherubim.

Exodus 38:9. And he made the court: on the south side the hangings were of fine twisted linen, a hundred cubits long; Exodus 38:10. Twenty pillars for them and twenty bronze sockets for them; the hooks of the pillars and their bands were of silver. Exodus 38:11. And on the north side, a hundred cubits of hangings; their twenty pillars and twenty bronze sockets; the hooks of the pillars and their bands were of silver. Exodus 38:12. And on the west side, fifty cubits of hangings, their ten pillars and their ten bronze sockets; the hooks of the pillars and their bands were of silver. Exodus 38:13. And for the front toward the east, fifty cubits of hangings. Exodus 38:14. On one side of the gate, fifteen cubits of hangings, with their three pillars and three sockets; Exodus 38:15. And on the other side of the gate, on both sides of the gate of the court, fifteen cubits of hangings, with their three pillars and three sockets. Exodus 38:16. All the hangings around the court were of fine twisted linen. Exodus 38:17. The sockets of the pillars were of bronze, the hooks of the pillars and their bands were of silver; and the tops of the pillars were overlaid with silver, and all the pillars of the court were joined together with silver bands. Exodus 38:18. The hanging for the gate of the court was of broidered work of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twisted linen: and twenty cubits was its length, and the height in the warp was five cubits, matching the hangings of the court; Exodus 38:19. And their four pillars and four bronze sockets; their hooks of silver, and the overlay of their tops and their bands of silver. Exodus 38:20. And all the pegs of the tabernacle and of the court all around were of bronze. Construction of the court of the tabernacle. See the commentary on verses 9–19 of chapter 27.

Exodus 38:21. This is the account of the tabernacle, the tabernacle of the testimony, as it was commanded by Moses, through the Levites under the charge of Ithamar, the son of Aaron the priest. Exodus 38:22. Now Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made all that the Lord commanded Moses. Exodus 38:23. And with him was Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, a craftsman and a skillful weaver in blue and purple and scarlet and fine linen. Exodus 38:24. All the gold that was used for the work, in all the construction of the sanctuary, the gold from the offering, was twenty-nine talents and seven hundred and thirty shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary; Exodus 38:25. And the silver from those of the congregation who were numbered was a hundred talents and a thousand seven hundred and seventy-five shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary; Exodus 38:26. From the six hundred three thousand five hundred and fifty men who were numbered, half a shekel per man, according to the shekel of the sanctuary. The sum of the people’s offerings. By general agreement, a talent equaled 3,000 shekels; consequently, 29 talents 730 shekels of gold (Exod 38:24) make 87,730 shekels of gold. Given that a shekel weighs a little over 3 zolotniks (Russian weight unit), we get about 3,000 pounds of gold. Silver was collected amounting to 100 talents and 1,775 shekels (Exod 38:25), that is, 301,775 shekels. And since a silver shekel equaled 80 kopecks in old Russian currency, the value of silver reached 241,420 rubles.

Exodus 38:27. The hundred talents of silver were for casting the sockets of the sanctuary and the sockets of the veil; a hundred sockets from a hundred talents, a talent for each socket. Exodus 38:28. And of the thousand seven hundred seventy-five shekels he made hooks for the pillars and overlaid their tops and made bands for them. Exodus 38:29. And the bronze from the offering was seventy talents and two thousand four hundred shekels; The value of the bronze cannot be determined.