Exodus 39:42--40:1

39:42 The Israelites did all the work according to all that the Lord had commanded Moses. 39:43 Moses inspected ¹  all the work – and ²  they had done it just as the Lord had commanded – they had done it exactly – and Moses blessed them. ³ 

Setting Up the Sanctuary

40:1 ⁴ Then the Lord spoke to Moses: ⁵ 

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¹ tn Or “examined” (NASB, TEV); NCV “looked closely at.”

² tn The deictic particle draws attention to what he saw in such a way as to give the reader Moses’ point of view and a sense of his pleasure: “and behold, they…”

³ sn The situation and wording in Exod 39:43 are reminiscent of Gen 1:28 and 31, with the motifs of blessing people and inspecting what has been made.

⁴ sn All of Exod 39:32-40:38 could be taken as a unit. The first section (39:32-43) shows that the Israelites had carefully and accurately completed the preparation and brought everything they had made to Moses: The work of the Lord builds on the faithful obedience of the people. In the second section are the instruction and the implementation (40:1-33): The work of the Lord progresses through the unifying of the work. The last part (40:34-38) may take the most attention: When the work was completed, the glory filled the tabernacle: By his glorious presence, the Lord blesses and directs his people in their worship.

⁵ tn Heb “and Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying.”