Discovery BoxExodus 26:37 
Context26:37 You are to make for the hanging five posts of acacia wood and overlay them with gold, and their hooks will be 1 gold, and you are to cast five bronze bases for them. 2
Exodus 27:11
Context27:11 Likewise 3 for its length on the north side, there are to be 4 hangings for one hundred fifty feet, with twenty posts and their twenty bronze bases, with silver hooks and bands 5 on the posts.
Exodus 27:16
Context27:16 For the gate of the courtyard there is to be a curtain of thirty feet, of blue, purple, and scarlet yarn and fine twined linen, the work of an embroiderer, with four posts and their four bases.
Exodus 27:18
Context27:18 The length of the courtyard is to be one hundred fifty feet 6 and the width seventy-five feet, 7 and the height of the fine twisted linen hangings 8 is to be 9 seven and a half feet, with their bronze bases.
Exodus 38:11-12
Context38:11 For the north side the hangings were 10 one hundred fifty feet, with their twenty posts and their twenty bronze bases, with the hooks of the posts and their bands of silver. 38:12 For the west side there were 11 hangings seventy-five feet long, with 12 their ten posts and their ten bases, with the hooks of the posts and their bands of silver.
Exodus 38:15
Context38:15 and for the second side of the gate of the courtyard, just like the other, 13 the hangings were twenty-two and a half feet long, with their three posts and their three bases.
Exodus 38:17
Context38:17 The bases for the posts were bronze. The hooks of the posts and their bands were silver, their tops were overlaid with silver, and all the posts of the courtyard had silver bands. 14
Exodus 38:30
Context38:30 With it he made the bases for the door of the tent of meeting, the bronze altar, the bronze grating for it, and all the utensils of the altar,
Exodus 39:40
Context39:40 the hangings of the courtyard, its posts and its bases, and the curtain for the gateway of the courtyard, its ropes and its tent pegs, and all the furnishings 15 for the service of the tabernacle, for the tent of meeting;
1 tn “will be” has been supplied.
2 sn In all the details of this chapter the expositor should pay attention to the overall message rather than engage in speculation concerning the symbolism of the details. It is, after all, the divine instruction for the preparation of the dwelling place for Yahweh. The point could be said this way: The dwelling place of Yahweh must be prepared in accordance with, and by the power of, his divine word. If God was to fellowship with his people, then the center of worship had to be made to his specifications, which were in harmony with his nature. Everything was functional for the approach to God through the ritual by divine provisions. But everything also reflected the nature of God, the symmetry, the order, the pure wood, the gold overlay, or (closer to God) the solid gold. And the symbolism of the light, the table, the veil, the cherubim – all of it was revelatory. All of it reflected the reality in heaven. Churches today do not retain the pattern and furnishings of the old tabernacle. However, they would do well to learn what God was requiring of Israel, so that their structures are planned in accordance with the theology of worship and the theology of access to God. Function is a big part, but symbolism and revelation instruct the planning of everything to be used. Christians live in the light of the fulfillment of Christ, and so they know the realities that the old foreshadowed. While a building is not necessary for worship (just as Israel worshiped in places other than the sanctuary), it is practical, and if there is going to be one, then the most should be made of it in the teaching and worshiping of the assembly. This chapter, then, provides an inspiration for believers on preparing a functional, symbolical, ordered place of worship that is in harmony with the word of God. And there is much to be said for making it as beautiful and uplifting as is possible – as a gift of freewill offering to God. Of course, the most important part of preparing a place of worship is the preparing of the heart. Worship, to be acceptable to God, must be in Christ. He said that when the temple was destroyed he would raise it up in three days. While he referred to his own body, he also alluded to the temple by the figure. When they put Jesus to death, they were destroying the temple; at his resurrection he would indeed begin a new form of worship. He is the tent, the curtain, the atonement, that the sanctuary foreshadowed. And then, believers also (when they receive Christ) become the temple of the Lord. So the NT will take the imagery and teaching of this chapter in a number of useful ways that call for more study. This does not, however, involve allegorization of the individual tabernacle parts.
3 tn Heb “and thus.”
4 tn Here the phrase “there will be” has been supplied.
5 sn These bands have been thought by some to refer to connecting rods joining the tops of the posts. But it is more likely that they are bands or bind rings surrounding the posts at the base of the capitals (see 38:17).
6 tn Heb “a hundred cubits.”
7 tn Heb “fifty.” The text has “and the width fifty [cubits] with fifty.” This means that it is fifty cubits wide on the western end and fifty cubits wide on the eastern end.
8 tn Here “hangings” has been supplied.
9 tn Here the phrase “is to be” has been supplied.
10 tn Here the phrase “the hangings were” has been supplied.
11 tn The phrase “there were” has been supplied.
12 tn The text simply has “their posts ten and their bases ten”; this may be added here as a circumstantial clause with the main sentence in order to make sense out of the construction.
13 tn Heb “from this and from this” (cf, 17:12; 25:19; 26:13; 32:15; Josh 8:22, 33; 1 Kgs 10:19-20; Ezek 45:7).
14 tn Heb “they were banded with silver.”
15 tn Heb “utensils, vessels.”
