Discovery BoxExodus 35:21-29 
Context35:21 Everyone 1 whose heart stirred him to action 2 and everyone whose spirit was willing 3 came and brought the offering for the Lord for the work of the tent of meeting, for all its service, and for the holy garments. 4 35:22 They came, men and women alike, 5 all who had willing hearts. They brought brooches, earrings, rings and ornaments, all kinds of gold jewelry, 6 and everyone came who waved 7 a wave offering of gold to the Lord.
35:23 Everyone who had 8 blue, purple, or 9 scarlet yarn, fine linen, goats’ hair, ram skins dyed red, or fine leather 10 brought them. 11 35:24 Everyone making an offering of silver or bronze brought it as 12 an offering to the Lord, and everyone who had acacia wood 13 for any work of the service brought it. 14 35:25 Every woman who was skilled 15 spun with her hands and brought what she had spun, blue, purple, or scarlet yarn, or fine linen, 35:26 and all the women whose heart stirred them to action and who were skilled 16 spun goats’ hair.
35:27 The leaders brought onyx stones and other gems to be mounted 17 for the ephod and the breastpiece, 35:28 and spices and olive oil for the light, for the anointing oil, and for the fragrant incense.
35:29 The Israelites brought a freewill offering to the Lord, every man and woman whose heart was willing to bring materials for all the work that the Lord through 18 Moses had commanded them 19 to do.
1 tn Heb “man.”
2 tn The verb means “lift up, bear, carry.” Here the subject is “heart” or will, and so the expression describes one moved within to act.
3 tn Heb “his spirit made him willing.” The verb is used in Scripture for the freewill offering that people brought (Lev 7).
4 tn Literally “the garments of holiness,” the genitive is the attributive genitive, marking out what type of garments these were.
5 tn The expression in Hebrew is “men on/after the women,” meaning men with women, to ensure that it was clear that the preceding verse did not mean only men. B. Jacob takes it further, saying that the men came after the women because the latter had taken the initiative (Exodus, 1017).
6 tn Heb “all gold utensils.”
7 tn The verb could be translated “offered,” but it is cognate with the following noun that is the wave offering. This sentence underscores the freewill nature of the offerings people made. The word “came” is supplied from v. 21 and v. 22.
8 tn The text uses a relative clause with a resumptive pronoun for this: “who was found with him,” meaning “with whom was found.”
9 tn The conjunction in this verse is translated “or” because the sentence does not intend to say that each person had all these things. They brought what they had.
10 tn See the note on this phrase in Exod 25:5.
11 tn Here “them” has been supplied.
12 tn This translation takes “offering” as an adverbial accusative explaining the form or purpose of their bringing things. It could also be rendered as the direct object, but that would seem to repeat without much difference what had just been said.
13 sn U. Cassuto notes that the expression “with whom was found” does not rule out the idea that these folks went out and cut down acacia trees (Exodus, 458). It is unlikely that they had much wood in their tents.
14 tn Here “it” has been supplied.
15 tn Heb “wisdom of heart,” which means that they were skilled and could make all the right choices about the work.
16 tn The text simply uses a prepositional phrase, “with/in wisdom.” It seems to be qualifying “the women” as the relative clause is.
17 tn Heb “and stones of the filling.”
18 tn Heb “by the hand of.”
19 tn Here “them” has been supplied.
