The Altar for Offering Sacrifices

(Exodus 38.1-7)

The Lord said to Moses:

1Use acacia wood to build an altar 2.25 meters square and 1.34 meters high, 2and make each of the four top corners stick up like the horn of a bull. Then cover the whole altar with bronze, including the four horns. 3All the equipment for the altar must also be made of bronze—the pans for the hot ashes, the shovels, the sprinkling bowls, the meat forks, and the fire pans. 4-5Halfway up the altar build a ledge around it, and cover the bottom half of the altar with a decorative bronze grating. Then attach a bronze ring beneath the ledge at the four corners of the altar. 6-7Cover two acacia wood poles with bronze and put them through the rings for carrying the altar. 8Construct the altar in the shape of an open box, just as you were shown on the mountain.

The Courtyard around the Sacred Tent

(Exodus 38.9-20)

The Lord said:

9-15Surround the sacred tent with a courtyard 44 meters long on the south and north and 22 meters wide on the east and west. Use 20 bronze posts on bronze stands for the south and north and 10 for the west. Then hang a curtain of fine linen on the posts along each of these three sides by using silver hooks and rods.

Place three bronze posts on each side of the entrance at the east and hang a curtain 6.67 meters wide on each set of posts. 16Use four more of these posts for the entrance way, then hang on them an embroidered curtain of fine linen nine meters long and woven with blue, purple, and red wool.

17-18Make the curtains that surround the courtyard 2.25 meters high and hang them from the bronze posts with silver hooks and rods. 19Make the rest of the equipment for the sacred tent of bronze, including the pegs for the tent and for the curtain surrounding the courtyard.

The Oil for the Lamp in the Holy Place

(Leviticus 24.1-4)

The Lord said to Moses:

20Command the people of Israel to supply you with the purest olive oil. Do this so the lamp will keep burning 21in front of the curtain that separates the holy place from the most holy place, where the sacred chest is kept. Aaron and his sons are responsible for keeping the lamp burning every night in the sacred tent. The Israelites must always obey this command.