Exodus
Exodus 25
1Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 2“Speak to the children of Israel, that they take an offering for me. From everyone whose heart makes him willing you shall take my offering. 3This is the offering which you shall take from them: gold, silver, bronze, 4blue, purple, scarlet, fine linen, goats’ hair, 5rams’ skins dyed red, sea cow hides, acacia wood, 6oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet incense, 7onyx stones, and stones to be set for the ephod and for the breastplate. 8Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. 9According to all that I show you, the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all of its furniture, even so you shall make it.
10“They shall make an ark of acacia wood. Its length shall be two and a half cubits, its width a cubit and a half, and a cubit and a half its height. 11You shall overlay it with pure gold. You shall overlay it inside and outside, and you shall make a gold molding around it. 12You shall cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in its four feet. Two rings shall be on the one side of it, and two rings on the other side of it. 13You shall make poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold. 14You shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark. 15The poles shall be in the rings of the ark. They shall not be taken from it. 16You shall put the covenant which I shall give you into the ark. 17You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two and a half cubits shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its width. 18You shall make two cherubim of hammered gold. You shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat. 19Make one cherub at the one end, and one cherub at the other end. You shall make the cherubim on its two ends of one piece with the mercy seat. 20The cherubim shall spread out their wings upward, covering the mercy seat with their wings, with their faces toward one another. The faces of the cherubim shall be toward the mercy seat. 21You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the covenant that I will give you. 22There I will meet with you, and I will tell you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the covenant, all that I command you for the children of Israel.
23“You shall make a table of acacia wood. Its length shall be two cubits, and its width a cubit, and its height one and a half cubits. 24You shall overlay it with pure gold, and make a gold molding around it. 25You shall make a rim of a hand width around it. You shall make a golden molding on its rim around it. 26You shall make four rings of gold for it, and put the rings in the four corners that are on its four feet. 27the rings shall be close to the rim, for places for the poles to carry the table. 28You shall make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold, that the table may be carried with them. 29You shall make its dishes, its spoons, its ladles, and its bowls to pour out offerings with. You shall make them of pure gold. 30You shall set bread of the presence on the table before me always.
31“You shall make a lamp stand of pure gold. The lamp stand shall be made of hammered work. Its base, its shaft, its cups, its buds, and its flowers shall be of one piece with it. 32There shall be six branches going out of its sides: three branches of the lamp stand out of its one side, and three branches of the lamp stand out of its other side; 33three cups made like almond blossoms in one branch, a bud and a flower; and three cups made like almond blossoms in the other branch, a bud and a flower, so for the six branches going out of the lamp stand; 34and in the lamp stand four cups made like almond blossoms, its buds and its flowers; 35and a bud under two branches of one piece with it, and a bud under two branches of one piece with it, and a bud under two branches of one piece with it, for the six branches going out of the lamp stand. 36Their buds and their branches shall be of one piece with it, all of it one beaten work of pure gold. 37You shall make its lamps seven, and they shall light its lamps to give light to the space in front of it. 38Its snuffers and its snuff dishes shall be of pure gold. 39It shall be made of a talent of pure gold, with all these accessories. 40See that you make them after their pattern, which has been shown to you on the mountain.
Commentary
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What others are saying
5 commentators · 100 notes on this chapter
Matthew Henry4
Writes as a pastor rather than a critic. Expect devotional and practical application over historical or linguistic analysis, read through a Reformed covenantal frame — and expect the Old Testament to be read forward toward Christ throughout.
Why this voice is here: The most widely read English commentary for three centuries. Included as a baseline: where Henry and a modern voice diverge, the divergence itself is usually the interesting part.
We may suppose that when Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and abode there so long, where the holy angels attended the shechinah, or divine Majesty, he saw and heard very glorious things relating to the upper world, but they were things which it was not…
The first thing which is here ordered to be made is the ark with its appurtenances, the furniture of the most holy place, and the special token of God's presence, for which the tabernacle was erected to be the receptacle. I. The ark itself was a chest, or…
Here is, 1. A table ordered to be made of wood overlaid with gold, which was to stand, not in the holy of holies (nothing was in that but the ark with its appurtenances), but in the outer part of the tabernacle, called the sanctuary, or holy place, Heb 9:2…
John Gill40
The most exhaustive and the most doctrinally committed here. Expect high — even supralapsarian — Calvinism applied consistently, and unusually heavy use of rabbinic and Talmudic sources for Jewish context. Where a passage bears on election or the will, Gill will read it in one direction, and knowing that in advance is the point.
Why this voice is here: The strongest Calvinist reading available in the public domain, and the best on Jewish background. Read alongside Clarke, not instead of him — between them you get both sides of the argument.
And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... When on the mount, and in the midst of the cloud with him: saying; as follows.
Speak unto the children of Israel,.... That is, when he should go down from the mountain to the camp: that they bring me an offering; the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan call it a "separation": something separated from their substance, and devoted to the…
And this is the offering which ye shall take of them,.... That is, some one or other of the following things were to be taken of each of them that had a heart, and it was in the power of their hands to give; it was not expected that something of each of these…
Adam Clarke21
The linguist of this set. Expect Hebrew and Greek word study, oriental custom, and geography — and an Arminian reading of grace and free will where Gill or Henry would read election. Note one real divergence: Clarke denied the eternal sonship of Christ, a position most of the tradition rejects, so read him closely on the person of Christ.
Why this voice is here: Where you want to know what a word actually says, Clarke is the one who will tell you — with the caveat above on Christ’s sonship.
That they bring me an offering - The offering here mentioned is the תרומה terumah, a kind of free-will offering, consisting of any thing that was necessary for the occasion. It signifies properly any thing that was lifted up, the heave-offering, because in…
This is the offering - There were three kinds of metals: 1. Gold, זהב zahab, which may properly signify wrought gold; what was bright and resplendent, as the word implies. In Job 28:15, Job 28:16, Job 28:17, Job 28:19, gold is mentioned five times, and four…
Blue - תכלת techeleth, generally supposed to mean an azure or sky color; rendered by the Septuagint ὑακινθον, and by the Vulgate hyacinthum, a sky-blue or deep violet. Purple - ארגמן argaman, a very precious color, extracted from the purpura or murex, a…
Keil & Delitzsch10
The technical one, and Old Testament only. Expect Hebrew grammar, textual argument, and direct engagement with nineteenth-century critical scholarship — closer to a scholarly apparatus than a devotional read. Where a modern critic claims a text is late or composite, this is where the conservative counter-argument was made.
Why this voice is here: Old Testament only, and heavy going — but the place to look when someone asserts a passage cannot mean what it appears to.
Exo 25:1-3 (cf. Exo 35:1-9). The Israelites were to bring to the Lord a heave-offering (תּרוּמה from רוּם, a gift lifted, or heaved by a man from his own property to present to the Lord; see at Lev 2:9), "on the part of every one whom his heart drove," i.e…
The Ark of the Covenant (cf. Exo 37:1-9). - They were to make an ark (ארון) of acacia-wood, two cubits and a half long, one and a half broad, and one and a half high, and to plate it with pure gold both within and without. Round about it they were to…
Into this ark Moses was to put "the testimony" (העדת; cf. Exo 40:20). This is the name given to the two tables of stone, upon which the ten words spoken by God to the whole nation were written, and which Moses was to receive from God (Exo 24:12). Because…
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown25
The concise option. Three authors split the canon, so the voice shifts between sections. Expect brief, sober, conservative notes that resolve difficulties rather than dwelling on them — useful for orientation, thinner than Gill or Clarke where a passage is genuinely contested.
Why this voice is here: The quickest way to see what the mainstream Reformed reading of a passage is. Start here, then go to Gill or Clarke when it matters.
bring me an offering of every man that giveth it willingly, &c.--Having declared allegiance to God as their sovereign, they were expected to contribute to His state, as other subjects to their kings; and the "offering" required of them was not to be imposed…
this is the offering which ye shall take of them--the articles of which the offerings should consist. brass--rather copper, brass being a composite metal.
goats' hair--or leather of goats' skin.
World English Bible — Public domain