1“And the Tabernacle you shall make with ten panels of twisted linen, and indigo and purple and crimson, with cherubim, designer’s work you shall make them. 2The length of the panel is twenty-eight cubits, and a width of four cubits to the one panel, a single measure for all the panels. 3Five of the panels shall be joined to each other and the other five joined to each other. 4And you shall make indigo loops along the edge of the outermost panel in the set, and thus shall you do on the edge of the outermost panel in the other set. 5Fifty loops you shall make in the one panel and fifty loops you shall make in the outermost panel which is in the other set, the loops opposite one another. 6And you shall make fifty golden clasps, and you shall join the panels to one another with the clasps, that the Tabernacle be one whole. 7And you shall make goat-hair panels for a tent over the Tabernacle, eleven panels you shall make them. 8The length of the one panel, thirty cubits, and a width of four cubits to the panel, a single measure for the eleven panels. 9And you shall join five of the panels by themselves and six of the panels by themselves, and you shall double over the sixth panel at the front of the tent. 10And you shall make fifty loops along the edge of the outermost panel in the one set, and fifty loops along the edge of the outermost panel in the other set. 11And you shall make fifty bronze clasps and bring the clasps through the loops, and you shall join the tent, that it become one whole. 12And the overhang left over in the tent panels, half of the leftover panel you shall let hang over the back of the Tabernacle. 13And the cubit on one side and the cubit on the other in what is left over in the length of the tent panels shall hang over both sides of the Tabernacle to cover it. 14And you shall make a covering for the tent of reddened ram skins and a covering of ocher-dyed skins above. 15And you shall make boards for the Tabernacle of acacia wood, upright. 16Ten cubits the length of the board, and a cubit and a half the width of the single board. 17Two tenons for the one board linked to each other, thus you shall do for all the boards of the Tabernacle. 18And you shall make the boards for the Tabernacle, twenty boards for the southern end. 19And forty silver sockets you shall make beneath the twenty boards, two sockets beneath the one board for its two tenons and two sockets beneath the other board for its two tenons. 20And on the other side of the Tabernacle at the northern end, twenty boards. 21And their forty silver sockets, two sockets beneath the one board and two sockets beneath the other board. 22And at the rear of the Tabernacle to the west you shall make six boards. 23And two boards you shall make for the corners of the Tabernacle at the rear. 24And they shall match below, and together they shall end at the top inside the one ring, thus it shall be for the two of them, at the two corners they shall be. 25And there shall be eight boards with their silver sockets, sixteen sockets, two sockets beneath the one board and two sockets beneath the next board. 26And you shall make crossbars of acacia wood, five for the boards of the one side of the Tabernacle. 27And five crossbars for the boards of the other side of the Tabernacle, and five crossbars for the side of the Tabernacle at the rear to the west. 28And the central crossbar in the middle board shall shoot through from end to end. 29And the boards you shall overlay with gold, and their rings you shall make of gold, housings for the crossbars, and you shall overlay the crossbars with gold. 30And you shall set up the Tabernacle according to the fashion of it that you were shown on the mountain.
31“And you shall make a curtain of indigo and purple and crimson and twisted linen, designer’s work it shall be made, with cherubim. 32And you shall set it on the four acacia posts overlaid with gold, their hooks gold, upon four silver sockets. 33And you shall set the curtain under the clasps and you shall bring there, within the curtain, the Ark of the Covenant, and the curtain shall divide for you between the Holy and the Holy of Holies. 34And you shall set the cover over the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies. 35And you shall put the table outside the curtain and the lamp stand facing the table on the side of the Tabernacle to the south, and the table you shall set on the northern side. 36And you shall make a screen for the entrance of the tent, indigo and purple and crimson and twisted linen, embroiderer’s work. 37And you shall make for the screen five acacia posts, and you shall overlay them with gold, their hooks gold, and you shall cast for them five bronze sockets.”
CHAPTER 26 NOTES
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1. panels of twisted linen. The cloth panels, yeriʿot, invoke a term generally used for tent coverings, and we are repeatedly reminded that this portable sanctuary, however splendid in gold and silver and bronze and acacia wood, is a tent, ʾohel. The twisting of linen evidently refers to a special technique in the weaving process devised to give the individual threads extra strength.
with cherubim, designer’s work. These cherubim are woven as a tapestry design into the cloth. The Hebrew for “designer,” ḥoshev, indicates a person with a special skill or someone who makes a purposeful plan (maḥashavah).
6. that the Tabernacle be one whole. More literally, “that the Tabernacle be one.” This phrase leads Abraham ibn Ezra to muse over how unity in the greater world is constituted by an interlocking of constituent parts that became a transcendent whole, as in the unity of microcosm and macrocosm. One need not read this section homiletically, as he does, in order to see the power of summation of this particular phrase. All the instructions for the design of the Tabernacle—however much the learned interpreters have differed in explaining the concrete architectural details—point to a perfect symmetry of nicely interlocking parts, posts fitting into sockets, clasps into loops, with crossbars shooting from end to end on both sides of the structure, and the dimensions of every component carefully measured.
7. goat-hair panels. Within the Tabernacle are splendid dyed hangings of twisted linen. Covering the structure on the outside is a coarser cloth made of woven goat hair, presumably black, a typical fabric for tents, with the capacity to keep out bad weather.
10. loops. It is noteworthy that the Tabernacle passages abound in architectural or structural terms such as this one (lulaʾot) that do not appear elsewhere. The plausible inference is that these passages reflect a specialized architectural (or sacerdotal-architectural) literature.
17. tenons. The Hebrew yadot (from yad, “hand”) is another technical architectural term, indicating a projection at the end of the board made to fit into another board in a kind of tongue-and-groove construction.
33. the Ark of the Covenant . . . divide . . . between the Holy and the Holy of Holies. If the tent structure of the Tabernacle looks backward to an early nomadic period, its dimensions—exactly half those of Solomon’s temple—and its divisions mirror the structure of the Jerusalem temple. Dividing—the same word that is central to P’s account of creation—between gradations of sanctity is fundamental to the conception of sacred space put forth here. The 100-cubit length (about 60 feet) of the Tabernacle is divided symmetrically between a western half, or outer court, where there is an altar for burnt offerings, and an eastern half, which constitutes the Holy Place (maqom qadosh), in which the lamp stand, the table, and the altar of incense are located, and a small inner zone, screened by a curtain, the Holy of Holies, in which the Ark of the Covenant is kept. The verbal construct “X of X” has the idiomatic sense in biblical Hebrew of “the supreme X” (compare “the song of songs, which is Solomon’s”).