Bible chapter guide

Exodus 36

The people bring so much that Moses has to tell them to stop. The craftsmen make the curtains of linen and goats' hair, the coverings, the acacia boards and sockets, the bars, the veil and the entrance screen, exactly as commanded.

Summary written for the Labs; read the chapter itself for the full text.

What happens in this chapter

The craftsmen take charge of the gifts, but the people keep bringing more every morning, until the workers stop to tell Moses there is far more than the work needs. Moses has it announced through the camp that no one, man or woman, is to bring anything else. Then the work begins with the house rather than the furniture: the linen curtains and their gold clasps, the goats'-hair curtains, the two leather coverings, the forty-eight boards in their silver sockets, the bars, the veil and the door screen. The wording follows chapter 26 almost line for line, now told as done.

What the lab shows, and where to look

Everything made in this chapter is in the Tabernacle lab's tent, so it is a good chapter to read with the model open. Work through it in the chapter's order: Linen Curtains with Cherubim, Goats'-Hair Curtains, Rams' Skins Dyed Red, then the frame. Turn on Explode frame to lift the boards out of their sockets, and look at Bars and Rings for the middle bar that runs from end to end. Finish at the Tent Door Screen, the last thing made here. Sizes and counts are from the text; the thickness of the boards is speculative, and the cards say so.

Questions people ask

Why did Moses tell the people to stop giving?

Because there was more than enough. The craftsmen reported that the people had brought "much more than enough", and Moses had it proclaimed that no one should bring anything more (36:5–7). Readers often set this beside chapter 32, where the same people handed over their gold for the calf; the text makes no comment of its own on the contrast.

Textually stated

Why is the building order different from chapters 25–26?

God's instructions start with the ark and work outwards; here the builders start with the tent and make the ark only in chapter 37. The text gives no reason. A story in the Talmud (Berakhot 55a) has Bezalel point out that one builds a house before the furniture that goes in it; others suggest that chapters 25–31 follow the order of holiness and chapters 36–38 the order of work.

Plausible

Why does Exodus repeat chapters 25–31 almost word for word?

Ancient building accounts often give both the order and its carrying out, and the repetition shows each part done exactly as the LORD commanded Moses, a phrase that keeps returning in chapters 39–40. Coming after the golden calf, it can also be read as the covenant restored and the people at last doing what they were told. These are readings; the text itself simply records the work.

Plausible

See it in the Labs

Walk through the tabernacle in 3D

Also in this chapter

The Tent (Tabernacle proper)Veil Tent Coverings Boards (Frames)Bars and Rings Linen Curtains with Cherubim Goats'-Hair Curtains Rams' Skins Dyed Red Tent Door Screen

How sure can we be?

Textually stated
The door screen hung on gold hooks from five gold-covered pillars in bronze sockets.
Stated directly in the text.
Strongly supported
Looking up, a priest saw the innermost linen curtains, with cherubim worked in blue, purple and scarlet, spread over the room as its ceiling.
Exodus puts cherubim in the linen curtains, the first and innermost of the four coverings laid over the frame; that they formed the ceiling seen from inside follows closely. How far they hung down the walls, and how much they sagged, is not stated.

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King James Version (KJV) Chinese Union Version, 1919 (Wikisource)