Exodus 38: The altar of burnt offering, the basin, the court, and the metal used

In plain English: He made the altar of burnt offering of acacia wood. It was square, five cubits long and five cubits wide, and three cubits high.

In plain English: He made its horns on its four corners. Its horns were of one piece with it, and he overlaid it with bronze.

In plain English: He made all the vessels of the altar: the pots, the shovels, the basins, the forks, and the fire pans. He made all its vessels of bronze.

In plain English: He made for the altar a grating, a network of bronze, under the ledge around it, down below, reaching halfway up.

In plain English: He cast four rings for the four corners of the bronze grating, as places for the poles.

In plain English: He made the poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with bronze.

In plain English: He put the poles into the rings on the sides of the altar, to carry it. He made it hollow, with planks.

In plain English: He made the basin of bronze, and its base of bronze, out of the mirrors of the serving women who served at the door of the Tent of Meeting.

The Hebrew word: "Mirrors" is mar'ah, which the dictionary gives as "a vision; also (causatively) a mirror". In the other 9 verses of the Bible that use it, this Bible says "vision" or "visions". Exodus 30:18 tells Moses to make a basin of bronze and does not say where the bronze is to come from.

The Hebrew word: "The ministering women who ministered" uses the word tsava twice. The dictionary gives it as "to mass (an army or servants)". It is used of women in only one other verse, 1 Samuel 2:22: "the women who served at the door of the Tent of Meeting". The text does not say who these women were or what their service was. Of the 12 verses of the Bible that use tsava, this Bible says a form of "fight" in 6, "wait" in 2, "mustered" in 2, and "served" or "ministered" in the other 2, 1 Samuel 2:22 and this verse.

In plain English: He made the court. For the south side the hangings of the court were of fine twisted linen, one hundred cubits long,

In plain English: with twenty pillars and twenty sockets of bronze. The hooks of the pillars and their fillets (bands) were of silver.

In plain English: For the north side the hangings were one hundred cubits long, with twenty pillars and twenty sockets of bronze. The hooks of the pillars and their fillets (bands) were of silver.

In plain English: For the west side there were hangings of fifty cubits, with ten pillars and ten sockets. The hooks of the pillars and their fillets (bands) were of silver.

In plain English: For the east side, eastward, fifty cubits:

In plain English: the hangings for the one side were fifteen cubits, with three pillars and three sockets,

In plain English: and the same for the other side: on this side and on that side of the gate of the court, the hangings were fifteen cubits, with three pillars and three sockets.

In plain English: All the hangings around the court were of fine twisted linen.

In plain English: The sockets for the pillars were of bronze. The hooks of the pillars and their fillets (bands) were of silver. Their capitals (tops) were overlaid with silver. All the pillars of the court had silver bands.

Good to know: Exodus 27:17 says the pillars of the court are to be banded with silver and have silver hooks. It does not say that their tops are overlaid with silver. That is said here, in 38:19 and in 38:28.

In plain English: The screen for the gate of the court was the work of an embroiderer, of blue, purple, scarlet, and fine twisted linen. Its length was twenty cubits, and its height along the width was five cubits, like the hangings of the court.

In plain English: Their pillars were four, with four sockets of bronze. Their hooks were of silver, and the overlay of their capitals and their fillets (bands) was of silver.

In plain English: All the pins of the tabernacle, and the pins around the court, were of bronze.

In plain English: These are the amounts of materials used for the tabernacle, the Tabernacle of the Testimony, as they were counted at the command of Moses (literally: on the mouth of Moses), for the service of the Levites (or: the work of the Levites), by the hand of Ithamar, the son of Aaron the priest.

The Hebrew words: "The amounts" and "were counted" are both forms of paqad, the word explained at Exodus 20:5, where this Bible says "visiting". This Bible says "counted" for it again in verses 25 and 26, and in the census of Exodus 30:12 to 14. "Service" is avodah, which the dictionary gives as "work of any kind". The Hebrew has no word for "for" before "the service of the Levites", so the phrase can mean that the counting was the work of the Levites under Ithamar, or that the materials were for the Levites' service.

In plain English: Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made all that Yahweh commanded Moses.

In plain English: With him was Oholiab the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, an engraver, a skilled workman, and an embroiderer in blue, purple, scarlet, and fine linen.

In plain English: All the gold that was used for the work, in all the work of the sanctuary, the gold of the offering, was twenty-nine talents and seven hundred thirty shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary.

In plain English: The silver of those who were counted of the community was one hundred talents and one thousand seven hundred seventy-five shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary:

In plain English: a beka a head, that is, half a shekel, by the shekel of the sanctuary, for everyone who passed over to those who were counted, from twenty years old and up, for six hundred three thousand five hundred fifty men.

Good to know: The half shekel is the offering that Exodus 30:12 to 16 require when the people are counted, "from twenty years old and upward". The Hebrew word behind "beka" is in only 2 verses of the Bible: here and Genesis 24:22, where this Bible says a gold ring is "of half a shekel weight". The total here, 603,550 men, is the same number as in Numbers 1:46 and 2:32. Exodus 12:37 says that about 600,000 men on foot traveled from Rameses to Succoth.

In plain English: The one hundred talents of silver were for casting the sockets of the sanctuary and the sockets of the veil: one hundred sockets for the one hundred talents, one talent per socket.

Good to know: The silver sockets in chapter 36 add up to one hundred: forty under the twenty boards on the south side (36:24), forty on the north side (36:26), sixteen under the eight boards on the west (36:30), and four for the pillars of the veil (36:36). This is worked out from those verses. This verse gives only the total, one hundred.

In plain English: From the one thousand seven hundred seventy-five shekels he made hooks for the pillars, overlaid their capitals, and made fillets (bands) for them.

In plain English: The bronze of the offering was seventy talents and two thousand four hundred shekels.

In plain English: With this he made the sockets for the door of the Tent of Meeting, the bronze altar, the bronze grating for it, all the vessels of the altar,

In plain English: the sockets around the court, the sockets of the gate of the court, all the pins of the tabernacle, and all the pins around the court.