1The LORD has given to Bezalel, Oholiab, and others the skills needed for building a place of worship, and they will follow the LORD's instructions.

2Then Moses brought together these workers who were eager to work, 3and he gave them the money that the people of Israel had donated for building the place of worship. In fact, so much money was being given each morning, 4that finally everyone stopped working 5and said, “Moses, there is already more money than we need for what the LORD has assigned us to do.” 6So Moses sent word for the people to stop giving, and they did. 7But there was already more than enough to do what needed to be done.

Skilled workers make the sacred tent and its furnishings

The curtains and coverings for the sacred tent

(Exodus 26.1-14)

8-9The skilled workers got together to make the sacred tent and its linen curtains woven with blue, purple, and red wool and embroidered with figures of winged creatures. Each of the ten panels was twelve metres long and two metres wide, 10and they were sewn together to make two curtains with five panels each. 11-13Then fifty loops of blue cloth were put along one of the wider sides of each curtain, and the two curtains were fastened together at the loops with fifty gold hooks.

14-15As the material for the tent, goat hair was used to weave eleven sections thirteen metres by two metres each. 16These eleven sections were joined to make two panels, one with five and the other with six sections. 17Fifty loops were put along one of the wider sides of each panel, 18and the two panels were fastened at the loops with fifty bronze hooks. 19Two other coverings were made—one with fine leather and the other with ram skins dyed red.

The framework for the sacred tent

(Exodus 26.15-30)

20Acacia wood was used to build the framework for the walls of the sacred tent. 21Each frame was four metres high and sixty-six centimetres wide 22-26with two wooden pegs near the bottom. Then two silver stands were placed under each frame with sockets for the pegs, so they could be joined together. Twenty of these frames were used along the south side and twenty more along the north. 27Six frames were used for the back wall along the west side 28-29with two more at the south-west and north-west corners. These corner frames were joined from top to bottom. 30Altogether, along the back wall there were eight frames with two silver stands under each of them.

31-33Five crossbars were made for each of the wooden frames, with the centre crossbar running the full length of the wall. 34The frames and crossbars were covered with gold, and gold rings were attached to the frames to run the crossbars through.

The inside curtain for the sacred tent

(Exodus 26.31-37)

35They made the inside curtain36.35 inside curtain: Separating the holy place from the most holy place. of fine linen woven with blue, purple, and red wool, and embroidered with figures of winged creatures. 36They also made four acacia wood posts and covered them with gold. Then gold rings were fastened to the posts, which were set on silver stands.

37For the entrance to the tent, they used a curtain of fine linen woven with blue, purple, and red wool and embroidered with fancy needlework. 38They made five posts, covered them completely with gold, and set them each on a gold-covered bronze stand. Finally, they attached hooks for the curtain.