Making the Covenant Box

¹Bezalel made the Covenant Box out of acacia wood, 45 inches long, 27 inches wide, and 27 inches high.

²He covered it with pure gold inside and out and put a gold border all around it.

³He made four carrying rings of gold for it and attached them to its four feet, with two rings on each side.

⁴He made carrying poles of acacia wood, covered them with gold,

⁵and put them through the rings on each side of the Box.

⁶He made a lid of pure gold, 45 inches long and 27 inches wide.

⁷He made two winged creatures of hammered gold,

⁸one for each end of the lid. He made them so that they formed one piece with the lid.

⁹The winged creatures faced each other across the lid, and their outspread wings covered it.

Making the Table for the Bread Offered to God

¹⁰He made the table out of acacia wood, 36 inches long, 18 inches wide, and 27 inches high.

¹¹He covered it with pure gold and put a gold border around it.

¹²He made a rim 3 inches wide around it and put a gold border around the rim.

¹³He made four carrying rings of gold for it and put them at the four corners, where the legs were.

¹⁴The rings to hold the poles for carrying the table were placed near the rim.

¹⁵He made the poles of acacia wood and covered them with gold.

¹⁶He made the dishes of pure gold for the table: the plates, the cups, the jars, and the bowls to be used for the wine offering.

Making the Lampstand

¹⁷He made the lampstand of pure gold. He made its base and its shaft of hammered gold; its decorative flowers, including buds and petals, formed one piece with it.

¹⁸Six branches extended from its sides, three from each side.

¹⁹Each of the six branches had three decorative flowers shaped like almond blossoms with buds and petals.

²⁰The shaft of the lampstand had four decorative flowers shaped like almond blossoms with buds and petals.

²¹There was one bud below each of the three pairs of branches.

²²The buds, the branches, and the lampstand were a single piece of pure hammered gold.

²³He made seven lamps for the lampstand, and he made its tongs and trays of pure gold.

²⁴He used seventy-five pounds of pure gold to make the lampstand and all its equipment.

Making the Altar for Burning Incense

²⁵He made an altar out of acacia wood, for burning incense. It was square, 18 inches long and 18 inches wide, and it was 36 inches high. Its projections at the four corners formed one piece with it.

²⁶He covered its top, all four sides, and its projections with pure gold and put a gold border around it.

²⁷He made two gold carrying rings for it and attached them below the border on the two sides, to hold the poles with which it was to be carried.

²⁸He made the poles of acacia wood and covered them with gold.

Making the Anointing Oil and the Incense

²⁹He also made the sacred anointing oil and the pure sweet-smelling incense, mixed like perfume.

Making the Altar for Burning Offerings

¹For burning offerings, he made an altar out of acacia wood. It was square, 7½ feet long and 7½ feet wide, and it was 4½ feet high.

²He made the projections at the top of the four corners, so that they formed one piece with the altar. He covered it all with bronze.

³He also made all the equipment for the altar: the pans, the shovels, the bowls, the hooks, and the fire pans. All this equipment was made of bronze.

⁴He made a bronze grating and put it under the rim of the altar, so that it reached halfway up the altar.

⁵He made four carrying rings and put them on the four corners.

⁶He made carrying poles of acacia wood, covered them with bronze,

⁷and put them in the rings on each side of the altar. The altar was made of boards and was hollow.

Making the Bronze Basin

⁸He made the bronze basin and its bronze base out of the mirrors belonging to the women who served at the entrance of the Tent of the Lord's presence.

The Enclosure for the Tent of the Lord's Presence

⁹For the Tent of the Lord's presence he made the enclosure out of fine linen curtains. On the south side the curtains were 50 yards long,

¹⁰supported by twenty bronze posts in twenty bronze bases, with hooks and rods made of silver.

¹¹The enclosure was the same on the north side.

¹²On the west side there were curtains 25 yards long, with ten posts and ten bases and with hooks and rods made of silver.

¹³On the east side, where the entrance was, the enclosure was also 25 yards wide.

^14-15On each side of the entrance there were 7½ yards of curtains, with three posts and three bases.

¹⁶All the curtains around the enclosure were made of fine linen.

¹⁷The bases for the posts were made of bronze, and the hooks, the rods, and the covering of the tops of the posts were made of silver. All the posts around the enclosure were connected with silver rods.

¹⁸The curtain for the entrance of the enclosure was made of fine linen woven with blue, purple, and red wool and decorated with embroidery. It was 10 yards long and 2½ yards high, like the curtains of the enclosure.

¹⁹It was supported by four posts in four bronze bases. Their hooks, the covering of their tops, and their rods were made of silver.

²⁰All the pegs for the Tent and for the surrounding enclosure were made of bronze.

Metals Used in the Tent of the Lord's Presence

²¹Here is a list of the amounts of the metals used in the Tent of the Lord's presence, where the two stone tablets were kept on which the Ten Commandments were written. The list was ordered by Moses and made by the Levites who worked under the direction of Ithamar son of Aaron the priest.

²²Bezalel, the son of Uri and grandson of Hur from the tribe of Judah, made everything that the Lord had commanded.

²³His helper, Oholiab son of Ahisamach, from the tribe of Dan, was an engraver, a designer, and a weaver of fine linen and of blue, purple, and red wool.

²⁴All the gold that had been dedicated to the Lord for the sacred Tent weighed 2,195 pounds, weighed according to the official standard.

²⁵The silver from the census of the community weighed 7,550 pounds, weighed according to the official standard.

²⁶This amount equaled the total paid by all persons enrolled in the census, each one paying the required amount, weighed according to the official standard. There were 603,550 men twenty years old or older enrolled in the census.

²⁷Of the silver, 7,500 pounds were used to make the hundred bases for the sacred Tent and for the curtain, 75 pounds for each base.

²⁸With the remaining 50 pounds of silver Bezalel made the rods, the hooks for the posts, and the covering for their tops.

²⁹The bronze which was dedicated to the Lord amounted to 5,310 pounds.

³⁰With it he made the bases for the entrance of the Tent of the Lord's presence, the bronze altar with its bronze grating, all the equipment for the altar,

³¹the bases for the surrounding enclosure and for the entrance of the enclosure, and all the pegs for the Tent and the surrounding enclosure.

Blessings for Obedience

¹The Lord said, “Do not make idols or set up statues, stone pillars, or carved stones to worship. I am the Lord your God.

²Keep the religious festivals and honor the place where I am worshiped. I am the Lord.

³“If you live according to my laws and obey my commands,

⁴I will send you rain at the right time, so that the land will produce crops and the trees will bear fruit.

⁵Your crops will be so plentiful that you will still be harvesting grain when it is time to pick grapes, and you will still be picking grapes when it is time to plant grain. You will have all that you want to eat, and you can live in safety in your land.

⁶“I will give you peace in your land, and you can sleep without being afraid of anyone. I will get rid of the dangerous animals in the land, and there will be no more war there.

⁷You will be victorious over your enemies;

⁸five of you will be able to defeat a hundred, and a hundred will be able to defeat ten thousand.

⁹I will bless you and give you many children; I will keep my part of the covenant that I made with you.

¹⁰Your harvests will be so plentiful that they will last for a year, and even then you will have to throw away what is left of the old harvest to make room for the new.

¹¹I will live among you in my sacred Tent, and I will never turn away from you.

¹²I will be with you; I will be your God, and you will be my people.

¹³I, the Lord your God, brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves. I broke the power that held you down and I let you walk with your head held high.”

Punishment for Disobedience

¹⁴The Lord said, “If you will not obey my commands, you will be punished.

¹⁵If you refuse to obey my laws and commands and break the covenant I have made with you,

¹⁶I will punish you. I will bring disaster on you—incurable diseases and fevers that will make you blind and cause your life to waste away. You will plant your crops, but it will do you no good, because your enemies will conquer you and eat what you have grown.

¹⁷I will turn against you, so that you will be defeated, and those who hate you will rule over you; you will be so terrified that you will run when no one is chasing you.

¹⁸“If even after all of this you still do not obey me, I will increase your punishment seven times.

¹⁹I will break your stubborn pride; there will be no rain, and your land will be dry and as hard as iron.

²⁰All your hard work will do you no good, because your land will not produce crops and the trees will not bear fruit.

²¹“If you still continue to resist me and refuse to obey me, I will again increase your punishment seven times.

²²I will send dangerous animals among you, and they will kill your children, destroy your livestock, and leave so few of you that your roads will be deserted.

²³“If after all of this punishment you still do not listen to me, but continue to defy me,

²⁴then I will turn on you and punish you seven times harder than before.

²⁵I will bring war on you to punish you for breaking our covenant, and if you gather in your cities for safety, I will send incurable diseases among you, and you will be forced to surrender to your enemies.

²⁶I will cut off your food supply, so that ten women will need only one oven to bake all the bread they have. They will ration it out, and when you have eaten it all, you will still be hungry.

²⁷“If after all of this you still continue to defy me and refuse to obey me,

²⁸then in my anger I will turn on you and again make your punishment seven times worse than before.

²⁹Your hunger will be so great that you will eat your own children.

³⁰I will destroy your places of worship on the hills, tear down your incense altars, and throw your dead bodies on your fallen idols. In utter disgust

³¹I will turn your cities into ruins, destroy your places of worship, and refuse to accept your sacrifices.

³²I will destroy your land so completely that the enemies who occupy it will be shocked at the destruction.

³³I will bring war on you and scatter you in foreign lands. Your land will be deserted, and your cities left in ruins.

^34-35Then the land will enjoy the years of complete rest that you would not give it; it will lie abandoned and get its rest while you are in exile in the land of your enemies.

³⁶“I will make those of you who are in exile so terrified that the sound of a leaf blowing in the wind will make you run. You will run as if you were being pursued in battle, and you will fall when there is no enemy near you.

³⁷You will stumble over one another when no one is chasing you, and you will be unable to fight against any enemy.

³⁸You will die in exile, swallowed up by the land of your enemies.

³⁹The few of you who survive in the land of your enemies will waste away because of your own sin and the sin of your ancestors.

⁴⁰“But your descendants will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors, who resisted me and rebelled against me,

⁴¹and caused me to turn against them and send them into exile in the land of their enemies. At last, when your descendants are humbled and they have paid the penalty for their sin and rebellion,

⁴²I will remember my covenant with Jacob and with Isaac and with Abraham, and I will renew my promise to give my people the land.

⁴³First, however, the land must be rid of its people, so that it can enjoy its complete rest, and they must pay the full penalty for having rejected my laws and my commands.

⁴⁴But even then, when they are still in the land of their enemies, I will not completely abandon them or destroy them. That would put an end to my covenant with them, and I am the Lord their God.

⁴⁵I will renew the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I showed all the nations my power by bringing my people out of Egypt, in order that I, the Lord, might be their God.”

⁴⁶All these are the laws and commands that the Lord gave to Moses on Mount Sinai for the people of Israel.

A Prayer for the Defeat of Israel's Enemies

¹O God, do not keep silent; do not be still, do not be quiet!

²Look! Your enemies are in revolt, and those who hate you are rebelling.

³They are making secret plans against your people; they are plotting against those you protect.

⁴“Come,” they say, “let us destroy their nation, so that Israel will be forgotten forever.”

⁵They agree on their plan and form an alliance against you:

⁶the people of Edom and the Ishmaelites; the people of Moab and the Hagrites;

⁷the people of Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek, and of Philistia and Tyre.

⁸Assyria has also joined them as a strong ally of the Ammonites and Moabites, the descendants of Lot.

⁹Do to them what you did to the Midianites, and to Sisera and Jabin at the Kishon River.

¹⁰You defeated them at Endor, and their bodies rotted on the ground.

¹¹Do to their leaders what you did to Oreb and Zeeb; defeat all their rulers as you did Zebah and Zalmunna,

¹²who said, “We will take for our own the land that belongs to God.”

¹³Scatter them like dust, O God, like straw blown away by the wind.

¹⁴As fire burns the forest, as flames set the hills on fire,

¹⁵chase them away with your storm and terrify them with your fierce winds.

¹⁶Cover their faces with shame, O Lord, and make them acknowledge your power.

¹⁷May they be defeated and terrified forever; may they die in complete disgrace.

¹⁸May they know that you alone are the Lord, supreme ruler over all the earth.