Exodus 26King James Version
The tabernacle itself. Ten curtains of fine twined linen with cherubim woven into them. Curtains of goats' hair for the tent. Boards of acacia wood standing upright. The veil of blue, purple, and scarlet that separates the holy place from the most holy. Detailed measurements for everything.
God gives Moses detailed construction plans for the tabernacle's tent structure: ten curtains of fine twisted linen in blue, purple, and scarlet with cherubim embroidered on them, joined in sets of five; eleven curtains of goat hair over those; coverings of ram skins dyed red and sea-cow hides; frames of acacia wood with silver sockets; a veil of blue, purple, and scarlet to separate the holy place from the holy of holies; and a screen for the entrance.
The tabernacle's layered structure, public courtyard, holy place, holy of holies, creates an architecture of access: you can approach, but proximity to the divine presence is graduated and specific.
v33: "And thou shalt hang up the vail under the taches, that thou mayest bring in thither within the vail the ark of the testimony: and the vail shall divide unto you between the holy place and the most holy" -- the veil of the temple that Matthew says tears at the crucifixion is this curtain, and this chapter is why it matters.
The tabernacle footprint is roughly 45 by 15 feet for the dwelling itself. The curtains hang from gold-capped acacia frames set in silver sockets. The embroidered cherubim face each other from the ceiling curtains. Inside this tent, in the western third behind the veil, is the ark, and above the ark is the space where God speaks. The whole structure can be dismantled and carried in a day.
God describes; Moses receives. No human actors appear in this chapter. The focus is entirely architectural.
The tabernacle's three-zone structure became the template for Solomon's Temple and the Second Temple. The tearing of the temple veil at Jesus' death in the Synoptic Gospels is exegetically dependent on this chapter; readers familiar with Exodus understood exactly what barrier was removed. The book of Hebrews uses tabernacle architecture as its primary interpretive grid.
For when the detailed instructions of religious life feel tedious and you wonder why God cares about curtain measurements. The veil separates the space where God lives from the space where people work. The entire layout is a spatial theology: God is near, but holiness has a shape.
1Moreover thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet: with cherubims of cunning work shalt thou make them.
2The length of one curtain shall be eight and twenty cubits, and the breadth of one curtain four cubits: and every one of the curtains shall have one measure.
3The five curtains shall be coupled together one to another; and other five curtains shall be coupled one to another.
4And thou shalt make loops of blue upon the edge of the one curtain from the selvedge in the coupling; and likewise shalt thou make in the uttermost edge of another curtain, in the coupling of the second.
5Fifty loops shalt thou make in the one curtain, and fifty loops shalt thou make in the edge of the curtain that is in the coupling of the second; that the loops may take hold one of another.
6And thou shalt make fifty taches of gold, and couple the curtains together with the taches: and it shall be one tabernacle.
7And thou shalt make curtains of goats' hair to be a covering upon the tabernacle: eleven curtains shalt thou make.
8The length of one curtain shall be thirty cubits, and the breadth of one curtain four cubits: and the eleven curtains shall be all of one measure.
9And thou shalt couple five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves, and shalt double the sixth curtain in the forefront of the tabernacle.
10And thou shalt make fifty loops on the edge of the one curtain that is outmost in the coupling, and fifty loops in the edge of the curtain which coupleth the second.
11And thou shalt make fifty taches of brass, and put the taches into the loops, and couple the tent together, that it may be one.
12And the remnant that remaineth of the curtains of the tent, the half curtain that remaineth, shall hang over the backside of the tabernacle.
13And a cubit on the one side, and a cubit on the other side of that which remaineth in the length of the curtains of the tent, it shall hang over the sides of the tabernacle on this side and on that side, to cover it.
14And thou shalt make a covering for the tent of rams' skins dyed red, and a covering above of badgers' skins.
15And thou shalt make boards for the tabernacle of shittim wood standing up.
16Ten cubits shall be the length of a board, and a cubit and a half shall be the breadth of one board.
17Two tenons shall there be in one board, set in order one against another: thus shalt thou make for all the boards of the tabernacle.
18And thou shalt make the boards for the tabernacle, twenty boards on the south side southward.
19And thou shalt make forty sockets of silver under the twenty boards; two sockets under one board for his two tenons, and two sockets under another board for his two tenons.
20And for the second side of the tabernacle on the north side there shall be twenty boards:
21And their forty sockets of silver; two sockets under one board, and two sockets under another board.
22And for the sides of the tabernacle westward thou shalt make six boards.
23And two boards shalt thou make for the corners of the tabernacle in the two sides.
24And they shall be coupled together beneath, and they shall be coupled together above the head of it unto one ring: thus shall it be for them both; they shall be for the two corners.
25And they shall be eight boards, and their sockets of silver, sixteen sockets; two sockets under one board, and two sockets under another board.
26And thou shalt make bars of shittim wood; five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle,
27And five bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the side of the tabernacle, for the two sides westward.
28And the middle bar in the midst of the boards shall reach from end to end.
29And thou shalt overlay the boards with gold, and make their rings of gold for places for the bars: and thou shalt overlay the bars with gold.
30And thou shalt rear up the tabernacle according to the fashion thereof which was shewed thee in the mount.
31And thou shalt make a vail of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen of cunning work: with cherubims shall it be made:
32And thou shalt hang it upon four pillars of shittim wood overlaid with gold: their hooks shall be of gold, upon the four sockets of silver.
33And thou shalt hang up the vail under the taches, that thou mayest bring in thither within the vail the ark of the testimony: and the vail shall divide unto you between the holy place and the most holy.
34And thou shalt put the mercy seat upon the ark of the testimony in the most holy place.
35And thou shalt set the table without the vail, and the candlestick over against the table on the side of the tabernacle toward the south: and thou shalt put the table on the north side.
36And thou shalt make an hanging for the door of the tent, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with needlework.
37And thou shalt make for the hanging five pillars of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold, and their hooks shall be of gold: and thou shalt cast five sockets of brass for them.