1 And Moses collected all the assembly of the children of Israel, and said to them, These are the things which Jehovah has commanded, to do them.
2 Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you a holy day, a sabbath of rest to Jehovah: whoever does work on it shall be put to death.
3 Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your dwellings upon the sabbath day.
4 And Moses spoke to all the assembly of the children of Israel, saying, This is the word which Jehovah has commanded, saying,
5 Take from among you a heave-offering to Jehovah: every one whose heart [is] willing, let him bring it, Jehovah's heave-offering -- gold, and silver, and copper,
6 and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and byssus, and goats' [hair],
7 and rams' skins dyed red, and badgers' skins, and acacia-wood,
8 and oil for the light, and spices for the anointing oil, and for the incense of fragrant drugs;
9 and onyx stones, and stones to be set for the ephod, and for the breastplate.
10 And all who are wise-hearted among you shall come and make all that Jehovah has commanded:
11 the tabernacle, its tent, and its covering, its clasps, and its boards, its bars, its pillars, and its bases;
12 the ark, and its staves; the mercy-seat, and the veil of separation;
13 the table and its staves, and all its utensils, and the shewbread;
14 and the lamp-stand for the light, and its utensils, and its lamps, and the oil for the light;
15 and the altar of incense, and its staves; and the anointing-oil, and the incense of fragrant drugs; and the entrance-curtain at the entrance of the tabernacle;
16 the altar of burnt-offering, and the copper grating for it, its staves, and all its utensils; the laver and its stand;
17 the hangings of the court, its pillars, and its bases, and the curtains of the gate of the court;
18 the pegs of the tabernacle, and the pegs of the court, and their cords;
19 the garments of service, to do service in the sanctuary, the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons, to serve as priests.
20 And all the assembly of the children of Israel departed from before Moses.
21 And they came, every one whose heart moved him, and every one whose spirit prompted him; they brought Jehovah's heave-offering for the work of the tent of meeting, and for all its service, and for the holy garments.
22 And they came, both men and women; every one who was of willing heart brought nose-rings, and earrings, and rings, and bracelets, all kinds of utensils of gold: every man that waved a wave-offering of gold to Jehovah.
23 And every man with whom was found blue, and purple, and scarlet, and byssus, and goats' [hair], and rams' skins dyed red, and badgers' skins, brought [them].
24 All they that offered a heave-offering of silver and copper brought Jehovah's heave-offering. And every one with whom was found acacia-wood for all manner of work of the service, brought [it].
25 And every woman that was wise-hearted spun with her hands, and brought what she had spun: the blue, and the purple, and the scarlet, and the byssus.
26 And all the women whose heart moved them in wisdom spun goats' [hair].
27 And the principal men brought the onyx stones, and the stones to be set, for the ephod, and for the breastplate;
28 and the spice, and the oil for the light, and for the anointing oil, and for the incense of fragrant drugs.
29 The children of Israel brought a voluntary offering to Jehovah, every man and woman whose heart prompted them to bring for all manner of work, which Jehovah, by the hand of Moses, had commanded to be done.
30 And Moses said to the children of Israel, See, Jehovah has called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah,
31 and he has filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship,
32 and to devise artistic things: to work in gold, and in silver, and in copper,
33 and in cutting of stones, for setting, and in carving of wood, to execute all artistic work;
34 and he has put in his heart to teach, he and Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan:
35 he has filled them with wisdom of heart, to work all manner of work of the engraver, and of the artificer, and of the embroiderer, in blue, and in purple, in scarlet, and in byssus, and of the weaver, [even] of them that do every kind of work, and of those that devise artistic work
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Exodus 35
Commentary on Exodus 35 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
Preliminaries to the Work. - Ex 35:1-29. After the restoration of the covenant, Moses announced to the people the divine commands with reference to the holy place of the tabernacle which was to be built. He repeated first of all (Exodus 35:1-3) the law of the Sabbath according to Exodus 31:13-17, and strengthened it by the announcement, that on the Sabbath no fire was to be kindled in their dwelling, because this rule was to be observed even in connection with the work to be done for the tabernacle. (For a fuller comment, see at Exodus 20:9.). Then, in accordance with the command of Jehovah, he first of all summoned the whole nation to present freewill-offerings for the holy things to be prepared (Exodus 35:4, Exodus 35:5), mentioning one by one all the materials that would be required (Exodus 35:5-9, as in Exodus 25:3-7); and after that he called upon those who were endowed with understanding to prepare the different articles, as prescribed in ch. 25-30, mentioning these also one by one (Exodus 35:11-19), even down to the pegs of the dwelling and court (Exodus 27:19), and “their cords,” i.e., the cords required to fasten the tent and the hangings round the court to the pegs that were driven into the ground, which had not been mentioned before, being altogether subordinate things. (On the “cloths of service,” Exodus 35:19, see at Exodus 31:10.) In Exodus 35:20-29 we have an account of the fulfilment of this command. The people went from Moses, i.e., from the place where they were assembled round Moses, away to their tents, and willingly offered the things required as a heave-offering for Jehovah; every one “whom his heart lifted up,” i.e., who felt himself inclined and stirred up in his heart to do this. The men along with ( על as in Genesis 32:12; see Ewald , §217) the women brought with a willing heart all kinds of golden rings and jewellery: chak , lit., hook, here a clasp or ring; nezem , an ear or nose-ring (Genesis 35:4; Genesis 24:47); tabbaath , a finger-ring; cumaz , globulus aureus , probably little golden balls strung together like beads, which were worn by the Israelites and Midianites (Numbers 31:50) as an ornament round the wrist and neck, as Diod. Sic. relates that they were by the Arabians (3, 44). “ All kinds of golden jewellery, and every one who had waved (dedicated) a wave (offering) of gold to Jehovah, ” sc., offered it for the work of the tabernacle. The meaning is, that in addition to the many varieties of golden ornaments, which were willingly offered for the work to be performed, every one brought whatever gold he had set apart as a wave-offering (a sacrificial gift) for Jehovah. הניף to wave , lit., to swing or move to and fro, is used in connection with the sacrificial ritual to denote a peculiar ceremony, through which certain portions of a sacrifice, which were not intended for burning upon the altar, but for the maintenance of the priests (Numbers 18:11), were consecrated to the Lord, or given up to Him in a symbolical manner (see at Leviticus 7:30). Tenuphah , the wave-offering, accordingly denoted primarily those portions of the sacrificial animal which were allotted to the priests as their share of the sacrifices; and then, in a more general sense, every gift or offering that was consecrated to the Lord for the establishment and maintenance of the sanctuary and its worship. In this wider sense the term tenuphah (wave-offering) is applied both here and in Exodus 38:24, Exodus 38:29 to the gold and copper presented by the congregation for the building of the tabernacle. So that it does not really differ from terumah , a lift of heave-offering, as every gift intended for the erection and maintenance of the sanctuary was called, inasmuch as the offerer lifted it off from his own property, to dedicate it to the Lord for the purposes of His worship. Accordingly, in Exodus 35:24 the freewill-offerings of the people in silver and gold for the erection of the tabernacle are called terumah ; and in Exodus 36:6, all the gifts of metal, wood, leather, and woven materials, presented by the people for the erection of the tabernacle, are called קדשׁ תּרוּמת . (On heaving and the heave-offering, see at Exodus 25:2 and Leviticus 2:9.)
All the women who understood it (were wise-hearted, as in Exodus 28:3) spun with their hands, and presented what they spun, viz., the yarn required for the blue and red purple cloth, the crimson and the byssus; from which it is evident that the coloured cloths were dyed in the yarn or in the wool, as was the case in Egypt according to different specimens of old Egyptian cloths (see Hengstenberg, Egypt and the Books of Moses , p. 144). Other women spun goats' hair for the upper or outer covering of the tent (Exodus 26:7.). Spinning was done by the women in very early times ( Plin. hist. n. 8, 48), particularly in Egypt, where women are represented on the monuments as busily engaged with the spindle (see Wilkinson, Manners ii. p. 60; iii. p. 133, 136), and at a later period among the Hebrews (Proverbs 31:19). At the present day the women in the peninsula of Sinai spin the materials for their tents from camels' and goats' hair, and prepare sheep's wool for their clothing ( Rppell , Nubien , p. 202); and at Neswa, in the province of Omהn , the preparation of cotton yarn is the principal employment of the women ( Wellstedt , i. p. 90). Weaving also was, and still is to a great extent, a woman's work (cf. 2 Kings 23:7); it is so among the Arab tribes in the Wady Gharandel, for example ( Russegger , iii. 24), and in Nubia ( Burckhardt , Nub. p. 211); but at Neswa the weaving is done by the men ( Wellstedt ). The woven cloths for the tabernacle were prepared by men, partly perhaps because the weaving in Egypt was mostly done by the men ( Herod . 2, 35; cf. Hengstenberg, p. 143), but chiefly for this reason, that the cloths for the hangings and curtains were artistic works, which the women did not understand, but which the men had learned in Egypt, where artistic weaving was carried out to a great extent (Wilkinson, iii. pp. 113ff.).
(Note: For drawings of the Egyptian weaving-stool, see Wilkinson, iii. p. 135; also Hartmann , die Hebräerinn am Putztisch i. Taf. 1.)
The precious stones for the robes of the high priest, and the spices for the incense and anointing oil, were presented by the princes of the congregation, who had such costly things in their possession.
Moses then informed the people that God had called Bezaleel and Aholiab as master-builders, to complete the building and all the work connected with it, and had not only endowed them with His Spirit, that they might draw the plans for the different works and carry them out, but “had put it into his (Bezaleel's) heart to teach” (Exodus 35:34), that is to say, had qualified him to instruct labourers to prepare the different articles under his supervision and guidance. “ He and Aholiab ” (Exodus 35:34) are in apposition to “his heart:” into his and Aholiab's heart (see Ges. §121, 3; Ewald , §311 a). The concluding words in Exodus 35:35 are in apposition to אתם ( them ): “ them hath He filled with wisdom...as performers of every kind of work and inventors of designs,” i.e., that they may make every kind of work and may invent designs. In Exodus 36:1, ועשׂה with vav consec . is dependent upon what precedes, and signifies either, “and so will make,” or, so that he will make (see Ewald , §342 b). The idea is this, “Bezaleel, Aholiab, and the other men who understand, into whom Jehovah has infused ( בּ נתן ) wisdom and understanding, that they may know how to do, shall do every work for the holy service (worship) with regard to ( ל as in Exodus 28:38, etc.) all that Jehovah has commanded.”