The Law · Chapter 38 of 40

Exodus 38

Bezaleel builds the outer court furnishings: the bronze altar of burnt offering with its horns and vessels, and the bronze laver made from the mirrors of the serving women. He erects the linen hangings, pillars, and sockets that enclose the courtyard. The chapter closes with an inventory of the gold, silver, and bronze used, the silver coming from the atonement money of every man numbered in Israel.

What happens in Exodus 38

Moving from the holy place to the courtyard, Bezaleel makes the great altar of burnt offering from acacia wood overlaid with bronze, foursquare with horns at its corners and a bronze grate, along with all its bronze vessels. He casts the laver and its base from bronze, using the polished mirrors donated by the women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle. He then sets up the court: hangings of fine twined linen on posts of bronze with silver hooks, and an embroidered screen for the gate.

The chapter ends with a careful accounting, the sum of the tabernacle, overseen by Ithamar. It names the chief workmen and their tribes and tallies the metals used: twenty-nine talents of gold, a hundred talents of silver gathered as a half shekel of atonement money from every man twenty years and older, and seventy talents of bronze, cast into the sockets, hooks, and pins of the sanctuary.

Exodus 38 in context

Exodus 38 completes the manufacture of the sanctuary's outer structures before the priestly garments of chapter 39. It corresponds to the instructions of chapters 27 and 30. The court and its altar were where sacrifice and washing took place, the first things a worshipper met on approaching God.

The closing audit reflects careful stewardship of a nation's freewill and required offerings, and the silver specifically came from the ransom money each Israelite paid when numbered.

Main themes of Exodus 38

Exodus 38 (KJV)

1And he made the altar of burnt offering of shittim wood: five cubits was the length thereof, and five cubits the breadth thereof; it was foursquare; and three cubits the height thereof. 2And he made the horns thereof on the four corners of it; the horns thereof were of the same: and he overlaid it with brass. 3And he made all the vessels of the altar, the pots, and the shovels, and the basons, and the fleshhooks, and the firepans: all the vessels thereof made he of brass. 4And he made for the altar a brasen grate of network under the compass thereof beneath unto the midst of it. 5And he cast four rings for the four ends of the grate of brass, to be places for the staves. 6And he made the staves of shittim wood, and overlaid them with brass. 7And he put the staves into the rings on the sides of the altar, to bear it withal; he made the altar hollow with boards. 8And he made the laver of brass, and the foot of it of brass, of the lookingglasses of the women assembling, which assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. 9And he made the court: on the south side southward the hangings of the court were of fine twined linen, an hundred cubits: 10Their pillars were twenty, and their brasen sockets twenty; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets were of silver. 11And for the north side the hangings were an hundred cubits, their pillars were twenty, and their sockets of brass twenty; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver. 12And for the west side were hangings of fifty cubits, their pillars ten, and their sockets ten; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver. 13And for the east side eastward fifty cubits. 14The hangings of the one side of the gate were fifteen cubits; their pillars three, and their sockets three. 15And for the other side of the court gate, on this hand and that hand, were hangings of fifteen cubits; their pillars three, and their sockets three. 16All the hangings of the court round about were of fine twined linen. 17And the sockets for the pillars were of brass; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver; and the overlaying of their chapiters of silver; and all the pillars of the court were filleted with silver. 18And the hanging for the gate of the court was needlework, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen: and twenty cubits was the length, and the height in the breadth was five cubits, answerable to the hangings of the court. 19And their pillars were four, and their sockets of brass four; their hooks of silver, and the overlaying of their chapiters and their fillets of silver. 20And all the pins of the tabernacle, and of the court round about, were of brass. 21This is the sum of the tabernacle, even of the tabernacle of testimony, as it was counted, according to the commandment of Moses, for the service of the Levites, by the hand of Ithamar, son to Aaron the priest. 22And Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made all that the LORD commanded Moses. 23And with him was Aholiab, son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, an engraver, and a cunning workman, and an embroiderer in blue, and in purple, and in scarlet, and fine linen. 24All the gold that was occupied for the work in all the work of the holy place, even the gold of the offering, was twenty and nine talents, and seven hundred and thirty shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary. 25And the silver of them that were numbered of the congregation was an hundred talents, and a thousand seven hundred and threescore and fifteen shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary: 26A bekah for every man, that is, half a shekel, after the shekel of the sanctuary, for every one that went to be numbered, from twenty years old and upward, for six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty men. 27And of the hundred talents of silver were cast the sockets of the sanctuary, and the sockets of the vail; an hundred sockets of the hundred talents, a talent for a socket. 28And of the thousand seven hundred seventy and five shekels he made hooks for the pillars, and overlaid their chapiters, and filleted them. 29And the brass of the offering was seventy talents, and two thousand and four hundred shekels. 30And therewith he made the sockets to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and the brasen altar, and the brasen grate for it, and all the vessels of the altar, 31And the sockets of the court round about, and the sockets of the court gate, and all the pins of the tabernacle, and all the pins of the court round about.

Verses to carry from Exodus 38

“And he made the altar of burnt offering of shittim wood: five cubits was the length thereof, and five cubits the breadth thereof; it was foursquare; and three cubits the height thereof.”Exodus 38:1

“And he made the laver of brass, and the foot of it of brass, of the lookingglasses of the women assembling, which assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.”Exodus 38:8

“And the silver of them that were numbered of the congregation was an hundred talents, and a thousand seven hundred and threescore and fifteen shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary:”Exodus 38:25

Reflection

The women melted down their mirrors so priests could be made clean. What do you hold that could be surrendered for the good of others and the service of God? Consider approaching Him the appointed way, through sacrifice and cleansing, rather than trusting your own worthiness to draw near.

A prayer from Exodus 38