BOOK 2 OF 66 · LAW · KING JAMES BIBLE

Exodus 38

Exodus book home•Chapter 38 of 40•31 verses

Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Exodus 38 Overview

Exodus 38 completes the major outer furnishings and courtyard. Bezalel makes the bronze altar with its grate and utensils, the bronze laver from the lookingglasses of the women who assembled at the tabernacle door, and the linen court with pillars, sockets, hangings, and gate. The chapter then gives an inventory of gold, silver, and bronze used in the tabernacle work under the oversight of Ithamar, Aaron’s son. Bezalel and Aholiab are named again as the chief craftsmen.

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38Chapter

31Verses

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Before you read Exodus 38

Coming from

Exodus 37 records the ark, table, lampstand, incense altar, holy oil, and incense.

In this chapter

The remaining major structures are completed and the project’s costly materials are formally accounted for.

Leads into

Exodus 39 turns to the priestly garments and ends with Moses inspecting the completed work and blessing the workers.

Key understanding

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Truth 1

The bronze altar and laver prepare the court for sacrifice and priestly cleansing.

Truth 2

The women’s bronze lookingglasses become material for sanctuary service, showing costly personal objects redirected toward worship.

Truth 3

The court visibly marks the sanctuary boundary and ordered approach.

Truth 4

The inventory demonstrates accountability over large quantities of precious material.

Truth 5

Named oversight and named craftsmen show that sacred work still includes practical administration and responsibility.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Connection 1

Exodus 27 gives the original altar and courtyard instructions fulfilled here.

Connection 2

Exodus 30 gives the laver instructions fulfilled here.

Connection 3

Numbers 4 later assigns transportation responsibilities for tabernacle components during wilderness travel.

Connection 4

2 Corinthians 8:20–21 later expresses the principle of handling ministry resources honorably before God and people.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep this clear 1

The women’s lookingglasses are simply identified as material for the laver; the text does not say mirrors themselves were sinful or vanity objects that had to be renounced.

Keep this clear 2

Material accounting is part of faithful stewardship and does not imply distrust of every worker involved.

Keep this clear 3

The large quantity of precious metal reflects Israel’s specific sanctuary project and resources after Egypt, not a universal demand that worship spaces be expensive.

Keep this clear 4

As elsewhere, craftsmanship details should not be loaded with secret meanings absent from Scripture.

Read Exodus 38 watching for…

The construction of the bronze altar.

The unusual source material for the laver.

The completed court and gate.

The formal accounting of gold, silver, and bronze.

Ithamar, Bezalel, and Aholiab’s named roles.

Chapter outline4 sections

1-7The brazen altar is made 8The laver is made 9-20The court and its hangings are made 21-31The materials used for the tabernacle are counted

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.

And he made the horns thereof on the four corners of it; the horns thereof were of the same: and he overlaid it with brass.

And 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.

And he made for the altar a brasen grate of network under the compass thereof beneath unto the midst of it.

And he cast four rings for the four ends of the grate of brass, to be places for the staves.

And he made the staves of shittim wood, and overlaid them with brass.

And he put the staves into the rings on the sides of the altar, to bear it withal; he made the altar hollow with boards.

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.

And he made the court: on the south side southward the hangings of the court were of fine twined linen, an hundred cubits:

Their pillars were twenty, and their brasen sockets twenty; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets were of silver.

And 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.

And 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.

And for the east side eastward fifty cubits.

The hangings of the one side of the gate were fifteen cubits; their pillars three, and their sockets three.

And 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.

All the hangings of the court round about were of fine twined linen.

And 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.

And 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.

And 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.

And all the pins of the tabernacle, and of the court round about, were of brass.

This 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.

And Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made all that the LORD commanded Moses.

And 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.

All 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.

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:

A 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.

And 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.

And of the thousand seven hundred seventy and five shekels he made hooks for the pillars, and overlaid their chapiters, and filleted them.

And the brass of the offering was seventy talents, and two thousand and four hundred shekels.

And 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,

And 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.