ויקהל

Moses assembled the whole Israelite community and spoke the words God commanded. “Six days you may work,” he said, “but the seventh day is Shabbat, a day of complete rest, holy to God.” He warned them not to do any work on that day, and he added one clear rule: “Do not kindle a fire anywhere in your settlements on the Shabbat.”

Then Moses told them about a new, shared task. God wanted a sacred place, the Mishkan, a holy dwelling place, and the people could help by bringing gifts. “Take from among you gifts to God,” Moses announced. “Everyone whose heart is moved should bring them.”

He listed what was needed: gold, silver, and copper; blue, purple, and crimson yarns; fine linen and goats’ hair; tanned ram skins and dolphin skins; acacia wood; oil for lighting; spices for anointing oil and for aromatic incense; and lapis lazuli and other stones for setting. He also called for skilled people to come and make everything God had commanded.

After Moses finished speaking, the community left his presence, and then they returned with open hands. Men and women came with freewill offerings: brooches, earrings, rings, and pendants of gold. Others brought silver or copper. People who had blue, purple, and crimson yarns brought them, along with fine linen, goats’ hair, tanned ram skins, and dolphin skins. Anyone who owned acacia wood for the work carried it in.

Skilled women spun with their own hands and brought the yarn they had made. Leaders brought lapis lazuli and other stones for setting, for the ephod and the breastpiece, and they also brought spices and oil for lighting, anointing oil, and aromatic incense.

Moses told the people that God had chosen Bezalel from the tribe of Judah and Oholiab from the tribe of Dan. God filled them with skill, ability, and knowledge for carving, designing, embroidering, and weaving, and they gathered other skilled workers to help.

Morning after morning the gifts kept coming, until the artisans told Moses, “The people are bringing more than is needed.” So Moses made a proclamation through the camp: no one should bring more. The people stopped, because there was already enough for all the work.

Now the building could begin. The skilled workers made the Tabernacle from ten cloth panels of fine twisted linen with blue, purple, and crimson yarns, weaving cherubim into the design. They joined the panels with loops and fifty gold clasps so the Tabernacle became “one whole.” Over it they placed eleven cloths of goats’ hair, fastened with copper clasps, and then coverings of tanned ram skins and dolphin skins.

They set upright planks of acacia wood into silver sockets and held them steady with bars, overlaying the wood with gold. They made a curtain and an entrance screen in bright embroidered colors.

Bezalel crafted the ark of acacia wood and overlaid it with pure gold, adding rings and poles for carrying. He made a pure-gold cover with two hammered cherubim. They also made the table with its gold utensils, the lampstand of hammered gold with seven lamps, and the incense altar with its poles. The sacred anointing oil and the aromatic incense were blended expertly.

Outside, they built the altar for burnt offering with copper tools, and a copper laver and stand. They set up the enclosure with fine linen hangings, posts, screens, cords, and copper pegs, until the holy space stood ready.