Study Desk

Aaron and all the people of Israel saw that Moses' face was shining bright. So they were afraid to go near him.

But Moses called to them. So Aaron and all the leaders of the people went to him. Moses talked with them.

The people would see that Moses' face was shining bright, so he would cover his face again. He kept his face covered until the next time he went in to speak with the Lord.

"So Bezalel, Oholiab, and all the other skilled men must do the work the Lord has commanded. The Lord has given these men the wisdom and understanding to do all the skilled work needed to build this holy place."

Then Moses sent this message throughout the camp: "No man or woman should make anything else as a gift for the holy place." So the people were forced to stop giving more.

Then they made 50 gold rings to join the two curtains together. So the Holy Tent was joined together into one piece.

They made the middle brace so that it passed through the frames from one end to the other.

He made a horn for each of the four corners of the altar. He joined each horn to its corner so that everything was one piece. He covered the altar with bronze.

All the men 20 years old or older were counted. Each man had to pay a tax of 1 beka of silver. (Using the official measure, 1 beka is 1/2 shekel.) There were 603,550 men. So they collected about 7550 pounds of silver.

So all the work on the Holy Tent, that is, the Meeting Tent, was finished. The Israelites did everything just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

Moses looked closely at all the work and saw that it was done exactly as the Lord had commanded. So Moses blessed them.

So the Holy Tent was set up at the right time. It was the first day of the first month during the second year from the time they left Egypt.

Then Moses set up the curtains around the courtyard of the Holy Tent. He put the altar in the courtyard. Then he put the curtain at the entrance to the courtyard. So he finished all the work.

So the cloud of the Lord was over the Holy Tent during the day, and at night there was a fire in the cloud. So all the Israelites could see the cloud while they traveled.

So the Lord called out to Moses from inside the Meeting Tent and said,

You must put your hand on the animal's head while it is being killed. So the Lord will accept it as your burnt offering to make you pure.

Then the priest will tear the bird open by its wings, but he must not divide it completely into two parts. So he will bring the bird to the altar to be offered as a burnt offering, a sweet-smelling gift to the Lord .

"Any male in a priest's family may eat the guilt offering. It is very holy, so it must be eaten in a holy place.

Then Moses took these things from the hands of Aaron and his sons and burned them on the altar on top of the burnt offering. So this was the offering for appointing Aaron and his sons as priests. It was a sweet-smelling gift to the Lord .

Then Moses said to Aaron and his sons, "I told you, ‘Aaron and his sons must eat these things.' So take the basket of bread and meat from the ceremony for appointing the priests. Boil that meat at the entrance of the Meeting Tent. Eat the meat and bread at that place. Do this as I told you.