How are the tabernacle’s coverings joined, and what does the inner veil divide?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The linen curtains are joined with gold rings, and the goats’ hair curtains with brass buckles, making one tabernacle and one covering. Inside, the veil divides the sanctuary from the holy of holies, with the ark of the testimony behind it.

Chapter breakdown

How are the tabernacle’s coverings joined, and what does the inner veil divide? The linen curtains are joined with gold rings, and the goats’ hair curtains with brass buckles, making one tabernacle and one covering. Inside, the veil divides the sanctuary from the holy of holies, with the ark of the testimony behind it.

The tabernacle is to have ten curtains of fine twisted linen, violet and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, decorated with embroidery. Each measures twenty-eight cubits long and four cubits wide; all have the same measure. Five are joined together, and the other five are joined in the same way. Violet loops go in the curtains’ sides and tops. Every curtain has fifty loops on both sides, opposite one another so they fit together. Fifty gold rings join the veils of the curtains to make one tabernacle.

Eleven goats’ hair curtains cover the top. Each is thirty cubits long and four wide, all of equal measure. Five are joined as one group and the other six as another, with the sixth curtain doubled at the front of the roof. Fifty loops go on the joining edge of one curtain and fifty on the other’s edge. Fifty brass buckles join the loops, making all of them one covering.

Half of the extra roof curtain covers the tabernacle’s back parts. The extra length hangs down one cubit on each side, enclosing both sides. Another roof covering is made of rams’ skins dyed red, with a covering of violet-coloured skins above it.

The upright boards are setim wood, each ten cubits long and one and a half wide. Two mortises are made in the boards’ sides to join one board to another; all the boards are prepared this way. Twenty boards stand on the south side, with forty cast silver sockets, two beneath each board at its two corners. The north side also has twenty boards and forty silver sockets, two beneath each board.

The west side has six boards and two more at the back corners. They are joined from bottom to top, with one joint holding them all; the same joining is used for the two corner boards. There are eight boards in all at the back, with sixteen silver sockets, two for each board.

Five setim bars hold together the boards on one side, five on the other side and five on the west. They run along the middle of the boards from one end to the other. The boards are covered with gold. Cast gold rings on them hold the bars that join the boardwork; the bars are covered with gold plates. The tabernacle is to be erected according to the pattern shown Moses on the mountain.

The inner veil is violet, purple, scarlet twice dyed and fine twisted linen, with embroidered work and beautiful variety. It hangs before four setim pillars covered with gold, with gold heads and silver sockets. Rings hang the veil. The ark of the testimony goes within it, and the veil divides the sanctuary from the holy of holies.

Challoner’s note calls the part outside the veil the sanctuary or holy place, where the priests enter daily. The part inside is the holy of holies: only the high priest enters, and only once a year. The note explains the name literally as “the sanctuary of the sanctuaries,” because it is the most holy of all holy places.

The propitiatory is set upon the ark of the testimony in the holy of holies. Outside the veil, the table stands on the north side and the candlestick opposite it on the south. The entrance has a hanging of violet, purple, scarlet twice dyed and fine twisted linen with embroidery. Five setim pillars covered with gold stand before this hanging, which is drawn before them. Their heads are gold and their sockets brass.

The story inside

The chapter gives construction commands, proceeding from the coverings to the frame and inner division. Ten embroidered linen curtains form two groups of five, joined by loops and gold rings. Eleven goats’ hair curtains form groups of five and six, joined by loops and brass buckles, with the sixth doubled in front, half the extra curtain at the back and a cubit of extra length down each side. Red rams’ skins and violet skins cover the roof. Upright setim boards have side mortises, silver sockets and the stated south, north, west and corner arrangement. Bars, gold rings and gold coverings hold the boardwork together, following the pattern shown on the mountain. The inner veil hangs before four pillars and divides the two holy places, with the ark and propitiatory inside and the table and candlestick outside on their named sides. Challoner separately explains the daily priestly entry outside and the high priest’s yearly entry inside. The entrance hanging has five pillars and brass sockets, distinct from the inner veil’s four pillars and silver sockets. (Exodus 26:1–37.)

Lessons worth keeping

1
The two curtain sets use different numbers and joins. Ten linen curtains, twenty-eight by four cubits, use fifty gold rings; eleven goats’ hair curtains, thirty by four, use fifty brass buckles. The latter also have the front doubling and stated back and side overhangs. (26:1–14.)
2
The frame keeps the stated board and socket arrangement. South and north each have twenty boards and forty silver sockets. The six west boards and two back corner boards total eight, with sixteen sockets. The mortises are in the boards’ sides, and the bars run along their middle from end to end. (26:15–29.)
3
The inner veil and entrance hanging differ. The veil divides the sanctuary from the holy of holies and hangs before four pillars with silver sockets. The entrance hanging has five pillars with brass sockets. The ark’s placement and the table and candlestick’s sides complete that arrangement. (26:31–37.)

Test your recall

Why are the linen curtains joined with fifty gold rings? To make one tabernacle. What joins the goats’ hair loops into one covering? Fifty brass buckles. What accounts for the eight boards at the back? Six west boards and two back corner boards. What does the inner veil divide? The sanctuary and the holy of holies, with the ark within it. Where do the table and candlestick stand? Outside the veil, table north and candlestick south. How does Challoner distinguish entry into the two places?

Show answer

Priests enter the outer place daily; only the high priest enters the inner place, once a year. (26:6, 11, 22–25, 33–35 and the note on verse 33.)

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 8754–8757
Exodus Chapter 26 The form of the tabernacle with its appurtenances.
Lines 8758–8777
26:1. And thou shalt make the tabernacle in this manner: Thou shalt make ten curtains of fine twisted linen, and violet and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, diversified with embroidery. 26:2. The length of one curtain shall be twenty-eight cubits; the breadth shall be four cubits. All the curtains shall be of one measure. 26:3. Five curtains shall be joined one to another, and the other five shall be coupled together in like manner. 26:4. Thou shalt make loops of violet in the sides and tops of the curtains, that they may be joined one to another. 26:5. Every curtain shall have fifty loops on both sides, so set on, that one loop may be against another loop, and one may be fitted to the other. 26:6. Thou shalt make also fifty rings of gold, wherewith the veils of the curtains are to be joined, that it may be made one tabernacle.
Lines 8778–8794
26:7. Thou shalt make also eleven curtains of goats’ hair, to cover the top of the tabernacle. 26:8. The length of one hair-curtain shall be thirty cubits; and the breadth, four: the measure of all the curtains shall be equal. 26:9. Five of which thou shalt couple by themselves, and the six others thou shalt couple one to another, so as to double the sixth curtain in the front of the roof. 26:10. Thou shalt make also fifty loops in the edge of one curtain, that it may be joined with the other: and fifty loops in the edge of the other curtain, that it may be coupled with its fellow. 26:11. Thou shalt make also fifty buckles of brass, wherewith the loops may be joined, that of all there may be made one covering.
Lines 8795–8805
26:12. And that which shall remain of the curtains, that are prepared for the roof, to wit, one curtain that is over and above, with the half thereof thou shalt cover the back parts of the tabernacle. 26:13. And there shall hang down a cubit on the one side, and another on the other side, which is over and above in the length of the curtains, fencing both sides of the tabernacle. 26:14. Thou shalt make also another cover to the roof of rams’ skins dyed red: and over that again another cover of violet coloured skins.
Lines 8806–8826
26:15. Thou shalt make also the boards of the tabernacle standing upright of setim wood. 26:16. Let every one of them be ten cubits in length, and in breadth one cubit and a half. 26:17. In the sides of the boards shall be made two mortises, whereby one board may be joined to another board: and after this manner shall all the boards be prepared. 26:18. Of which twenty shall be in the south side southward. 26:19. For which thou shalt cast forty sockets of silver, that under every board may be put two sockets at the two corners. 26:20. In the second side also of the tabernacle that looketh to the north, there shall be twenty boards, 26:21. Having forty sockets of silver, two sockets shall be put under each board.
Lines 8827–8839
26:22. But on the west side of the tabernacle thou shalt make six boards. 26:23. And again other two which shall be erected in the corners at the back of the tabernacle. 26:24. And they shall be joined together from beneath unto the top, and one joint shall hold them all. The like joining shall be observed for the two boards also that are to be put in the corners. 26:25. And they shall be in all eight boards, and their silver sockets sixteen, reckoning two sockets for each board.
Lines 8840–8855
26:26. Thou shalt make also five bars of setim wood, to hold together the boards on one side of the tabernacle. 26:27. And five others on the other side, and as many at the west side: 26:28. And they shall be put along by the midst of the boards, from one end to the other. 26:29. The boards also themselves thou shalt overlay with gold, and shalt cast rings of gold to be set upon them, for places for the bars to hold together the boardwork: which bars thou shalt cover with plates of gold. 26:30. And thou shalt rear up the tabernacle according to the pattern that was shewn thee in the mount.
Lines 8856–8867
26:31. Thou shalt make also a veil of violet, and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, and fine twisted linen, wrought with embroidered work and goodly variety: 26:32. And thou shalt hang it up before four pillars of setim wood, which themselves also shall be overlaid with gold, and shall have heads of gold, but sockets of silver. 26:33. And the veil shall be hanged on with rings, and within it thou shalt put the ark of the testimony, and the sanctuary and the holy of the holies shall be divided with it.
Lines 8868–8874
The sanctuary, etc.... That part of the tabernacle, which was without the veil, into which the priests daily entered, is here called the sanctuary, or holy place; that part which was within the veil, into which no one but the high priest ever went, and he but once a year, is called the holy of holies, (literally, the sanctuary of the sanctuaries,) as being the most holy of all holy places.
Lines 8875–8890
26:34. And thou shalt set the propitiatory upon the ark of the testimony, in the holy of holies. 26:35. And the table without the veil, and over against the table the candlestick in the south side of the tabernacle: for the table shall stand in the north side. 26:36. Thou shalt make also a hanging in the entrance of the tabernacle of violet, and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, and fine twisted linen with embroidered work. 26:37. And thou shalt overlay with gold five pillars of setim wood, before which the hanging shall be drawn: their heads shall be of gold, and the sockets of brass.