What is made for the court, and how are the sanctuary materials counted and used?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The account describes the holocaust altar, washing basin, court hangings, pillars and pins. The tabernacle’s instruments are counted at Moses’ command by Ithamar in the Levites’ ceremonies, and the closing totals name the gold, silver and brass and the stated uses of the silver and brass.

Chapter breakdown

What is made for the court, and how are the sanctuary materials counted and used? The account describes the holocaust altar, washing basin, court hangings, pillars and pins. The tabernacle’s instruments are counted at Moses’ command by Ithamar in the Levites’ ceremonies, and the closing totals name the gold, silver and brass and the stated uses of the silver and brass.

The holocaust altar is setim wood, five cubits square and three high. Horns project from its corners, and it is covered with brass plates. Its brass vessels are cauldrons, tongs, fleshhooks, pothooks and firepans. The brass grate is net-like, with a hearth beneath it in the middle of the altar. Four rings are cast at the net’s four ends at the top, to receive carrying bars. The setim bars are covered with brass plates and pass through rings projecting from the altar’s sides. The altar is not solid: it is made of boards, hollow and empty inside.

The brass washing basin and its foot are made from the mirrors of the women who watched at the tabernacle door.

The south court has one-hundred-cubit hangings of fine twisted linen, twenty brass pillars with their sockets, and silver pillar heads and engraving. The north hangings, pillars, sockets and heads have the same measure, work and metal. The west has fifty-cubit hangings and ten brass pillars with sockets; their heads and all engraving are silver.

The east has fifty-cubit hangings: fifteen on one side with three pillars and sockets, and fifteen on the other with three pillars and three sockets, with the entry between them. All the court hangings are woven of twisted linen. The pillars’ sockets are brass, their heads and all engraving silver, and the court’s pillars are also covered with silver.

The embroidered entry hanging is violet, purple, scarlet and fine twisted linen, twenty cubits long and five high, matching the measure of the court hangings. The entrance has four pillars with brass sockets and silver heads and engraving. The pins of the tabernacle and surrounding court are brass.

The tabernacle of the testimony’s instruments are counted at Moses’ command, in the ceremonies of the Levites, by Ithamar, son of Aaron the priest. Beseleel, son of Uri, son of Hur, of Juda’s tribe, made them as the Lord commanded through Moses. His companion Ooliab, son of Achisamech of Dan’s tribe, is an excellent woodworker and worker in tapestry and embroidery in violet, purple, scarlet and fine linen.

All gold spent on the sanctuary work and offered in gifts totals twenty-nine talents and seven hundred and thirty sicles by the sanctuary standard. The next verse says it was offered by those numbered from twenty years upward: six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty men able to bear arms. This wording is retained without substituting a different metal into that verse.

There are also one hundred talents of silver, cast into the sockets of the sanctuary and the entrance where the veil hangs. One hundred sockets are made from those one hundred talents, one talent per socket. Verse 28 says that of “the thousand seven hundred and seventy-five” he makes the pillar heads and covers the pillars with silver. The number is retained without supplying a unit that this verse leaves unstated.

The brass offered totals seventy-two thousand talents and four hundred sicles besides. It is used to cast the entrance sockets of the tabernacle of the testimony, the brass altar and grate and its service vessels, the court sockets around it and at its entrance, and the pins of the tabernacle and surrounding court. The stated total is preserved without correcting it to another reading.

The story inside

The chapter first records the altar’s making, including its hollow board construction, brass grate, hearth beneath the grate, rings and carrying bars. The washing basin and foot are made from the watching women’s mirrors. The court description then follows each side and its fittings, the embroidered entrance and brass pins. The account turns to the instruments counted at Moses’ command by Ithamar, naming Beseleel’s family and tribe and Ooliab’s family, tribe and skills. The closing tally gives the gold total, the numbered men and their stated age and ability to bear arms, then the silver sockets and pillar work, and finally the brass total and its uses. The unusual brass total and the unstated unit in verse 28 remain as printed; no outside census rate, corrected total or symbolic interpretation is supplied. (Exodus 38:1–31.)

Lessons worth keeping

1
The altar’s parts retain their actual arrangement. The net-like grate is brass, with the hearth beneath it in the middle; rings at the net’s four ends at the top receive carrying bars. The altar is hollow and empty, but the chapter gives no heat-resistance or transport-weight explanation. (38:1–7.)
2
The court description includes more than pillar heads. Sockets are brass, heads and engraving silver, and the court pillars also have silver covering. The entry hanging’s five-cubit height matches the court hangings’ measure. (38:9–20.)
3
The tally states amounts and uses. One hundred silver talents make one hundred sockets, one talent each; the following number is preserved as printed without an added unit. The brass figure is seventy-two thousand talents and four hundred sicles, followed by the named sockets, altar, vessels and pins. (38:26–31.)

Test your recall

What receives the altar’s carrying bars? Rings at the four ends of the net at the top. From what are the basin and foot made? The watching women’s mirrors. Who counts the instruments at Moses’ command? Ithamar, son of Aaron the priest, in the Levites’ ceremonies. What qualification accompanies the 603,550 men? They are numbered from twenty upward and able to bear arms. How much silver is reckoned for each of the hundred sockets? One talent. Which objects receive the brass?

Show answer

The named entrance and court sockets, altar, grate, service vessels and pins. (38:5–8, 21, 25–31.)

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 10253–10257
Exodus Chapter 38 He maketh the altar of holocaust. The brazen laver. The court with its pillars and hangings. The sum of what the people offered.
Lines 10258–10279
38:1. He made also the altar of holocaust of setim wood, five cubits square, and three in height: 38:2. The horns whereof went out from the corners, and he overlaid it with plates of brass. 38:3. And for the uses thereof, he prepared divers vessels of brass, cauldrons, tongs, fleshhooks, pothooks and firepans. 38:4. And he made the grate thereof of brass, in manner of a net, and under it in the midst of the altar a hearth, 38:5. Casting four rings at the four ends of the net at the top, to put in bars to carry it: 38:6. And he made the bars of setim wood, and overlaid them with plates of brass: 38:7. And he drew them through the rings that stood out in the sides of the altar. And the altar itself was not solid, but hollow, of boards, and empty within.
Lines 10280–10282
38:8. He made also the laver of brass, with the foot thereof, of the mirrors of the women that watched at the door of the tabernacle.
Lines 10283–10296
38:9. He made also the court, in the south side whereof were hangings of fine twisted linen of a hundred cubits. 38:10. Twenty pillars of brass with their sockets, the heads of the pillars, and the whole graving of the work, of silver. 38:11. In like manner at the north side the hangings, the pillars, and the sockets and heads of the pillars were of the same measure, and work and metal. 38:12. But on that side that looketh to the west, there were hangings of fifty cubits, ten pillars of brass with their sockets, and the heads of the pillars, and all the graving of the work, of silver.
Lines 10297–10311
38:13. Moreover, towards the east he prepared hangings of fifty cubits: 38:14. Fifteen cubits of which, were on one side with three pillars, and their sockets: 38:15. And on the other side (for between the two he made the entry of the tabernacle) there were hangings equally of fifteen cubits, and three pillars, and as many sockets. 38:16. All the hangings of the court were woven with twisted linen. 38:17. The sockets of the pillars were of brass, and their heads with all their gravings of silver: and he overlaid the pillars of the court also with silver.
Lines 10312–10322
38:18. And he made in the entry thereof an embroidered hanging of violet, purple, scarlet, and fine twisted linen, that was twenty cubits long, and five cubits high, according to the measure of all the hangings of the court. 38:19. And the pillars in the entry were four, with sockets of brass, and their heads and gravings of silver. 38:20. The pins also of the tabernacle and of the court round about he made of brass.
Lines 10323–10334
38:21. These are the instruments of the tabernacle of the testimony, which were counted according to the commandment of Moses, in the ceremonies of the Levites, by the hand of Ithamar, son of Aaron the priest: 38:22. Which Beseleel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur of the tribe of Juda, had made, as the Lord commanded by Moses. 38:23. Having for his companion Ooliab, the son of Achisamech, of the tribe of Dan: who also was an excellent artificer in wood, and worker in tapestry and embroidery in violet, purple, scarlet, and fine linen.
Lines 10335–10342
38:24. All the gold that was spent in the work of the sanctuary, and that was offered in gifts, was nine and twenty talents, and seven hundred and thirty sicles according to the standard of the sanctuary. 38:25. And it was offered by them that went to be numbered, from twenty years old and upwards, of six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty men able to bear arms.
Lines 10343–10352
38:26. There were moreover a hundred talents of silver, whereof were cast the sockets of the sanctuary, and of the entry where the veil hangeth. 38:27. A hundred sockets were made of a hundred talents, one talent being reckoned for every socket. 38:28. And of the thousand seven hundred and seventy-five he made the heads of the pillars, which also he overlaid with silver.
Lines 10353–10363
38:29. And there were offered of brass also seventy-two thousand talents, and four hundred sicles besides, 38:30. Of which were cast the sockets in the entry of the tabernacle of the testimony, and the altar of brass with the grate thereof, and also the vessels that belong to the use thereof. 38:31. And the sockets of the court as well round about as in the entry thereof, and the pins of the tabernacle, and of the court round about.