Exodus 25

₁The Lord said to Moses: ₂‘You must talk to the Israelites and tell them they must all bring an offering to Me. Each person must decide what he wants to give Me and you must accept his offering. ₃Here is a list of offerings that people may give and that you may accept. You may accept gold, silver, bronze, ₄material made of blue wool, linen or goat hair, which may be purple or red. ₅They may also bring sheepskins that they have made red, or soft animal skins, acacia wood, ₆olive oil for the lamps, balm for the anointing-oil and for incense, ₇onyx and other gemstones for the shoulder-cloth and breast-piece of the priest.

₈You must make a tent of the Lord for Me where I can live among you. ₉I will show you how you must build the tent of the Lord and everything that must be in it. You must make it like I will show you. It must be the same.’

₁₀The Lord said to Moses: ‘You must make a covenant box from acacia wood. It must be 2 and a half cubits long, one and a half cubits wide and one and a half cubits high. ₁₁You must cover it with pure gold on the inside and outside and then you must make a rim from gold around all the sides of the covenant box. ₁₂You must make 4 golden rings to carry the box and fasten them to the 4 corners at the bottom of the covenant box. There must be 2 rings on one side and 2 rings on the other side. ₁₃Take acacia wood and make 2 carrying poles to carry the covenant box and also cover the carrying poles with gold. ₁₄You must put the carrying poles in the rings on the sides of the covenant box and then you must always carry the covenant box with the carrying poles. ₁₅The carrying poles must always stay in the rings of the covenant box. You may never take them out of the rings. ₁₆I will give you the 10 commandments that you must put into the covenant box.

₁₇You must make a lid for the box from pure gold. It must be 2 and a half cubits long and one and a half cubits wide. ₁₈Then you must make the images of 2 cherub-angels from gold. You must put the cherub-angels on the 2 sides of the lid. ₁₉One cherub-angel must be on one side of the lid and the other cherub-angel on the other side. You must make the cherub-angels and the lid from one piece of gold. ₂₀The wings of the cherub-angels must be open. They must be over the lid. Their faces must look at each other and their eyes must look at the lid. ₂₁You must put the 10 commandments that I will give you inside the box, and then you must put the lid on the covenant box. ₂₂When I want to say something to you, I will appear to you here. I will be above the lid, between the 2 cherub-angels on the covenant box, where the 10 commandments are. There I will talk to you and tell you everything that you have to say to the Israelites.’

₂₃The Lord said to Moses: ‘You must make a table from acacia wood. It must be 2 cubits long, one cubit wide and one and half a cubits high. ₂₄You must cover it with pure gold and you must put a rim of gold around the sides of the table. ₂₅You must fasten the rim around the sides of the table. The rim must be one handbreadth wide and on its sides you must put another smaller rim of gold. ₂₆Make 4 golden rings and fasten the rings at the bottom of the 4 corners of the table, one ring at each table leg. ₂₇The rings must be near the sides of the table so that you can put carrying poles through the rings to carry the table. ₂₈You must make the carrying poles from acacia wood and cover them with gold. Always carry the table with these carrying poles. ₂₉You must also make plates, pots, pans and bowls to pour out the drink-offerings over the altar. You must use pure gold to make all of this. ₃₀You must always put sacrificial bread down for Me on this table.’

₃₁The Lord said to Moses: ‘You must make a lamp-stand from one piece of pure gold. Use a hammer to make it. It must have a stand, a main stem, flowers and flower-buds. ₃₂The lamp-stand must have 6 branches, 3 branches on one side and 3 branches on the other side. ₃₃There must be 3 flowers on each branch. They must look like the flowers and flower-buds of an almond tree. Some of the flowers must be open and some must not be open. ₃₄There must be 4 flowers on the trunk. They must also look like the flowers and flower-buds of an almond tree. ₃₅Where the 2 arms of the lamp-stand come together, there must be a flower and a flower-bud that has not opened yet. ₃₆You must make all these flowers, flower-buds and branches with a hammer. Make it from one piece of gold. ₃₇You must make 7 lamps and put them on the lamp-stand so that the light will shine in front of the lamp-stand. ₃₈You must make the lamps and the lamp-snuffers from pure gold. ₃₉Use one talent of pure gold to make it all. ₄₀You must make it exactly as I have shown you on the mountain.’