Exodus35chapter 35

Exodus 35:4-9

The offering is asked of whosoever is of a willing heart, with no rate set and no man named. The materials are the goods of Egypt, which Exodus 12:35-36 says the people asked for and were given on the night they left, and which Genesis 15:14 had promised when it said they would come out with great substance. The list runs from gold down to badgers' skins in the same graded order the finished structure keeps, precious metal innermost and plain hide outside.

Take from among you an offering: The call repeats 25:2, where the LORD asked for an offering from each person whose heart moved him. Adam Clarke identifies the word for offering as terumah, the heave offering. Moses now puts that request to the people.

blue, purple, and scarlet yarn: The yarns and linen repeat 25:4 in the same order. Adam Clarke refers these colours back to his notes on that verse. Verse 25 has the skilled women spin these same threads, and 36:8 weaves them into the curtains with cherubim.

ram skins dyed red: These three materials repeat 25:5. The skins become the two outer coverings of 36:19, the ram skins dyed red and the fine leather laid over them. John Gill notes that the ark and its poles were made of the acacia wood, and 36:20 begins the frames from it.

olive oil for the light: The oil and spices repeat 25:6. Exodus 27:20 asks for pure oil of pressed olives to keep the lamps burning, and 30:22-38 gives the recipes for the anointing oil and the incense. John Gill notes that these were goods brought out of Egypt.

onyx stones and gemstones: The list closes as 25:7 closed it, with stones for the high priest's dress. The breastpiece of 28:15-21 holds twelve gemstones in four rows, each engraved with the name of a tribe. Exodus 39:10-14 records them set.

Exodus 35:10-14

Skill is described here as wisdom, and the phrase governs the chapter, falling on the workmen at verse 10, on the women at verse 25, and on the two named masters at verse 35 where it reads wisdom of heart. The word wisdom first occurs in Scripture at Exodus 28:3, where it is given to craftsmen making priestly garments, before any king is said to have it. The inventory begins with the tabernacle and its boards, where chapter 25 began with the ark, so this is the order a builder works in rather than the order God spoke in.

the tabernacle with its tent and covering: The three words name three layers of chapter 26. The tabernacle is the linen of 26:1, the tent is the goat hair laid over it at 26:7, and Albert Barnes identifies the covering with the skins of 26:14. Exodus 36:8-19 makes them in that order.

the ark with its poles and mercy seat: The ark and its mercy seat are made at 37:1-9. The veil to shield it is the curtain of 26:31-33, hung to separate the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place. John Gill notes that the ark and the mercy seat stood behind it, in the most holy place.

the Bread of the Presence: The table with its poles and utensils is listed with the Bread of the Presence it was made to hold. John Gill notes that the bread was made later and by other hands, and he reads the phrase as the dishes that held it. Leviticus 24:5-9 orders twelve loaves set out every Sabbath day.

the lampstand for light: The lampstand is named with its accessories, which John Gill takes as the tongs and trays of 25:38. Its lamps and their oil appear together, and 27:21 has Aaron and his sons tend them from evening until morning. Exodus 37:17-24 records the making.

Exodus 35:15-19

The list ends at the cloths of service and the holy garments for Aaron the priest and his sons, so the last thing to be made is what a man wears to minister. Aaron is named in his office three chapters after he took the people's gold and made the calf at 32:2-4, and the text sets the two down without a word between them. Exodus 28:3 had already assigned those garments to the wise hearted, which is the same class of workman this chapter has been calling for.

the altar of burnt offering: The bronze altar of 27:1-8 and the basin of 30:17-21 are the two pieces that stood in the courtyard. John Gill passes on Aben Ezra's remark that the basin is given no poles, and his guess that it travelled by wagon. Exodus 38:1-8 records both made.

the curtains of the courtyard: The courtyard hangings are the linen fence of 27:9-18, a hundred cubits on the long sides and fifty at the ends. John Gill notes that the posts stood in bases and carried the hangings. The gate curtain is the one of 27:16.

the tent pegs for the tabernacle: The tent pegs and their ropes are the smallest items on the list, and 27:19 orders every peg made of bronze. John Gill reports Jarchi's view that they held the tabernacle and courtyard curtains fast against the wind. Exodus 38:20 records them made.

the woven garments for ministering: Adam Clarke takes the woven garments as cloths for common service, John Gill as wraps for the vessels on the march or the priests' own dress, and Albert Barnes as garments of office. Exodus 39:1 makes them from blue, purple and scarlet yarn.

Exodus 35:20-22

They go back to their tents and return carrying bracelets, earrings, rings and tablets of gold. Exodus 32:2-3 has the same people breaking off the same golden earrings and handing them to Aaron, and what came out of that was a calf. The metal is the same metal and the giving is as ready in both places, and this chapter records the second occasion without mentioning the first. The text says the heart stirred him up and the spirit made him willing, and it uses no word of compulsion anywhere in the chapter.

whose spirit prompted him: Adam Clarke reads the heart that stirred him as a heart lifted up, set on the work for the Tent of Meeting. Matthew Henry notes that they came and brought their offering at once, taking no time to think it over. The call of verse 5 was to the willing heart.

both men and women: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown render the Hebrew as the men in addition to the women, and they take it that the women brought their gold first. Without coined money, wealth was worn as jewelry. Albert Barnes names the pieces as brooches, earrings, signet rings and armlets of gold.

Exodus 35:23-24

Giving is measured by what a man happened to have, since the phrase with whom was found governs both verses. Silver stands in this freewill list, and Exodus 30:11-16 had already levied silver at a fixed half shekel from every man numbered. Exodus 38:27-28 keeps the two apart in the finished work, the hundred talents of levied atonement money cast into the hundred sockets that carry the frame, and the freewill remainder made into hooks and fillets for the pillars.

everyone who had acacia wood: Acacia wood is the timber of every wooden piece in the sanctuary. It went into the frames, the ark, the table, both altars and every carrying pole. Exodus 36:20 begins that work with the frames.

Exodus 35:25-26

The women's work is recorded twice and by its craft, spinning the blue and purple and scarlet and fine linen, then spinning goats' hair. Those are the two innermost coverings of chapter 26, the linen curtains worked with cherubims and the tent of goats' hair laid over them, so the fabric of the dwelling place came off their distaffs. The same wise hearted that verse 10 used of the workmen is used of them.

spun the goat hair: Matthew Henry notes that goat hair was coarse work beside the dyed yarn, yet the women who spun it are credited with wisdom in the same terms as the rest. Adam Clarke says the spinning needed only a plain distaff.

Exodus 35:27-29

The rulers come last in the account and what they bring is the stone for the ephod and the breastplate. Exodus 28:9-12 engraves those two onyx stones with the names of the children of Israel and sets them on the high priest's shoulders for a memorial, so the men who head the tribes supply the stones that will carry the tribes' names before the LORD. The paragraph closes by calling the whole of it a willing offering and by putting it back under what the LORD had commanded by the hand of Moses.

spices and olive oil: John Gill notes that these were costly spices and pure olive oil, such as the common people lacked. The leaders of verse 27 brought them with the onyx stones. The spices went into the anointing oil and the fragrant incense of 30:23 to 34.

a freewill offering to the LORD: Matthew Henry names four springs of the gift: love for God and his service, desire for his presence, gratitude for what he had done, and faith in what he promised. The second answers 25:8. There the sanctuary is made so that the LORD may dwell among his people.

Exodus 35:30-33

Moses reports a calling rather than making an appointment, and the man is called by name. Exodus 31:3 said the same of him, and it is the first place in Scripture a person is said to be filled with the Spirit of God, given for working metal, cutting stone and carving wood. The Hur named as his grandfather carries the name of the man who held up Moses' hands at Rephidim in 17:12 and was left over the people with Aaron at 24:14, and the older commentators take them for one man.

filled him with the Spirit of God: John Gill notes that these gifts are listed in the same words as 31:3. Matthew Henry and John Wesley compare the apostles, filled with the Spirit as master builders of the church. An extraordinary work was given an extraordinary gift.

to design artistic works: Albert Barnes renders the phrase as works of skill, the planning of designs. Bezalel's gift covers the design as well as the hand's work in gold, silver and bronze. The same three metals head the offering list at verse 5.

to cut gemstones for settings: The stones he cut were the onyx and the gemstones the rulers brought at verse 27. The wood he carved was the acacia of verse 24. John Gill notes that this account of his gifts repeats 31:3-5 in the same words.

Exodus 35:34-35

The gift carries an instruction to teach it, so the skill is meant to leave the two men who hold it. Bezaleel is of Judah and Aholiab of Dan, and Numbers 10:14 and 10:25 set those two tribes at the head and at the rear of the whole march. The closing verse names the trades one by one, engraver, cunning workman, embroiderer and weaver, and says God filled them for all of it.

engravers, designers, embroiderers: Albert Barnes explains the engraver as a cutter, a general name for any craftsman, and the designer as the skilled weaver, literally the reckoner. He reads this verse as the first clear division of Oholiab's share into its trades. Exodus 38:23 names Oholiab by these trades.