Exoduschapter 38
31 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th or 13th century BC · The Law
And the hanging for the gate of the court was needlework, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen: and twenty cubits was the length, and the height in the breadth was five cubits, answerable to the hangings of the court.
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Exodus Overview.
This chapter moves outside the tent to the altar and the courtyard, the part of God's dwelling an ordinary Israelite could enter. The work is nearly done, and the chapter closes by opening the books on it. It was first heard by a people who had given their silver and gold and had every right to ask where it went. Listen for the gift of the serving women and what it became. Notice who kept the accounts and how the silver was raised. The chapter shows that holy work can be counted and checked.
Context
- Who
- Israel in the wilderness, given a public reckoning of what they had given
- What
- The making of the bronze altar, the basin and the courtyard, and a public account of the metals used in the whole work.
- Where
- The courtyard around the tent, a hundred cubits by fifty, in the camp at the foot of Mount Sinai.
- When
- About 1446 BC on the traditional early date, with a thirteenth-century date also held, in the months of the building.
- Why
- To finish the outer court where the people met God and to give the nation a full reckoning of what it had given.
Historical context
Bezalel is named again at verse 22 as the maker with Oholiab beside him, and the inventory at the end is recorded by the Levites under Ithamar son of Aaron the priest. It falls in the months of the building, in the first year after the exodus. The place is the camp at the foot of Sinai, and the chapter's subject is the courtyard around the tent, a hundred cubits by fifty.
Show the rest of the historical context, 2 more paragraphs
The occasion is the finishing of the outdoor work, followed by a public accounting of every metal that went into the structure.
A first hearer knew what the mirrors of verse 8 were, since Egyptian mirrors were polished bronze discs with ornamented handles and were personal possessions of real value. A first hearer also knew that itemised building accounts were the kind of document ancient administrations kept, and the totals here are given by talent and shekel. The silver came in on different terms from the gold, because 30:12 to 30:16 had levied it at half a shekel from every man numbered and called it a ransom for his life. The census figure of 603,550 at verse 26 is the figure Numbers 1:46 reports about a year later. How it should be read is one of the four debated points the Exodus dossier already carries.
Significance
The books were opened. Nobody in Israel had to wonder where the offering went, because the totals were published and the silver could be checked against the head count.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The mirrors are worth pausing on. Women gave up the objects they had used to look at themselves, and the priests washed in what was made from them.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
The chapter finishes the court and then counts what the whole tabernacle cost, and it carries the best known midrash in the building span. The laver was made from the copper mirrors the women brought. Rashi reports that Moses meant to refuse them, since they had been made for adorning the face. God told him to take them, "these are dearer to Me than all the other contributions, because through them the women reared those huge hosts in Egypt" (Rashi on Exodus 38:8:1). On the opening words of the accounting he reads the doubled word for the tabernacle as a hint of a pledge. The Temple was taken twice as a security for Israel's repentance, by being twice destroyed (Rashi on Exodus 38:21:2, citing Midrash Tanchuma, Pekudei 5). The name tabernacle of the testimony he reads as testimony about the golden calf, since God let his presence dwell among them after it (Rashi on Exodus 38:21:3, citing Midrash Tanchuma, Pekudei 6). The praise of Bezalel in the twenty second verse rests on a difference in wording. The text says he made all that the Lord commanded Moses. Rashi takes this to mean that Bezalel's own judgment matched what Moses had been told on Sinai (Rashi on Exodus 38:22:1, citing Jerusalem Talmud Peah 1:1 and Bereishit Rabbah 1:14). He then works the arithmetic of the silver, with the sanctuary talent at three thousand shekels and the half shekels of six hundred thousand men making a hundred talents (Rashi on Exodus 38:24:1 and 38:26:2). Those hundred talents cast the hundred sockets of the boards and the veil (Rashi on Exodus 38:27:2). Rashi is quoted from the Rosenbaum and Silbermann edition of 1929 to 1934, public domain. Ibn Ezra comments at seven places from Exodus 38:8:1 to 38:29:1, and Malbim at Exodus 38:25:1 and 38:29:1, all cited by reference.
What the rabbis say
The corpus records forty places where the Midrash and the Talmud draw on this chapter, cited here by reference. The weights and the counting are read in Bekhorot at 5a:10, 5a:11, 5a:13, 5a:15 and 5a:18. The Jerusalem Talmud reads them at Shabbat 1:1:19, Sukkah 1:1:6, Challah 4:4:17 and Taanit 2:2:7. The altar and the court are read in Zevachim at 59b:10, 60a:1 and 62a:12, and in Eruvin at 2b:2. The mirrors of the women are read at Bamidbar Rabbah 9:14, the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Pischa 16:35 and Midrash Aggadah, Numbers 5:17:1. Midrash Tanchuma carries the chapter at Terumah 8:2, 10:3 and 10:4, at Pekudei 3:18 and at Vayera 1:2. The Otzar Midrashim collections read the court at Baraita of Melechet HaMishkan 1:20 and 1:23, and at Sefer Tagin 5:202. Bamidbar Rabbah reads the accounting at 1:10, 6:3, 12:8, 13:19 and 20:7. Arakhin 16b:20 and Pesikta Rabbati 10:1 read the craftsmen and the screen.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Exodus 38:7 to 38:28, the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, public domain, 1040 to 1105; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Exodus 38:8:1, 38:12:1, 38:22:1, 38:24:1, 38:25:1, 38:28:1 and 38:29:1, cited by reference, CC-BY-NC, 1089 to 1164; Malbim, Malbim on Exodus 38:25:1 and 38:29:1, cited by reference, no English version in the corpus; Midrash Tanchuma, Pekudei 5 and 6, as Rashi cites them, and Terumah 10:3 and 10:4 cited by reference; Jerusalem Talmud, Peah 1:1, as Rashi cites it, and Shabbat 1:1:19, Sukkah 1:1:6 and Taanit 2:2:7, cited by reference; Babylonian Talmud, Bekhorot 5a:10 to 5a:18, Zevachim 59b:10 and Arakhin 16b:20, cited by reference; Bereishit Rabbah, 1:14, as Rashi cites it; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/exodus/38.json, fetched 2026-09-19, 2026; MannaFest, the commentators and their dates, src/app/featured/the-jewish-writings/page.tsx, 2026.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
The Altar and the Bronze Basin
Exodus 38:1-2
The courtyard altar is the one piece of furniture an ordinary Israelite could come near, and it is overlaid with bronze. Its horns are of one piece with the altar, and 29:12 puts the blood of the sin offering on them. At 1 Kings 1:50 and 2:28 a man in fear takes hold of the horns of the altar, a use Exodus never describes.
Exodus 38:1
“On this all their sacrifices were offered, and it was this which, being sanctified itself for this purpose by the divine appointment, sanctified the gift that was in faith offered on it. Christ was himself the altar to his own sacrifice of atonement, and so he is to all our sacrifices of acknowledgment.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Exodus 27:2 gave this same order, horns of one piece with the altar and bronze laid over the acacia wood. John Gill sends the reader back to Exodus 27:1-8 for each part of this altar. Matthew Henry notes that every sacrifice was offered on it.
Exodus 38:3-7
The altar is hollow with boards rather than solid, and it carries rings and staves like the ark inside the vail. Everything in the court is built to be taken down and carried, and Numbers 4:13-14 gives the order for covering this altar and bearing it on the march. Its tools are brass like the altar itself, so nothing of gold is handled where the people stand.
The bronze mesh sits under the ledge, halfway up from the bottom, as Exodus 27:4-5 ordered. Adam Clarke explains the Hebrew names of the grate and of the altar's vessels in his notes on Exodus 27:3-5. Verse 30 counts the grating in the bronze total.
he cast four rings: The four rings belong to the grate itself, cast at its corners, and verse 7 sets the carrying poles through them. Exodus 27:4 gave the same order for rings at the four corners of the mesh. John Gill traces each of these parts back to that chapter.
The poles are acacia wood overlaid with bronze, the same two materials as the altar in verses 1 and 2. Exodus 27:6 gave this order in the same terms. Matthew Henry takes such exact work as the mark of faithful workmen.
Exodus 27:8 closes the altar's instruction with the order that it be made as Moses was shown on the mountain. Verse 7 closes the altar's making at the same point, the hollow frame of boards. Albert Barnes reads verses 1 to 7 against that chapter.
The basin alone has its metal traced to its givers, the mirrors of the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. Exodus 30:18 gave no size or source, and 1 Samuel 2:22 names these women as a standing service. Matthew Henry reads the gift as women parting with their looking glasses, and Adam Clarke argues for polished metal, since glass could not be cast.
Exodus 38:8
“He made the laver - See Clarke’s note on Exo 30:18, etc. The looking-glasses - The word מראת maroth, from ראה raah, he saw, signifies reflectors or mirrors of any kind. Here metal, highly polished, must certainly be meant, as glass was not yet in use; and had it even been in use, we are sure that looking - Glasses could not make a Brazen laver. The word therefore should be rendered mirrors, not looking-glasses, which in the above verse is perfectly absurd, because from those maroth the brazen laver was made.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The Court and Its Hangings
Exodus 38:9-13
The court is walled with cloth rather than stone, a hundred cubits by fifty, and every hanging around it is plain white linen. Colour is held back for the gate alone in verse 18. Three sides get their pillars and sockets counted and the east side gets one short line, because the east is where the way in is and the account turns from wall to entrance.
Exodus 38:9
“And he made the court,.... The open court of the tabernacle, where the people met, of which, its pillars, sockets, hangings, hooks, and pins, an account is given, to Exo 38:10 of which See Gill on Exo 27:9, Exo 27:10, Exo 27:11, Exo 27:12, Exo 27:13, Exo 27:14, Exo 27:15, Exo 27:16, Exo 27:17, Exo 27:18, Exo 27:19.”
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 38:9
“And he made the court - The walls of the court, were like the rest, curtains, or hangings. This represented the state of the Old Testament church, it was a garden enclosed; the worshippers were then confined to a little compass. But the inclosure being of curtains only, intimated that that confinement of the church to one particular nation was not to be perpetual.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown hold that the hooks on the courtyard posts were for hanging the carcasses of the sacrificial animals. The hooks at the tent entrance, on their reading, held the priestly robes and other things used in the service. These hooks are silver.
The north side repeats the south side of verses 9 and 10, a hundred cubits with twenty posts and twenty bases. Exodus 27:11 gave these numbers in the instruction. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown reckon the courtyard at about one hundred and fifty feet by seventy five.
The west side is half the length of the north and south, fifty cubits with ten posts and ten bases. Exodus 26:22 calls the west side the rear of the tabernacle. The courtyard's back wall ran behind the tent.
The words toward the sunrise mark the side that held the only way in. Numbers 3:38 camps Moses, Aaron and his sons on this same side, in front of the Tent of Meeting. Exodus 27:13 gave the east side the same fifty cubits.
Exodus 38:14-17
Every pillar of the court stands in a brass socket and is banded and capped in silver, and verse 28 says where that silver came from. It is the odd 1,775 shekels left over from the ransom money once the hundred sockets of the dwelling had been cast. A man walking into the court passed his own half shekel worked into the fittings above his head.
Fifteen cubits of curtain on each side leave twenty cubits open in the middle of the fifty cubit east wall. Verse 18 fills that space with the embroidered curtain of the entrance. Exodus 27:14-16 gave the same three measures.
John Wesley reads the courtyard as the Old Testament church, a garden enclosed within a small space. He takes its walls of curtain, which could be taken down, as a sign that confining the church to one nation would end. The linen was finely spun on all four sides.
Adam Clarke takes the silver plating as capitals on the tops of the posts, with silver bands running round them. Each post rose from a bronze base to a silver top. Exodus 27:17 ordered every courtyard post banded with silver.
Exodus 38:17
“The hooks - and their fillets - The capitals, and the silver bands that went round them; see Clarke’s note on Exo 26:32.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Exodus 38:18-20
The courtyard's one door wears the veil's four materials, blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and finely spun linen, and the wall beside it is plain. It is twenty cubits wide in a wall a hundred long, marked by colour where all else is white. Exodus 26:31 puts cherubim into the veil and 26:36 leaves them out of the tent door, and this gate follows the door.
The entrance curtain hangs on four posts, one more than the three on each side of it in verses 14 and 15. Exodus 27:16 gave the gate four posts and four bases. Their fittings match the rest of the courtyard, bronze below and silver above.
John Gill explains that the pegs held down the curtains of the tabernacle and the hangings of the courtyard alike. Exodus 27:19 ordered them of bronze with all the courtyard's utensils. Verse 31 counts them among the things made from the offered bronze.
The Reckoning of the Metals
Exodus 38:21-23
The metals are counted and the count is written into the record, taken by the Levites under the direction of Ithamar son of Aaron the priest. Bezalel of Judah is named again as the man who made everything that the LORD had commanded Moses, with Oholiab of Dan, so two tribes share the work. That line becomes the refrain of chapters 39 and 40.
Exodus 38:21
“This is the sum of the tabernacle--Having completed his description of the component parts of the tabernacle, the inspired historian digresses into a statement respecting the gold and silver employed in it, the computation being made according to an order of Moses--by the Levites, under the direction of Ithamar, Aaron's youngest son.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
John Gill reads made as oversight, with Bezalel directing the workmen and seeing each piece done in the exact manner ordered. His bronze altar still stood before the tabernacle of the LORD in Solomon's day, at 2 Chronicles 1:5. Solomon sought the LORD there.
Exodus 38:22
“And Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah,.... Of whom and his descent see Exo 31:2. made all that the Lord commanded Moses; gave directions about them, and took care that the tabernacle and all things belonging to it were made, which the Lord commanded Moses, and in the exact manner in which they were ordered to be made.”
John Gill ties Oholiab's skills to finished work, his engraving to the stones of the ephod and breastpiece. His embroidery in blue, purple and scarlet went into the curtains, the hangings and the priests' garments. Exodus 31:6 first named him beside Bezalel.
Exodus 38:23
“And with him was Aholiab, son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan,.... Of him see Exo 31:6. an engraver; of precious stones, as those in the ephod and breastplate: and a cunning workman; in devising and working curious figured works, either in weaving or with the needle: and an embroiderer in blue, and purple, and in scarlet, and in fine linen; which were used in the curtains and hangings of the tabernacle, and in the priests' garments.”
Exodus 38:24-26
The gold came as an offering and the silver as a levy of half a shekel a man, which 30:12 calls a ransom for his life. By 30:15 the rich shall not give more than a half shekel, nor shall the poor give less. The 603,550 men here match the census Numbers 1:46 reports a year later.
Exodus 38:24
“All the gold that was occupied for the work, etc. - To be able to ascertain the quantum and value of the gold, silver, and brass, which were employed in the tabernacle, and its different utensils, altars, etc., it will be necessary to enter into the subject in considerable detail. In the course of my notes on this and the preceding book, I have had frequent occasion to speak of the shekel in use among the ancient Hebrews, which, following Dean Prideaux, I have always computed at 3s (shillings), English. As some value it at 2s.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The silver came from those numbered, a half shekel each by verse 26, and verse 27 cast the bases of the sanctuary from it. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown ask how a people in the wilderness held so much silver and gold, and they point to the spoil of Egypt. The sum is exact to the shekel.
Exodus 38:25
“It may seem difficult to imagine how the Israelites should be possessed of so much wealth in the desert; but it should be remembered that they were enriched first by the spoils of the Egyptians, and afterwards by those of the Amalekites. Besides, it is highly probable that during their sojourn they traded with the neighboring nations who bordered on the wilderness [HEWLETT].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Adam Clarke derives beka from a word meaning to divide. A beka is half a shekel, and half a shekel from 603,550 men is 301,775 shekels, the 100 talents and 1,775 shekels of verse 25. Albert Barnes reads the repeated sanctuary shekel as a demand for exact payment.
Exodus 38:26
“A bekah for every man - The Hebrew word בקי beka, from בקי baka, to divide, separate into two, seems to signify, not a particular coin, but a shekel broken or cut in two; so, anciently, our farthing was a penny divided in the midst and then subdivided, so that each division contained the fourth part of the penny; hence its name fourthing or fourthling, since corrupted into farthing. There appear to be three particular reasons why much riches should be employed in the construction of the tabernacle, etc.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Exodus 38:27-28
The atonement money went into the ground, 100 bases from the 100 talents, one talent per base, ninety-six under the frames and four under the veil's posts. So the tent stands on the price paid for the men counted. Exodus 30:16 gave the money for the service of the Tent of Meeting, and this verse names that service.
Exodus 38:27
“The brass, though less valuable, was of use not only for the brazen altar, but for the sockets of the court, which probably in other tents were of wood: but it is promised ( Isa. lx. 17 ), For wood I will bring brass. See how liberal the people were and how faithful the workmen were, in both which respects their good example ought to be followed.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Albert Barnes places these hooks, plated tops and bands on the posts of the courtyard, the fittings ordered at Exodus 27:10 and 27:17. The talents went under the tent and the remainder went out to the courtyard wall. Every shekel of the sum is assigned.
Exodus 38:28
“The hooks, chapiters, and fillets here spoken of belonged to the pillars of the court. See Exo 27:10, Exo 27:17.”
Exodus 38:29-31
The bronze total closes the audit, and what it made runs from the altar down to all the tent pegs. The three metals fall by distance from the ark, gold within the veil, silver at the foundations and fittings, bronze out in the courtyard where the people stood. The last thing counted is a peg, the smallest object in the structure, entered in the record beside the altar.
Exodus 38:29
“And the brass of the offering was seventy talents, and two thousand four hundred shekels. Which, according to Paris weight, were 6177 pounds, ten ounces, two drachms, and sixty four grains (w): this might be had from the neighbouring mountains of Arabia, where it is said (x) the metals of brass and iron were first dug. (w) Vid. Scheuchzer, ut supra. (Physic. Sacr. vol. 2. p. 253.) (x) Aristeas de 72. interpret. p. 42. Vid. Hieron. de loc. Hebr. fol. 90. A.”
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 38:29
“According to the estimate of the shekel that has here been adopted, the weight of the metals mentioned in this chapter would be nearly as follows, in avoirdupois weight: Gold 1 ton 4 cwt. 2 qrs. 13 lbs. Silver 4 tons 4 cwt. 2 qrs. 20 lbs. Bronze 2 tons 19 cwt. 2 qrs. 11 lbs. The value of the gold, if pure, in our money would be 175,075 British pounds, 13 shillings, and of the silver, 38,034 British pounds, 15 shillings 10d.”
The bases at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting are bronze, five of them by John Gill's count from Exodus 26:37. The bases under the frames and the veil were silver, as verse 27 records. The metal changes at the tent door.
Exodus 38:30
“And therewith he made the sockets to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation,.... Which were five; see Exo 26:37. and the brazen altar, and the brazen grate for it, and all the vessels of the altar; which were all made of brass; see Exo 27:2.”
John Gill counts sixty bronze bases around the courtyard. Verses 10 to 19 give that total, twenty on the south, twenty on the north, ten on the west, and three, three and four across the east.
Exodus 38:31
“And the sockets of the court round about, and the sockets of the court gate,.... These were also of brass, in all sixty: and all the pins of the tabernacle, and all the pins of the court round about; the pins for the curtains of the tabernacle, and for the hangings of the court; see Exo 27:19.”
How this psalm is built
The form: Building record for the court, closing with an inventory of the metals taken at Moses' command, as site classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Bronze outside, silver at the fittings, gold within | The altar in the court and its tools are bronze at verses 2 and 3. The posts of the court stand in bronze bases with silver hooks and bands at verse 17. The gold of the chapter is accounted for at verse 24 and it all went inside. The metals fall by distance from the ark. | Exodus 38:2, Exodus 38:17, Exodus 38:24 |
| Colour held back for the one way in | Every hanging around the court is plain fine linen at verse 16. The curtain at the entrance is embroidered with blue, purple and scarlet yarn at verse 18. The gate is twenty cubits wide in a wall a hundred cubits long, and it is the only coloured thing on the outside. | Exodus 38:16, Exodus 38:18 |
| Counted to the shekel and down to the pegs | Verses 24 to 31 give the gold at 29 talents and 730 shekels, the silver at 100 talents and 1,775 shekels, and the bronze at 70 talents and 2,400 shekels. The record says what each metal became. The last thing entered is a tent peg, which is the smallest object in the structure. | Exodus 38:24, Exodus 38:25, Exodus 38:29, Exodus 38:31 |
The silver of this chapter came in on different terms from the gold. Exodus 30:12 to 30:16 fixed the silver at half a shekel from every man numbered, and called it a ransom for his life. The rich were forbidden to give more and the poor forbidden to give less. The gold and the bronze came in as freewill offerings at 35:22 to 35:24.
8 more paragraphs on the patterns
Verses 27 and 28 say where the ransom money went. A hundred talents made a hundred bases at a talent each, ninety-six under the frames of the dwelling and four under the posts of the veil. The frame of the tent stands on the price paid for the men who were counted. The odd 1,775 shekels became the hooks, the bands and the plating for the posts of the court, so a man walking in passed his own half shekel worked into the fittings above his head.
The historical value
Verse 26 gives the count at 603,550 men twenty years old and upward. Numbers 1:46 reports the same figure for the census taken about a year later. The size of that number is one of the four debated readings the book page already carries. The literal reading is held by the traditional view and by most conservative commentators. Against it stands the reading of the Hebrew word for thousand as a clan or a military unit, proposed by Colin Humphreys and others. That entry is set out in the Exodus dossier, and this row states no verdict on it.
The detail worth noticing
Verse 8 is the only place the tabernacle account names the givers of a particular vessel. The same phrase for women who served at the entrance returns at 1 Samuel 2:22, where it describes a standing service rather than a crowd passing by. Matthew Henry reads the gift as women parting with the metal they had used to look at themselves in. Adam Clarke argues that the word means polished bronze mirrors, since glass of that kind did not yet exist and could not have been cast into a basin.
Everything in the court is built to be taken down and carried. The altar has rings and poles at verses 5 to 7, and Numbers 4:13 and 4:14 give the order for covering it and bearing it on the march.
Where to go deeper
The basin of verse 8 is set out at the bronze laver, and the altar of verses 1 to 7 at the altar. The blood put on its horns at 29:12 stands with the blood. No page on the tabernacle as a whole stands under /featured, and the page is listed as owed.
Keep studying
Places1
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
This site.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.