• Setting Up the Tabernacle

  • 1 Then the Lord said to Moses:
  • 2 “Set up the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, on the first day of the first month.
  • 3 Place the ark of the covenant law in it and shield the ark with the curtain.
  • 4 Bring in the table and set out what belongs on it. Then bring in the lampstand and set up its lamps.
  • 5 Place the gold altar of incense in front of the ark of the covenant law and put the curtain at the entrance to the tabernacle.
  • 6 “Place the altar of burnt offering in front of the entrance to the tabernacle, the tent of meeting;
  • 7 place the basin between the tent of meeting and the altar and put water in it.
  • 8 Set up the courtyard around it and put the curtain at the entrance to the courtyard.
  • 9 “Take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle and everything in it; consecrate it and all its furnishings, and it will be holy.
  • 10 Then anoint the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils; consecrate the altar, and it will be most holy.
  • 11 Anoint the basin and its stand and consecrate them.
  • 12 “Bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance to the tent of meeting and wash them with water.
  • 13 Then dress Aaron in the sacred garments, anoint him and consecrate him so he may serve me as priest.
  • 14 Bring his sons and dress them in tunics.
  • 15 Anoint them just as you anointed their father, so they may serve me as priests. Their anointing will be to a priesthood that will continue throughout their generations.”
  • 16 Moses did everything just as the Lord commanded him.
  • 17 So the tabernacle was set up on the first day of the first month in the second year.
  • 18 When Moses set up the tabernacle, he put the bases in place, erected the frames, inserted the crossbars and set up the posts.
  • 19 Then he spread the tent over the tabernacle and put the covering over the tent, as the Lord commanded him.
  • 20 He took the tablets of the covenant law and placed them in the ark, attached the poles to the ark and put the atonement cover over it.
  • 21 Then he brought the ark into the tabernacle and hung the shielding curtain and shielded the ark of the covenant law, as the Lord commanded him.
  • 22 Moses placed the table in the tent of meeting on the north side of the tabernacle outside the curtain
  • 23 and set out the bread on it before the Lord, as the Lord commanded him.
  • 24 He placed the lampstand in the tent of meeting opposite the table on the south side of the tabernacle
  • 25 and set up the lamps before the Lord, as the Lord commanded him.
  • 26 Moses placed the gold altar in the tent of meeting in front of the curtain
  • 27 and burned fragrant incense on it, as the Lord commanded him.
  • 28 Then he put up the curtain at the entrance to the tabernacle.
  • 29 He set the altar of burnt offering near the entrance to the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, and offered on it burnt offerings and grain offerings, as the Lord commanded him.
  • 30 He placed the basin between the tent of meeting and the altar and put water in it for washing,
  • 31 and Moses and Aaron and his sons used it to wash their hands and feet.
  • 32 They washed whenever they entered the tent of meeting or approached the altar, as the Lord commanded Moses.
  • 33 Then Moses set up the courtyard around the tabernacle and altar and put up the curtain at the entrance to the courtyard. And so Moses finished the work.

  • The Glory of the Lord

  • 34 Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
  • 35 Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
  • 36 In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out;
  • 37 but if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out—until the day it lifted.
  • 38 So the cloud of the Lord was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the Israelites during all their travels.