Bezalel and his craftsmen begin with the innermost element: ten curtains of fine twisted linen (שֵׁשׁ מָשְׁזָר) with cherubim woven into them in blue, purple, and crimson. The measurements are given with precision — each curtain twenty-eight cubits by four cubits, all the same size. Five curtains coupled to one another, five curtains coupled to one another, then joined by loops of blue and clasps of gold into one tabernacle. The text is not approximate; it is exact. This is the pattern Moses saw on the mountain — תַּבְנִית (tavnit), the form, the blueprint — and the makers are faithful to it in every measurement and every coupling.
Over the linen curtains go eleven curtains of goat hair, then a covering of reddened ram skins, then tachash skins above all. The boards for the frame — acacia wood standing upright — are overlaid with gold, set in silver sockets sunk into the ground: forty silver sockets for the south side, forty for the north, sixteen for the west. The bars of acacia wood, five for each side, pass through gold rings on the boards, holding the entire structure rigid. The middle bar passes through the boards from one end to the other. There is no nail or mortar; the structure holds by its own interlocking system, designed to be assembled and disassembled as Israel moves.
The inner veil — הַפָּרֹכֶת (ha-parochet) — is made of blue, purple, and crimson thread and fine twisted linen, with cherubim woven as the work of a skillful craftsman. It will hang on four posts of acacia overlaid with gold, standing in four silver sockets, and will separate the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies. The ark of the covenant — the luchot ha'edut inside, the cherubim above — will stand behind this veil. On one side: the menorah, the table of showbread, the altar of incense. On the other: the meeting place of heaven and earth, covered by the kapporet (the mercy seat), behind the cherubim-woven curtain that no one but the high priest will enter, and only once a year.
When the building is complete, Moses inspects it. Exodus 39:43 compresses the whole inspection into a single verse: וַיַּרְא מֹשֶׁה אֶת-כָּל-הַמְּלָאכָה — and Moses saw all the work — and behold they had done it just as YHWH commanded, so they had done. The phrase כַּאֲשֶׁר צִוָּה יְהוָה has appeared throughout the tabernacle chapters like a recurring refrain, each time confirming that what was built corresponds precisely to what was received. Now Moses sees the whole, and it is confirmed. Moses blesses them — וַיְבָרֶךְ אֹתָם מֹשֶׁה. The blessing does not explain what Moses said, only that he blessed them. It is a moment of completion: the workers are honored for the faithful work of their hands.
Then the date: the first day of the first month of the second year out of Egypt. One year and one week after the exodus from Egypt, the dwelling of YHWH stands in the camp of Israel. Moses raises it, piece by piece, following the sequence: the sockets, the boards, the bars, the pillars, the curtains over the frame, the tent over the tabernacle, the covering over the tent. He places the ark of the testimony inside and sets up the veil. He places the table and the menorah and the golden altar. He sets up the courtyard screen and hangs the gate of the courtyard. The work is finished. What was promised to Moses in fire and cloud on the mountain is now standing on the ground in the camp, within a community that has been broken, remade, and made willing to give everything it had to build this place.
