Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 38:29-31

29 And the brass of the offering was seventy talents, and two thousand and four hundred shekels.

30 And therewith he made the sockets to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and the brasen altar, and the brasen grate for it, and all the vessels of the altar,

31 And the sockets of the court round about, and the sockets of the court gate, and all the pins of the tabernacle, and all the pins of the court round about.

Yesterday we heard the full contribution of gold and silver to the construction of the tabernacle, and now we finish this chapter by mentioning the brass that was donated as well. Using the same conversion rates as before, the 70 talents and 2,400 shekels of brass would be approximately 5,310 pounds (2,408 kg) in total.

Here is a summary of all the metal:

  • 7,544 pounds / 3,422 kg silver
  • 5,310 pounds / 2,408 kg brass
  • 2,193 pounds / 995 kg gold

Yesterday we calculated the modern-day value of the gold and silver. That is less useful with brass, as it has far less relative value today than it had in ancient times. Today the full weight of brass for the tabernacle would be just a bit over $10,000, but in the time of the tabernacle it would have been much more, though still not as much as the silver or gold.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 38:24-28

24 All the gold that was occupied for the work in all the work of the holy place, even the gold of the offering, was twenty and nine talents, and seven hundred and thirty shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary.

25 And the silver of them that were numbered of the congregation was an hundred talents, and a thousand seven hundred and threescore and fifteen shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary:

26 A bekah for every man, that is, half a shekel, after the shekel of the sanctuary, for every one that went to be numbered, from twenty years old and upward, for six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty men.

27 And of the hundred talents of silver were cast the sockets of the sanctuary, and the sockets of the veil; an hundred sockets of the hundred talents, a talent for a socket.

28 And of the thousand seven hundred seventy and five shekels he made hooks for the pillars, and overlaid their chapiters, and filleted them.

The full weight of gold used in the tabernacle was 29 talents and 730 shekels; and the silver was 100 talents and 1,775 shekels. Talents and shekels were ancient metrics of weight, not value. The conversion to today’s metrics is estimated to be about 75-100 pounds (34-45kg) for a talent, and 0.4 ounces (11 grams) for a shekel.

Thus, a shekel was much smaller than a talent, about 1/3000th of the size. If we break the 29 talents of gold and 100 talents of silver into shekels, then we get a combined total of approximately 389,505 shekels of precious metal donated for the construction of the temple. A bekah was half of a shekel, so that comes to approximately 779,010 bekahs of metal. From that number we can understand how verse 26 is saying that it was about one bekah for each of the 603,550 men in the Israelite community.

I do not think that every man did give one bekah, though. The Israelites were not required to give their possessions to the creation of the temple if they did not want to, they varied in their individual wealth, and we were already told that some of the contributions were turned away because the measure had already been filled. It seems likely that some contributed more, and others less, and some not at all, but in aggregate it was as if every man had contributed one bekah.

Converting these metrics into today’s standards, we have approximately 2,193 pounds (995 kg) of gold and 7,544 pounds (3,422 kg) of silver. The value of these will obviously change constantly over the years, but in any time, it is a princely sum. As of today, March 19, 2025, gold is about $3,000 per ounce and silver is about $34. That brings the value of the gold over $100,000,000 USD, and the silver over $4,000,000.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 38:21-23

21 This is the sum of the tabernacle, even of the tabernacle of testimony, as it was counted, according to the commandment of Moses, for the service of the Levites, by the hand of Ithamar, son to Aaron the priest.

22 And Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made all that the Lord commanded Moses.

23 And with him was Aholiab, son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, an engraver, and a cunning workman, and an embroiderer in blue, and in purple, and in scarlet, and fine linen.

This chapter ends by giving a summary of the creation of the tabernacle. We hear, once again, that Bezaleel was the chief architect, and alongside him was Aholiab. It sounds like Aholiab specialized in the engravings and the embroidering, and that Bezaleel led in everything else.

We also hear that Ithamar, one of the sons of Aaron, is the scribe that has been recounting all of the work of the tabernacle to us. Aaron had four sons, and Ithamar was the youngest of them all. This is the first time we have heard of his work, in which he was chosen to witness and prove to the world the obedience of the Israelites in following the mandate of the Lord. We will hear of him a few more times in the other books of Moses.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 38:9-20

9 And he made the court: on the south side southward the hangings of the court were of fine twined linen, an hundred cubits:

10 Their pillars were twenty, and their brasen sockets twenty; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets were of silver.

11 And for the north side the hangings were an hundred cubits, their pillars were twenty, and their sockets of brass twenty; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver.

12 And for the west side were hangings of fifty cubits, their pillars ten, and their sockets ten; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver.

13 And for the east side eastward fifty cubits.

14 The hangings of the one side of the gate were fifteen cubits; their pillars three, and their sockets three.

15 And for the other side of the court gate, on this hand and that hand, were hangings of fifteen cubits; their pillars three, and their sockets three.

16 All the hangings of the court round about were of fine twined linen.

17 And the sockets for the pillars were of brass; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver; and the overlaying of their chapiters of silver; and all the pillars of the court were filleted with silver.

18 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.

19 And their pillars were four, and their sockets of brass four; their hooks of silver, and the overlaying of their chapiters and their fillets of silver.

20 And all the pins of the tabernacle, and of the court round about, were of brass.

Today finishes the creation of the tabernacle. We still have yet to review the creation of the garments for the priests, but at least the edifice and its accompanying instruments and furniture are covered.

I do wonder how much of this creation was erected prior to the completion of it all. Did the workers verify their work by installing the pillars and stretching the curtains between them, laying out the entire courtyard and construct the tabernacle in the middle? Or did they simply trust the measurements and wait for Moses’s word to construct everything at once? There is a verse in the next chapter which suggest that when they presented their work to Moses, it was in a disassembled form, so at the very least it seems that there was an official assembly from individual parts when the tabernacle was deemed ready.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 38:1-8

1 And he made the altar of burnt offering of shittim wood: five cubits was the length thereof, and five cubits the breadth thereof; it was foursquare; and three cubits the height thereof.

2 And he made the horns thereof on the four corners of it; the horns thereof were of the same: and he overlaid it with brass.

3 And he made all the vessels of the altar, the pots, and the shovels, and the basins, and the fleshhooks, and the firepans: all the vessels thereof made he of brass.

4 And he made for the altar a brasen grate of network under the compass thereof beneath unto the midst of it.

5 And he cast four rings for the four ends of the grate of brass, to be places for the staves.

6 And he made the staves of shittim wood, and overlaid them with brass.

7 And he put the staves into the rings on the sides of the altar, to bear it withal; he made the altar hollow with boards.

8 And he made the laver of brass, and the foot of it of brass, of the lookingglasses of the women assembling, which assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

Today covers the creation of the altar for burnt offering and the washing basin. In the last verse we get an interesting detail, which tells us that the washing basin was made from the looking glasses—or mirrors—of the Israelites gathered at the entrance to the tabernacle.

One might wonder how mirrors would be used to create a brass washing basin. The explanation is that the mirrors of ancient times were quite different from the ones of today. These were not silver-backed glass mirrors, they were brass, extremely polished so that they could reflect an image back to the holder. Thus, these were brass mirrors, presumably melted down and reformed, that became the washing basin.

This is an important reminder that the Israelites were not bringing to the tabernacle random hunks of metal that were just lying about their house. Much of the material that was donated was already being used in personal heirlooms and household items. They weren’t just sacrificing the material, they were sacrificing things that they were actually using, things that already served a purpose, so that they could serve a higher purpose for the Lord.