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Exodus 38

38. The Altar, Basin, and Courtyard

¹ They Or He; also in verses 2-9 built the altar of burnt offering of acacia wood, three cubits That is, about 4 1/2 feet or about 1.4 meters high; it was square, five cubits long and five cubits wide. That is, about 7 1/2 feet or about 2.3 meters long and wide ² They made a horn at each of the four corners, so that the horns and the altar were of one piece, and they overlaid the altar with bronze. ³ They made all its utensils of bronze—its pots, shovels, sprinkling bowls, meat forks and firepans. ⁴ They made a grating for the altar, a bronze network, to be under its ledge, halfway up the altar. ⁵ They cast bronze rings to hold the poles for the four corners of the bronze grating. ⁶ They made the poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with bronze. ⁷ They inserted the poles into the rings so they would be on the sides of the altar for carrying it. They made it hollow, out of boards.

The Basin for Washing

    ⁸ They made the bronze basin and its bronze stand from the mirrors of the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting.

The Courtyard

    ⁹ Next they made the courtyard. The south side was a hundred cubits That is, about 150 feet or about 45 meters long and had curtains of finely twisted linen, ¹⁰ with twenty posts and twenty bronze bases, and with silver hooks and bands on the posts. ¹¹ The north side was also a hundred cubits long and had twenty posts and twenty bronze bases, with silver hooks and bands on the posts.

    ¹² The west end was fifty cubits That is, about 75 feet or about 23 meters wide and had curtains, with ten posts and ten bases, with silver hooks and bands on the posts. ¹³ The east end, toward the sunrise, was also fifty cubits wide. ¹⁴ Curtains fifteen cubits That is, about 22 feet or about 6.8 meters long were on one side of the entrance, with three posts and three bases, ¹⁵ and curtains fifteen cubits long were on the other side of the entrance to the courtyard, with three posts and three bases. ¹⁶ All the curtains around the courtyard were of finely twisted linen. ¹⁷ The bases for the posts were bronze. The hooks and bands on the posts were silver, and their tops were overlaid with silver; so all the posts of the courtyard had silver bands.

    ¹⁸ The curtain for the entrance to the courtyard was made of blue, purple and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen—the work of an embroiderer. It was twenty cubits That is, about 30 feet or about 9 meters long and, like the curtains of the courtyard, five cubits That is, about 7 1/2 feet or about 2.3 meters high, ¹⁹ with four posts and four bronze bases. Their hooks and bands were silver, and their tops were overlaid with silver. ²⁰ All the tent pegs of the tabernacle and of the surrounding courtyard were bronze.

The Materials Used

    ²¹ These are the amounts of the materials used for the tabernacle, the tabernacle of the covenant law, which were recorded at Moses’ command by the Levites under the direction of Ithamar son of Aaron, the priest. ²² (Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made everything the LORD commanded Moses; ²³ with him was Oholiab son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan—an engraver and designer, and an embroiderer in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen.) ²⁴ The total amount of the gold from the wave offering used for all the work on the sanctuary was 29 talents and 730 shekels, The weight of the gold was a little over a ton or about 1 metric ton. according to the sanctuary shekel.

    ²⁵ The silver obtained from those of the community who were counted in the census was 100 talents That is, about 3 3/4 tons or about 3.4 metric tons; also in verse 27 and 1,775 shekels, That is, about 44 pounds or about 20 kilograms; also in verse 28 according to the sanctuary shekel— ²⁶ one beka per person, that is, half a shekel, That is, about 1/5 ounce or about 5.7 grams according to the sanctuary shekel, from everyone who had crossed over to those counted, twenty years old or more, a total of 603,550 men. ²⁷ The 100 talents of silver were used to cast the bases for the sanctuary and for the curtain—100 bases from the 100 talents, one talent for each base. ²⁸ They used the 1,775 shekels to make the hooks for the posts, to overlay the tops of the posts, and to make their bands.

    ²⁹ The bronze from the wave offering was 70 talents and 2,400 shekels. The weight of the bronze was about 2 1/2 tons or about 2.4 metric tons. ³⁰ They used it to make the bases for the entrance to the tent of meeting, the bronze altar with its bronze grating and all its utensils, ³¹ the bases for the surrounding courtyard and those for its entrance and all the tent pegs for the tabernacle and those for the surrounding courtyard.

Luke 2:1-7

2. Birth and Childhood of Jesus

¹ In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. ² (This was the first census that took place while Or This census took place before Quirinius was governor of Syria.) ³ And everyone went to their own town to register.

    ⁴ So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. ⁵ He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. ⁶ While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, ⁷ and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

   

Psalm 121

121. Psalm 121

¹ I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
   where does my help come from?
² My help comes from the LORD,
   the Maker of heaven and earth.

    ³ He will not let your foot slip—
   he who watches over you will not slumber;
⁴ indeed, he who watches over Israel
   will neither slumber nor sleep.

    ⁵ The LORD watches over you—
   the LORD is your shade at your right hand;
⁶ the sun will not harm you by day,
   nor the moon by night.

    ⁷ The LORD will keep you from all harm—
   he will watch over your life;
⁸ the LORD will watch over your coming and going
   both now and forevermore.