Exodus Chapter 26

At a Glance

  • Exodus 26 unfolds the shaping pattern of Israel’s worship space: the tabernacle’s fabric, structure, and sacred architecture.
  • Next come the goats’ hair coverings, forming a weather-resistant, secondary layer that explains the protective, yet humble, exterior of the sanctuary.
  • Beyond curtains, the text lays out the tabernacle’s courtyard, including the southern and northern hangings, their lengths, and the pillars, sockets, and silver hooks that hold them up.
  • Historical & Literary Context.
  • Exodus 26 sits squarely in the middle of the book’s second major block detailing the Tabernacle’s construction (Exodus 25–31).

EXODUS CHAPTER 26

Chapter Overview

Exodus 26 unfolds the shaping pattern of Israel’s worship space: the tabernacle’s fabric, structure, and sacred architecture. The chapter details the construction of the tabernacle’s coverings and frames, emphasizing precise measurements, materials, and assembly. It begins with the main tabernacle curtains—ten interwoven with linen and blue, purple, and scarlet threads, adorned with cherubim “of cunning work.” Instructions specify how five curtains are joined to five, creating a single, portable sanctuary to be carried on their journeys. The design includes fifty loops and fifty clasps of gold to secure the curtains, ensuring unity and mobility, symbolic of a people bound together before God.

Next come the goats’ hair coverings, forming a weather-resistant, secondary layer that explains the protective, yet humble, exterior of the sanctuary. The chapter then details how the curtains are to be arranged and doubled to create a coherent front and back, with the outer edges draped to cover the tent’s length. The ultimate aim is a one-tent sanctuary, a sacred space that travels with the people and remains central to their identity.

Beyond curtains, the text lays out the tabernacle’s courtyard, including the southern and northern hangings, their lengths, and the pillars, sockets, and silver hooks that hold them up. The gate’s dimensions are given, with the east side forming the proper entrance. This architecture isn’t merely functional; it communicates a theology of presence: God dwelling among Israel, but in a structure that is finite, skilled, and crafted by human hands. The chapter ends with the remaining fabric draping over the tent’s rear and sides, underscoring a balance between order, beauty, and practicality as God’s address to His people unfolds in space and time.

Historical & Literary Context

Exodus 26 sits squarely in the middle of the book’s second major block detailing the Tabernacle’s construction (Exodus 25–31). Traditionally dated to the second millennium BCE, the material often reflects a priestly, post-Elohist layer that emphasizes ritual, purity, and sacred geography. The genre is technical-legal narrative, interwoven with liturgical instruction. It serves as a manual for worship, yet it also communicates the social and theological order of Israel: a people called to holiness, set apart, and sustained by God’s presence.

Within the book, this chapter functions as a bridge between Exodus 25’s divine blueprint and the practical commissioning chapters (26–28) that explain how to implement God’s design. Its ceremonial architecture echoes the larger Edenic motif—God’s dwelling with humanity—recast as a portable sanctuary. The detailed measurements, materials, and assembly instructions reveal a God who desires beauty and excellence in worship, but without compromising accessibility and obedience. The chapter thus anchors the people’s identity in a sacred space that is both humble (goat hair coverings) and glorious (gold, embroidered cherubim), mapping a theology of presence that will characterize Israel’s worship until the temple era.

Key Themes

- Presence in a portable space: God’s dwelling with Israel moves with them, signaling accessible, ongoing relationship rather than a distant deity.

- Sacred order through meticulous craft: Divine instruction governs human artistry, showing worship requires both beauty and obedience.

- Symbolic architecture as identity: The tabernacle’s design communicates covenant priorities—holiness, unity, and God’s initiative to abode among His people.

- Humility and majesty together: The combination of fine fabrics and goats’ hair layers expresses reverence and practicality, reminding worship is both noble and grounded.

- Divine-creative partnership: Human artisans—“wise-hearted” craftsmen—participate in God’s redemptive project, highlighting collaboration between heaven and earth.

Modern Application

Exodus 26 invites readers to consider how sacred space can shape community identity today. For churches and faith communities, it suggests that worship spaces should reflect intentionality, beauty, and function—spaces that point beyond themselves to God’s presence. The emphasis on collaboration with skilled artisans reminds us that lay and professional gifts contribute meaningfully to worship, not merely overhead tasks. The portable tabernacle model can inspire churches that move with mission—missionary churches, bivocational congregations, or church plants that require adaptable, scalable spaces. The layering of coverings teaches a principle of spiritual layering: a core relationship with God (the inner sanctuary) supported by outer expressions of worship (arts, music, architecture) that protect and communicate it.

The chapter also speaks to humility in leadership: God’s presence isn’t tied to ostentation but to fidelity in implementing divine instructions. Communities are reminded that beauty in worship serves a function—welcoming God’s presence and reminding people of their vocation to holiness. Finally, Exodus 26 invites contemplation on mobility and identity. As believers, we are a people on the move, yet always called to carry God’s presence into every space and season of life.

Cross-References: Exodus 25, 27, 28, 31, Hebrews 9

Recommended Personas: Moses (architectural and ceremonial instruction), Bezalel and Oholiab (skilled artisans commissioned by God), Jesus (presence among the people as the true Tabernacle in John’s Gospel)

Chapter Text

1

Moreover thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet: with cherubims of cunning work shalt thou make them.

2

The length of one curtain shall be eight and twenty cubits, and the breadth of one curtain four cubits: and every one of the curtains shall have one measure.

3

The five curtains shall be coupled together one to another; and other five curtains shall be coupled one to another.

4

And thou shalt make loops of blue upon the edge of the one curtain from the selvedge in the coupling; and likewise shalt thou make in the uttermost edge of another curtain, in the coupling of the second.

5

Fifty loops shalt thou make in the one curtain, and fifty loops shalt thou make in the edge of the curtain that is in the coupling of the second; that the loops may take hold one of another.

6

And thou shalt make fifty taches of gold, and couple the curtains together with the taches: and it shall be one tabernacle.

7

And thou shalt make curtains of goats’ hair to be a covering upon the tabernacle: eleven curtains shalt thou make.

8

The length of one curtain shall be thirty cubits, and the breadth of one curtain four cubits: and the eleven curtains shall be all of one measure.

9

And thou shalt couple five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves, and shalt double the sixth curtain in the forefront of the tabernacle.

10

And thou shalt make fifty loops on the edge of the one curtain that is outmost in the coupling, and fifty loops in the edge of the curtain which coupleth the second.

11

And thou shalt make fifty taches of brass, and put the taches into the loops, and couple the tent together, that it may be one.

12

And the remnant that remaineth of the curtains of the tent, the half curtain that remaineth, shall hang over the backside of the tabernacle.

13

And a cubit on the one side, and a cubit on the other side of that which remaineth in the length of the curtains of the tent, it shall hang over the sides of the tabernacle on this side and on that side, to cover it.

14

And thou shalt make a covering for the tent of rams’ skins dyed red, and a covering above of badgers’ skins.

15

And thou shalt make boards for the tabernacle of shittim wood standing up.

16

Ten cubits shall be the length of a board, and a cubit and a half shall be the breadth of one board.

17

Two tenons shall there be in one board, set in order one against another: thus shalt thou make for all the boards of the tabernacle.

18

And thou shalt make the boards for the tabernacle, twenty boards on the south side southward.

19

And thou shalt make forty sockets of silver under the twenty boards; two sockets under one board for his two tenons, and two sockets under another board for his two tenons.

20

And for the second side of the tabernacle on the north side there shall be twenty boards:

21

And their forty sockets of silver; two sockets under one board, and two sockets under another board.

22

And for the sides of the tabernacle westward thou shalt make six boards.

23

And two boards shalt thou make for the corners of the tabernacle in the two sides.

24

And they shall be coupled together beneath, and they shall be coupled together above the head of it unto one ring: thus shall it be for them both; they shall be for the two corners.

25

And they shall be eight boards, and their sockets of silver, sixteen sockets; two sockets under one board, and two sockets under another board.

26

And thou shalt make bars of shittim wood; five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle,

27

And five bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the side of the tabernacle, for the two sides westward.

28

And the middle bar in the midst of the boards shall reach from end to end.

29

And thou shalt overlay the boards with gold, and make their rings of gold for places for the bars: and thou shalt overlay the bars with gold.

30

And thou shalt rear up the tabernacle according to the fashion thereof which was shewed thee in the mount.

31

And thou shalt make a vail of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen of cunning work: with cherubims shall it be made:

32

And thou shalt hang it upon four pillars of shittim wood overlaid with gold: their hooks shall be of gold, upon the four sockets of silver.

33

And thou shalt hang up the vail under the taches, that thou mayest bring in thither within the vail the ark of the testimony: and the vail shall divide unto you between the holy place and the most holy.

34

And thou shalt put the mercy seat upon the ark of the testimony in the most holy place.

35

And thou shalt set the table without the vail, and the candlestick over against the table on the side of the tabernacle toward the south: and thou shalt put the table on the north side.

36

And thou shalt make an hanging for the door of the tent, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with needlework.

37

And thou shalt make for the hanging five pillars of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold, and their hooks shall be of gold: and thou shalt cast five sockets of brass for them.

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