Exodus 26 Summary and Study Guide: The Tabernacle Curtains

A cubit is about eighteen inches, and once you know that, Exodus 26 turns from a wall of numbers into a building you can walk around. This Exodus 26 summary and study guide puts the tabernacle back together in the order God gave it, from the inside out.

Setting the Stage

God came down on Mount Sinai in fire and smoke, and Israel could not bear it. The people stood a long way off and asked Moses to listen to God on their behalf (Exodus 20:18-21). That left one question hanging over everything after it. How could a God that holy live in the middle of their camp without destroying them?

God answered it Himself. He called Moses up the mountain and said, “let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them” (Exodus 25:8). He wanted a house among the tents. Exodus 25 listed the furniture that would go in it, and Exodus 26 gives the building. For where this sits in the wider story, see our Book of Exodus summary by chapter.

Comprehensive Exodus 26 Summary

God starts on the inside. The first thing He describes is the layer nobody outside would ever see: ten linen curtains in blue, purple and scarlet, with figures of cherubim woven into the cloth, joined by fifty gold clasps into one covering (Exodus 26:1-6).

Over that goes a tent of eleven goats’ hair curtains, longer and wider than the linen, joined by fifty clasps of brass and hanging down far enough to hide the linen completely (Exodus 26:7-13). Two more layers go over that: ram leather dyed red, and a tough outer hide (Exodus 26:14). Anyone standing in the camp would have seen a weathered tent. The colours were on the inside, where only those who served there would ever see them.

Then comes the frame that holds all of it up. Forty-eight boards of acacia wood, each about fifteen feet tall and overlaid with gold, stand upright in solid silver blocks, two blocks under every board (Exodus 26:15-25). Five gold-covered bars lock each wall together, and the middle bar runs the whole length (Exodus 26:26-29). God stops there to repeat the one instruction that governs everything else: build it exactly as it was shown to you on the mountain (Exodus 26:30).

Last are the two curtains that decide who goes where. A veil of the same colours, woven with the same cherubim, hangs on four pillars set in silver, and it splits the tent into two rooms, with the ark and its mercy seat in the inner one (Exodus 26:31-34).

The table and the lampstand stand outside that veil (Exodus 26:35). At the east end a hanging of the same colours, but plainer work and no cherubim, closes the doorway on five pillars set in brass (Exodus 26:36-37). The chapter finishes where a visitor would start, at the door.

One Word Summary

• Dwelling: God is building a house to live in among the tents.
• Pattern: every measurement comes from what Moses was shown.
• Layers: four coverings between the camp and the ark.
• Boundary: the veil settles who may go how far.

In One Sentence

God tells Moses to build the tabernacle out of four coverings, forty-eight gold-covered boards standing in silver, and two curtains marking the way in, so that God can live among Israel without Israel being destroyed by His holiness.

Theme of Exodus 26

Exodus 26 is about God’s nearness on God’s terms. He is not keeping His distance in this chapter, He is moving in, and He is the one who says how. Two more ideas run alongside that. Everything is built to a pattern Moses did not invent, which makes Israel’s worship something received rather than designed. And everything is graded by distance from the ark, so the metals, the workmanship and the woven figures all get plainer the further out you go. Nearness, obedience and holiness are held together here in cloth and wood.

Exodus 26 Outline

• Exodus 26:1-6: Ten linen curtains woven with cherubim are joined in two sets of five and clasped together with fifty gold taches into one covering.
• Exodus 26:7-13: Eleven goats’ hair curtains are made into a tent over that covering, joined with fifty brass taches, with the surplus length left hanging over the back and the two sides.
• Exodus 26:14: Two outer coverings are added, rams’ skins dyed red and badgers’ skins above them.
• Exodus 26:15-17: The boards are to be made of shittim wood standing upright, ten cubits by a cubit and a half, each with two tenons cut into its foot.
• Exodus 26:18-25: Twenty boards are set along the south side, twenty along the north, and eight across the west end including two corner boards, every board standing in its own pair of silver sockets.
• Exodus 26:26-29: Five gold-overlaid bars of shittim wood hold each wall together through gold rings, with the middle bar reaching from end to end.
• Exodus 26:30: God tells Moses to set up the tabernacle according to the pattern he was shown in the mount.
• Exodus 26:31-35: The veil is hung on four pillars to divide the holy place from the most holy, with the ark and mercy seat behind it and the table and candlestick placed outside it.
• Exodus 26:36-37: A hanging of needlework closes the door of the tent, carried on five pillars standing in five brass sockets.

The Tabernacle’s Measurements

Exodus 26 gives its sizes in cubits, and a cubit is roughly eighteen inches.

Sizes

The last row is not stated outright; it follows from the boards. Twenty boards at a cubit and a half each make thirty cubits of length (26:18), and the boards themselves are ten cubits tall (26:16).

The veil then divided that space into two rooms, and the chapter does not say where it hung. Verse 33 puts it “under the taches,” the gold clasps joining the two halves of the linen covering, which would place it halfway and give two rooms of fifteen cubits each.

Solomon’s temple later used a different proportion, forty cubits for the outer room and twenty for the inner (1 Kings 6:16-17), and that inner room was a perfect cube, twenty by twenty by twenty (1 Kings 6:20). Most take the tabernacle the same way, twenty cubits for the holy place and ten for the most holy, making the room that held the ark ten cubits in every direction. It is a reasonable reading of a measurement Exodus 26 never gives.

Counts

Observations from Exodus 26

Everything Gets Simpler Toward the Door (Exodus 26:1, 26:31, 26:36-37)

Four things change as the building moves outward from the ark. The clasps go from gold on the inner layer to brass on the outer (26:6, 26:11). The sockets go from silver under the walls and the veil to brass under the door (26:19, 26:32, 26:37).

The workmanship goes from “cunning work” on the inner curtains and the veil to “needlework” at the doorway (26:1, 26:31, 26:36), which names a different craft from the one used inside. And the woven cherubim appear on the inner curtains and on the veil, and are not mentioned on the door hanging at all. Nearer the presence, costlier and finer. This gradation is in the text rather than read into it.

The East Side Never Gets a Wall (Exodus 26:18-25)

God gives boards for the south, the north and the west, and then stops. The east side is never given any, because the east side is the way in (26:36). So the building has three walls and one opening, and everything else in the chapter is arranged around that single door. Exodus 26 ends at it, and Exodus 27 carries on outward into the courtyard.

Why east, the chapter does not say, and commentators have reached opposite answers: some that it turned worshippers away from the rising sun the nations bowed to, others that it caught the sun’s warmth at the front of the tent. Neither reason is in the text, which shows how much of the tabernacle’s meaning is supplied by readers rather than by Moses.

Difficult Verses Explained

What Are “Badgers’ Skins” in Exodus 26:14?

Nobody is certain what animal the word means. The Hebrew word behind “badgers’ skins” is used so rarely that English versions render it badger, porpoise, sea cow, goatskin, or simply durable leather, and the translators are guessing from context rather than from evidence. What the skin was for is clear enough. It formed the outermost layer, laid over the ram leather to keep sun and rain off everything underneath while the camp moved through the desert.

Why Does the KJV Call the Goats’ Hair a “Covering” and Then a “Tabernacle”?

Because one Hebrew word is being translated two different ways. Verse 7 calls the goats’ hair “a covering upon the tabernacle” and verse 9 calls the same thing “the forefront of the tabernacle,” but the Hebrew has three separate nouns here: a word for the dwelling itself, a word for the tent stretched over it, and a word for the skins laid on top of that.

The King James uses “tabernacle” for the first, and then uses “covering” for both the second and the third. Read without that in mind, verses 1, 7 and 14 look like three descriptions of one thing when they are three different layers.

What Does “The Middle Bar in the Midst of the Boards” Mean in Exodus 26:28?

The verse says the middle bar ran the full length of the wall, and it does not say how. Older Jewish tradition read “in the midst of the boards” as running through a hole bored inside the timber itself, so the bar was hidden.

Others read it as running along the middle of the boards’ height, held in the gold rings like the other four. The second reading fits a structure that had to be taken apart and carried, and it also explains why the bar was overlaid with gold, which would be pointless on a bar nobody could see. Scripture does not settle it.

Common Misunderstandings

• That this chapter is filler between the interesting parts. Hebrews 8:5 treats these very instructions as “the example and shadow of heavenly things” and quotes Exodus 26:30 to do it. Whatever else the chapter is, the New Testament does not read it as padding.
• That every colour, number and material carries a fixed hidden meaning. Many teachers read blue as heaven, purple as royalty and scarlet as sacrifice, and Scripture does associate those colours with those ideas elsewhere. Exodus 26 itself assigns no meaning to any colour, number or metal, so these readings are worth hearing as suggestions and not as what the chapter says.
• That the veil proves God did not want to be near His people. The veil sits inside a building God commanded so that He could move into the camp (Exodus 25:8). The barrier is real, and it stands in the middle of an arrival rather than a departure.
• That a portable tent made God a local deity like the gods of the nations. The tent moved because Israel moved. Solomon says it plainly at the dedication of a far grander building: “the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?” (1 Kings 8:27). The house was never the size of God.

Christ Connection

The centre of this chapter is the veil, and the New Testament says outright what it stood for. While it hung, it preached: “The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing” (Hebrews 9:8). The barrier itself was the message that the way in was still closed.

Then Hebrews names what finally opened it: “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh” (Hebrews 10:19-20). The way into God’s presence now runs through the body of Jesus. Hebrews states that outright, as what the curtain always stood for.

And the tent itself points the same way. Exodus 26 is God arranging to live among people who could not come near Him, and the arrangement was always temporary. The connections the New Testament draws are these:

• The veil torn. At the moment Jesus died, “the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom” (Matthew 27:51). Matthew says which way it tore, from the top down, which many read as a sign that no human hand opened it.
• The tent pitched. “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). The word behind “dwelt” is the word for pitching a tent. God moved into the camp again, this time in a body.
• The pattern kept. Hebrews 8:5 quotes Exodus 26:30 and calls the whole structure a copy of something real in heaven, which is why the measurements were not Moses’ to adjust.
• The house paid for. The hundred silver sockets under this building were cast from the half shekel every counted Israelite paid (Exodus 38:27), and God had called that half shekel “a ransom for his soul” (Exodus 30:12) and “the atonement money of the children of Israel” (Exodus 30:16). Every man’s redemption price went into the blocks the sanctuary stood on.
• The tent enlarged. The Hebrew word for the curtains of Exodus 26 turns up again in Isaiah, where God tells His people to make the tent bigger: “Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations” (Isaiah 54:2). Isaiah is picturing a household outgrowing its tent, and Paul quotes the opening of that same passage and applies it to the church (Galatians 4:26-27).
• The arrangement ended. “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them” (Revelation 21:3), in a city where John says there is no temple at all (Revelation 21:22).

When, Where, and Why

• When: During Moses’ forty days on Mount Sinai (Exodus 24:18), roughly three months after Israel left Egypt (Exodus 19:1). Many date the exodus to around 1446 BC, though the date is debated and should be held loosely. Nothing is built yet in this chapter. The work itself is carried out later, almost word for word, in Exodus 36:8-38, and the tabernacle is finally raised in Exodus 40:17-21.
• Where: On the mountain in the wilderness of Sinai, with the camp of Israel below. The setting matters because the people had no land yet, so the sanctuary had to be one that could be taken down, carried, and set up again.
• Why: Because God had said He would dwell among them (Exodus 25:8), and the terms of that had to come from Him rather than from Israel. The detail is the point: Moses is copying something he was shown, not designing worship. Six chapters later, when Israel does design its own worship at the golden calf, the contrast is the reason this chapter is so exact.

Key Verses

“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.”

Exodus 26:1

Make the tabernacle out of ten curtains of finely spun linen, coloured blue, purple and scarlet, and have a skilled weaver work figures of cherubim into them. The verse matters for where it sits: it is the opening instruction, and God opens at the centre and works outward, so the order of this chapter runs from the ark to the door rather than the way a visitor would walk it.

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

Exodus 26:30

Set the tabernacle up the way you saw it on the mountain. God has now said this three times in two chapters (Exodus 25:9, Exodus 25:40, Exodus 26:30), and the repetition is the closest the instructions come to insisting on something.

“And the vail shall divide unto you between the holy place and the most holy.”

Exodus 26:33

The curtain marks the boundary between the holy place and the most holy place. One curtain decided how close anyone could come to God, and it is the object the New Testament reaches for when it explains what the death of Jesus opened.

Key Lessons from Exodus 26

• God gave Israel the plan before He gave them the reason, and asked them to build it exactly (Exodus 26:30).
• The whole weight of God’s house rested on silver Israel had already paid as a ransom for their own souls (Exodus 26:19; Exodus 30:12; Exodus 38:27).
• God put the beauty of His house under three layers of covering and left weathered hide facing the world (Exodus 26:1; Exodus 26:14).
• God commanded the barrier at the veil, and God was the one who tore it open (Exodus 26:33; Matthew 27:51).

To go deeper into the lessons from this chapter, read our full study: Lessons from Exodus 26.

Bible Study Questions

1. Read Exodus 26:1-14 and list the four coverings in order. Which one would someone standing outside the camp have seen?

Verse 30 gives the only reason in the chapter. What does it say, and what does it tell you about how Israel was meant to approach worship?‌

1. Compare the veil in verses 31 and 32 with the door hanging in verses 36 and 37. What is different about the workmanship, the figures woven in, and the metal under the pillars?
2. The chapter says twice that the joined curtains were to be “one” (26:6, 26:11). Why might God name that as the goal of a fastening instruction?
3. Hebrews 9:8 says the veil signified that the way into the holiest was not yet open. What changes for you in reading Exodus 26:33 alongside Matthew 27:51?
4. Where in your own life are you being asked to obey an instruction before you understand the reason for it?

To test what you remember of the chapter, try our Exodus 26 quiz with answers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Exodus 26, The Full Text (KJV)

Read the full chapter below for reference.

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.