Exodus 36 Summary and Study Guide: The Offering That Had to Be Stopped

Is it possible to give God too much? The men building the tabernacle put down their tools, walked over to Moses, and told him the people had to be stopped. Verse 5 is where this Exodus 36 summary begins.

Setting the Stage

At Mount Sinai God asked Israel for a building. He wanted a tent, a tabernacle, so that He could live among His own people: “let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them” (Exodus 25:8). Then He gave Moses the full design for it over seven chapters, down to the loops and the clasps.

Israel did not build it straight away. While Moses was still on the mountain, they melted their gold earrings into a calf and worshipped it. The agreement God had made with them at Sinai was broken by that calf and then mended, and the gold that had gone into an idol was asked for again. Exodus 36 is where that gold finally goes where God asked for it.

Comprehensive Exodus 36 Summary

Bezaleel, Aholiab and every skilled worker God had gifted begin the work of the sanctuary, and Moses hands them the materials Israel has already brought. The people do not stop bringing. Morning after morning more arrives, until the craftsmen leave their benches, come to Moses together, and tell him the people are bringing much more than the work needs.

Moses has a proclamation carried through the camp: no man or woman is to make anything more for the offering. The people stop, because what had already come in was enough and more than enough.

From verse 8 the chapter turns to what those workers made, and it follows the design God gave in Exodus 26 almost word for word, changed from a command into a record. It lists the tabernacle from the inside out. The embroidered linen curtains a priest would see from within come first, then the goats’ hair tent that covers them, then two layers of hide over that against the weather.

Only after the fabric does the frame arrive, the acacia boards standing upright in their silver sockets and braced with bars, boards and bars alike overlaid with gold. The chapter closes with the two hangings that decide who goes where: the vail, worked with cherubims, shutting off the most holy place, and the door hanging at the entrance of the tent.

One Word Summary

• Enough: the materials were sufficient and too much (v.7)
• Willing: God gave the skill, and their own hearts brought them (v.2)
• Coupled: the chapter’s own word for what the builders kept doing
• Exact: everything made according to all that the LORD commanded (v.1)

In One Sentence

Bezaleel, Aholiab and Israel’s skilled workers begin building the tabernacle, the people bring so much for it that Moses has to proclaim through the camp that nobody may bring any more, and the curtains, boards, bars, vail and door are then made exactly as God had commanded in Exodus 26.

Theme of Exodus 36

Exodus 36 is about a people doing exactly what God said, and bringing so much for it that they had to be told to stop. Two supports run alongside that. God supplied both the skill and the willingness, putting wisdom in the workers’ hearts and stirring those hearts to come (verses 1 and 2).

And the length of the chapter is part of what it says: every curtain, board and clasp is listed a second time because the record is meant to show that the pattern God gave in Exodus 26 is the thing that actually got built.

Exodus 36 Outline

• Exodus 36:1-2: Bezaleel, Aholiab and every wise hearted man are called to begin the work of the sanctuary.
• Exodus 36:3: They receive the offerings from Moses, and the people keep bringing more every morning.
• Exodus 36:4-5: The workmen leave their work and tell Moses the people are bringing much more than enough.
• Exodus 36:6-7: Moses has it proclaimed through the camp that nobody is to bring any more, and the people stop.
• Exodus 36:8-13: Ten linen curtains with cherubims are made and joined with fifty gold taches into one tabernacle.
• Exodus 36:14-18: Eleven goats’ hair curtains are made for the tent above and joined with fifty taches of brass.
• Exodus 36:19: Two outer coverings are made, rams’ skins dyed red and badgers’ skins above them.
• Exodus 36:20-30: Forty-eight boards of shittim wood are made with ninety-six silver sockets for the three sides.
• Exodus 36:31-34: Bars of shittim wood are made, including the middle bar, and the boards and bars are overlaid with gold.
• Exodus 36:35-36: The vail is made with cherubims and hung on four gold-overlaid pillars in silver sockets.
• Exodus 36:37-38: A hanging is made for the door of the tent, on five pillars with gold-overlaid tops and sockets of brass.

What the Craftsmen Made

Shittim wood is acacia, a hard desert timber. Taches are clasps, chapiters are the tops of the pillars, and fillets are the metal bands just below them. A cubit is roughly eighteen inches, so the measurements below are given in feet as well.

Observations from Exodus 36

God Is Not Named Again After Verse 5

“The LORD” appears in verses 1, 2 and 5, and the title “God” is not in this chapter at all. From verse 6 to the end, forty-eight boards and two hangings are made without one further word from God on record. The instructions had already been given in full, back in Exodus 26, and the rest of the chapter shows the obedience carrying on with nobody being told again.

The Builders Lose Their Names at Verse 8

Bezaleel and Aholiab are named in verses 1 and 2 and never again. Moses is named in verses 2 to 6 and never again. After that the chapter says only “he made”, over and over, without saying who. Gill notes that this “he” could be Moses, under whose orders it was done, or Bezaleel as chief, or each craftsman in turn. The record keeps the work and lets the workers go unnamed.

The Chapter’s Own Verb Is “Coupled”

Some form of the word “couple” runs through verses 10 to 29, and twice the chapter says outright what all that joining was for. Verse 13: “so it became one tabernacle.” Verse 18: “that it might be one.” Fifty clasps at a time were turning separate pieces of cloth into a single dwelling, and the writer stops to say so.

Verse 6 Stops Work, Not Only Gifts

Moses proclaims, “Let neither man nor woman make any more work for the offering of the sanctuary.” He is not only telling people to stop handing things in; he is telling them to stop producing things to hand in.

Exodus 35:25-26 says the women spun the blue, purple, scarlet and goats’ hair with their own hands, which may suggest that what had to be restrained was largely handmade, and that the people with the least to spare were among the hardest to stop.

Difficult Verses Explained

Why Did Moses Tell the People to Stop Giving?

Because the materials were already sufficient, not because the giving was wrong. Verse 7 gives the reason immediately after the command, and it points at the supplies rather than at the givers: there was already enough on hand to finish the whole job. Exodus 35:29 has already called this same giving willing, and what Moses closes is a collection that has met its target.

What Are “Badgers’ Skins”?

They were the outermost covering of the tent, and Scripture does not settle what animal they came from. The Hebrew word behind the King James “badgers’ skins” is not certainly identified, and modern translations render it porpoise skins, sealskins, fine leather and fine goatskin leather. Its purpose is plain enough: a tough outer hide over the red-dyed rams’ skins, taking the weather.

What Does Exodus 36:29 Describe?

It describes how the two back corners of the tabernacle were braced. “They were coupled beneath, and coupled together at the head thereof, to one ring.” Two boards at each rear corner were doubled at the bottom and fastened at the top into a single ring, so the corner held square. The sentence is hard in every translation, and commentators from Cambridge onward have said so.

Common Misunderstandings

• That Exodus 36 is where the offering was collected. The call for offerings and the bringing of gold, silver and brass are Exodus 35:4-29. Exodus 36 opens with the workmen already at work and the materials already in Moses’ hands.
• That the chapter assigns a meaning to each material. Popular treatments say silver stands for redemption, gold for purity, goats’ hair for sin. Exodus 36 assigns no meaning to any material it names. Those readings may be drawn from elsewhere in Scripture, but they should not be presented as what this chapter teaches.
• That the chapter encourages giving past what you have so that God will repay it. The movement here runs the other way. The giving was stopped once the need was met, and verse 7 names the materials, not the givers, as the reason.

Christ Connection

God gave the reason for the tabernacle before He gave a single plan for it. He wanted a sanctuary built for one purpose, to have a dwelling place with His people (Exodus 25:8). Everything in Exodus 36 serves that purpose, and the answer to it comes in the opening of John’s Gospel: “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14).

God came to live among His people in person, and the tent Bezaleel built was the picture of it. Hebrews 8:5 says those who served that tent served “the example and shadow of heavenly things”, and Colossians 2:17 puts it plainly, that these things were a shadow and “the body is of Christ.”

The vail of verse 35 makes the same point from the other side. It was woven with cherubims and it stood between the holy place and the most holy, closing the way to the ark (Exodus 26:33). It was made to keep people out. At the death of Jesus, “the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom” (Matthew 27:51), torn from top to bottom while nobody touched it.

Hebrews 10:19-20 explains what that tearing meant: believers now have “boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus”, by a new and living way “through the veil, that is to say, his flesh.” Exodus 36 records the making of that barrier. Christ is the one who opened it.

When, Where, and Why

• When: at Mount Sinai, in the second year after Israel left Egypt. Exodus 40:17 dates the raising of the finished tabernacle to the first day of the first month of that second year, so the work of this chapter falls shortly before it.
• Where: the camp at the foot of Sinai. The chapter does not say where in the camp the craftsmen worked, and Gill points out as much, so it names no workshop to picture.
• Why: Moses records the building in this much detail so a reader can compare it with the commands of Exodus 25 to 31 and see that what God said is what was made. It also shows what Israel looked like after the golden calf. The last time the reader saw Israel’s gold, it was being melted into an idol.

Key Verses

“Then wrought Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every wise hearted man, in whom the LORD put wisdom and understanding to know how to work all manner of work for the service of the sanctuary, according to all that the LORD had commanded.”

Exodus 36:1

Bezaleel, Aholiab and every skilled man got to work, and the ability to do it had been put in them by God, for one purpose and according to one instruction. Commentators read it as introducing the whole account that runs on to the end of Exodus 39.

“And Moses called Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every wise hearted man, in whose heart the LORD had put wisdom, even every one whose heart stirred him up to come unto the work to do it.”

Exodus 36:2

“Wise hearted” does not mean clever. The Hebrew is literally “wise of heart”, and here it means skilled: God had put the ability into these men’s hands. Their own hearts then moved them to come and use it.

“For the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it, and too much.”

Exodus 36:7

The materials already gathered were enough to finish the whole job, with more left over. Verse 7 is where the chapter gives its reason, and the proclamation in verse 6 rests on it.

Key Lessons from Exodus 36

• God gave these men the skill for the work He called them to, and still waited for hearts that were willing to come (verses 1 and 2).
• Giving that is genuinely willing can run past what a work actually needs, and Israel’s did (verses 5 and 7).
• The men handling the offerings were the ones best placed to keep the surplus, instead they left their work to report it (verses 4 and 5).
• Knowing when a work has enough is part of leading it, and Moses proclaimed the limit rather than accepting more without a word (verses 6 and 7).

To go deeper into the lessons from this chapter, read our full study: Lessons from Exodus 36.

Bible Study Questions

1. According to verse 1, where did the workers’ ability to build the sanctuary come from, and what were they to build it according to?
2. Verse 2 names two things about the men Moses called. What are they, and why does it matter that the chapter names both?
3. What exactly did the workmen say to Moses in verse 5, and what had they stopped doing in order to say it?
4. Read verse 3 and verse 6 together. What were the people doing in verse 3 that verse 6 tells them to stop?
5. Verse 7 gives the reason for the proclamation. Who or what does that reason point at, and who does it not point at?
6. Verses 13 and 18 both stop to say that something became one. What was being joined in each case, and why might the writer say it twice?
7. Compare Exodus 32:2-3 with Exodus 36:3. The same people are handing over gold in both places. What is different?
8. Verses 8 to 38 repeat the instructions of Exodus 26 almost word for word. What does the repetition tell you about how Israel handled what God had said?

Frequently Asked Questions

Exodus 36, The Full Text (KJV)

Read the full chapter below for reference.

1 Then wrought Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every wise hearted man, in whom the LORD put wisdom and understanding to know how to work all manner of work for the service of the sanctuary, according to all that the LORD had commanded.

2 And Moses called Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every wise hearted man, in whose heart the LORD had put wisdom, even every one whose heart stirred him up to come unto the work to do it:

3 And they received of Moses all the offering, which the children of Israel had brought for the work of the service of the sanctuary, to make it withal. And they brought yet unto him free offerings every morning.

4 And all the wise men, that wrought all the work of the sanctuary, came every man from his work which they made;

5 And they spake unto Moses, saying, The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work, which the LORD commanded to make.

6 And Moses gave commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp, saying, Let neither man nor woman make any more work for the offering of the sanctuary. So the people were restrained from bringing.

7 For the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it, and too much.

8 And every wise hearted man among them that wrought the work of the tabernacle made ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet: with cherubims of cunning work made he them.

9 The length of one curtain was twenty and eight cubits, and the breadth of one curtain four cubits: the curtains were all of one size.

10 And he coupled the five curtains one unto another: and the other five curtains he coupled one unto another.

11 And he made loops of blue on the edge of one curtain from the selvedge in the coupling: likewise he made in the uttermost side of another curtain, in the coupling of the second.

12 Fifty loops made he in one curtain, and fifty loops made he in the edge of the curtain which was in the coupling of the second: the loops held one curtain to another.

13 And he made fifty taches of gold, and coupled the curtains one unto another with the taches: so it became one tabernacle.

14 And he made curtains of goats’ hair for the tent over the tabernacle: eleven curtains he made them.

15 The length of one curtain was thirty cubits, and four cubits was the breadth of one curtain: the eleven curtains were of one size.

16 And he coupled five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves.

17 And he made fifty loops upon the uttermost edge of the curtain in the coupling, and fifty loops made he upon the edge of the curtain which coupleth the second.

18 And he made fifty taches of brass to couple the tent together, that it might be one.

19 And he made a covering for the tent of rams’ skins dyed red, and a covering of badgers’ skins above that.

20 And he made boards for the tabernacle of shittim wood, standing up.

21 The length of a board was ten cubits, and the breadth of a board one cubit and a half.

22 One board had two tenons, equally distant one from another: thus did he make for all the boards of the tabernacle.

23 And he made boards for the tabernacle; twenty boards for the south side southward:

24 And forty sockets of silver he made under the twenty boards; two sockets under one board for his two tenons, and two sockets under another board for his two tenons.

25 And for the other side of the tabernacle, which is toward the north corner, he made twenty boards,

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

27 And for the sides of the tabernacle westward he made six boards.

28 And two boards made he for the corners of the tabernacle in the two sides.

29 And they were coupled beneath, and coupled together at the head thereof, to one ring: thus he did to both of them in both the corners.

30 And there were eight boards; and their sockets were sixteen sockets of silver, under every board two sockets.

31 And he made bars of shittim wood; five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle,

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

33 And he made the middle bar to shoot through the boards from the one end to the other.

34 And he overlaid the boards with gold, and made their rings of gold to be places for the bars, and overlaid the bars with gold.

35 And he made a vail of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen: with cherubims made he it of cunning work.

36 And he made thereunto four pillars of shittim wood, and overlaid them with gold: their hooks were of gold; and he cast for them four sockets of silver.

37 And he made an hanging for the tabernacle door of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, of needlework;

38 And the five pillars of it with their hooks: and he overlaid their chapiters and their fillets with gold: but their five sockets were of brass.