The descriptions of the Tabernacle extend across four portions of Exodus: Terumah, Tetzaveh, Vayakhel, and Pekudei. Altogether it is described six times:
God’s command to Moses to build the Tabernacle, beginning with the instruction to speak to Israel and have them bring an offering (דַּבֵּר אֶל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְיִקְחוּ לִי תְּרוּמָה; Exodus 25:1–27:9), together with the supplementary passages on the incense altar (30:1–9) and basin (30:17–21).
Moses’ command to the Israelites, beginning with his announcement of God’s command to take an offering from among them (זֶה הַדָּבָר אֲשֶׁר צִוָּה ה’ לֵאמֹר קְחוּ מֵאִתְּכֶם תְּרוּמָה לַה’; Exodus 35:4–29).
The account of construction, beginning with the skilled workers making the Tabernacle (וַיַּעֲשׂוּ כָל חֲכַם לֵב בְּעֹשֵׂי הַמְּלָאכָה אֶת הַמִּשְׁכָּן; Exodus 36:8–39:32).
Bringing the Tabernacle to Moses, beginning with “And they brought the tabernacle unto Moses” (וַיָּבִיאוּ אֶת הַמִּשְׁכָּן אֶל מֹשֶׁה; Exodus 39:33–43).
The command to erect the Tabernacle, beginning with “On the first day of the first month shalt thou rear up the tabernacle of the tent of meeting” (בְּיוֹם הַחֹדֶשׁ הָרִאשׁוֹן בְּאֶחָד לַחֹדֶשׁ תָּקִים אֶת מִשְׁכַּן אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד; Exodus 40:2–16).
Moses’ erection of the Tabernacle, opening with “And it came to pass in the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month, that the tabernacle was reared up” (וַיְהִי בַּחֹדֶשׁ הָרִאשׁוֹן בַּשָּׁנָה הַשֵּׁנִית בְּאֶחָד לַחֹדֶשׁ הוּקַם הַמִּשְׁכָּן; Exodus 40:17–38).
In this chapter I will examine the order in which the Torah describes the Tabernacle and its furnishings, and why it places one detail before another. I will explain when it changes that order, and above all why.
Which Comes First: the Structure or the Furnishings?
The descriptions include furnishings such as the ark, table, and altar of burnt offering, as well as building components such as boards and courtyard hangings. In every description except God’s initial command to Moses, the structural parts precede the furnishings: first boards and curtains, then ark, table, and lampstand. In the courtyard, however, the order is reversed. Its furnishings, the altar and basin, precede the hangings and entrance screen that define its perimeter. Why does the order differ between the Tabernacle and courtyard?
One answer lies in the different functions of the Tabernacle structure and courtyard hangings. Both enclose what lies within them, but the structure, consisting of tent curtains and boards, defines the sanctuary’s place. Only after that place is defined are the furnishings put inside. The structure therefore precedes them. The courtyard hangings do not define the Tabernacle’s place; rather, the Tabernacle determines their position, and the courtyard furnishings are located relative to it. The hangings merely surround it to keep outsiders from entering the tent of meeting, so they are mentioned last.
A further reason concerns the furnishings’ different purposes. The inner furnishings, such as table and lampstand, serve functions performed within a building. A lampstand, for instance, makes sense only within the structure; outside it offers no benefit. Their existence presupposes the building into which they will be placed, so its components precede them. By contrast, the outer furnishings, altar and basin, are not intended to stand inside any building, even within the courtyard hangings. The hangings are subordinate to them, serving merely as a fence. The courtyard furnishings therefore come first.
The Tabernacle’s Purposes
As noted, the structure precedes the furnishings in all descriptions except God’s first command, in which ark, table, and lampstand precede the boards and curtains. Why?
Examining the introduction to that first command reveals that, unlike the command itself, it mentions the structure before the furnishings, as the other descriptions do:
And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. According to all that I show thee, the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the furniture thereof, even so shall ye make it. (Exodus 25:8–9)
וְעָשׂוּ לִי מִקְדָּשׁ וְשָׁכַנְתִּי בְּתוֹכָם. כְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר אֲנִי מַרְאֶה אוֹתְךָ אֵת תַּבְנִית הַמִּשְׁכָּן וְאֵת תַּבְנִית כָּל כֵּלָיו וְכֵן תַּעֲשׂוּ. (שמות כ"ה ח-ט)
Closer examination shows that this first description differs essentially from the others. Besides being our first encounter with the Tabernacle, it alone states its purposes.
Its construction served two purposes, expressed in its different names. The primary purpose was to house God’s presence, expressed by Mishkan, “dwelling.” The second was to provide a meeting place with God, expressed by Ohel Moed, “tent of meeting.” The structure and ark were the respective focal points of these purposes. The structure housed the divine presence, hence the opening statement that they should make a sanctuary for God to dwell among them (וְעָשׂוּ לִי מִקְדָּשׁ וְשָׁכַנְתִּי בְּתוֹכָם). The ark was the place of meeting: God commands its construction and promises to meet and speak with Moses above the ark-cover, between its cherubim (Exodus 25:14–22).
Notice that the general sanctuary command, “they shall make” (וְעָשׂוּ לִי מִקְדָּשׁ), and the ark command, “they shall make” (וְעָשׂוּ אֲרוֹן), have an identical plural form. The other commands use the singular “thou shalt make” (וְעָשִׂיתָ): a table, a gold lampstand, and so forth. The matching form for sanctuary and ark, unlike the other furnishings, supports their distinctive status. They were the focal points in which the purposes were realized; the other furnishings, curtains, and boards served the overarching purposes of dwelling and meeting.
Placing the furnishings before the structural components can therefore be explained by the need to state the purposes first, embodied in the whole structure and the ark. Yet why, after finishing those focal components and moving to the rest, does the Torah begin with the remaining furnishings rather than the building components?
This may be a technical, stylistic matter. After the discussion of purposes ends with the ark, the central furnishing, the Torah continues with the other furnishings and their purposes before describing the structure’s components. But the reason may be substantive, connected to the focus on purposes.
The furnishings have individual purposes: the table bears bread continually before God (Exodus 25:30), and the lampstand illuminates the Tabernacle (25:37). God’s command emphasizes those purposes. The structural components have no individual purpose beyond forming the building where the divine presence will dwell, already stated at the beginning. The Torah therefore gives the furnishings and their distinct purposes before detailing the curtains and boards, whose purpose has already been described.
The exceptional reversal in God’s command – furnishings first, then boards and curtains – thus arose from the basic need to present the Tabernacle’s purposes first. In the other five descriptions, the focus is on the relationships between structure and furnishings. The enclosure therefore precedes the inner furnishings, while the reverse holds for courtyard furnishings and hangings.
Curtains and Boards
All descriptions mention the coverings before the boards. In lists of components this is unremarkable. When the same order appears in Moses’ erection of the Tabernacle, however, it is puzzling: how can a roof be placed before the building? The text says:
And Moses reared up the tabernacle, and laid its sockets, and set up the boards thereof, and put in the bars thereof, and reared up its pillars. And he spread the tent over the tabernacle, and put the covering of the tent above upon it; as the LORD commanded Moses. (Exodus 40:18–19)
וַיָּקֶם מֹשֶׁה אֶת הַמִּשְׁכָּן וַיִּתֵּן אֶת אֲדָנָיו וַיָּשֶׂם אֶת קְרָשָׁיו וַיִּתֵּן אֶת בְּרִיחָיו וַיָּקֶם אֶת עַמּוּדָיו. וַיִּפְרֹשׂ אֶת הָאֹהֶל עַל הַמִּשְׁכָּן וַיָּשֶׂם אֶת מִכְסֵה הָאֹהֶל עָלָיו מִלְמָעְלָה כַּאֲשֶׁר צִוָּה ה' אֶת מֹשֶׁה. (שמות מ' יח-יט)
The word Mishkan has two meanings in the Torah. Usually it denotes the entire Tabernacle structure, but sometimes it denotes the innermost of its three coverings, made of blue, purple, scarlet, and fine twined linen. Above it were goat-hair curtains, called “the tent,” and above those, ram skins dyed red and tahash skins, called “coverings.” What does “Moses reared up the tabernacle” mean here? If Mishkan names the whole structure and introduces its ensuing components – sockets, boards, bars, and pillars in verse 18 – the account omits spreading the lowest curtains, although it describes spreading the upper coverings in verse 19. It is therefore more likely that Mishkan denotes the lowest curtains. On this account these were spread first, with sockets, boards, and pillars inserted underneath afterward. How was that practically possible? What supported the curtains before the boards were placed? Even if a technical solution existed, would it not be better to spread a building’s roof after erecting the building?
The question assumes that the curtains served as the structure’s ceiling, supported by boards serving as tent poles. But that assumption about their function is incorrect. As I noted in “The Meeting Tent, the Veil, and the Incense Altar,” an earlier tent of meeting outside the camp provided a meeting place for those seeking God (Exodus 33:7–8). It was an ordinary tent without boards, as suggested by “pitched” (נָטָה), indicating fabric supported by an internal pole. When the Tabernacle was erected, that tent merged with it and was absorbed into it. The Tabernacle curtains represented the former freestanding tent outside the camp. They were not spread merely as a ceiling for the boards but as a tent standing in its own right, like the earlier tent of meeting. Indeed, their consistent precedence over the boards implies their essential independence. The boards inserted beneath them were not intended to support the curtains but to give the space under them a permanent, dignified structure.
If the boards did not initially support the roof curtains, what did? Apparently, during erection the curtains rested temporarily on a central pole and cords like those of Moses’ tent outside the camp. Ibn Ezra writes similarly:
“And Moses reared up the tabernacle”: these are the curtains, with wooden implements and cords; afterward he arranged the boards and placed the sockets and pillars. (Ibn Ezra, short commentary, Exodus 40:18)
Once installed, the boards could also support the curtains. The central pole was therefore unnecessary in the finished structure and functioned only as temporary scaffolding. The Torah abbreviates these intermediate steps without mentioning it. Instead, it emphasizes the essential point: the curtains formed an independent tent and did not need the boards’ support.
The principal element of the structure was thus its curtains, not its boards. The curtains made it a Tabernacle; the boards’ secondary role was to turn the space formed by the temporary curtains into a permanent, dignified enclosure. Their relationship resembles that between a sukkah’s roofing and walls. There too the covering, the sekhakh, is primary; the walls are subordinate and need not support it, as anyone familiar with the laws of sukkah knows.
