2. a donation. The Hebrew terumah is a noun derived from a verb that means “to elevate,” and, among several biblical terms for gift, it is the one that designates a donation for use in the cult or by the priests. This verse inaugurates an elaborate catalogue of instructions about the design of the Tabernacle and its furnishings that will take up the rest of the Book of Exodus, with the exception of the episode of the Golden Calf in chapters 32–34. Modern readers may well be perplexed as to why the compelling narrative of the liberation from Egypt and the revelation on Mount Sinai should be set aside for this lengthy account of cultic paraphernalia. The historical circumstances of the assembling of the Torah must surely be kept in mind. That editorial process in all likelihood took place in Priestly circles early in the period of the return from Babylonian exile (later sixth century B.C.E.). The strong scholarly consensus is that these chapters are the work of the Priestly writers (P), and the fascination with all the minute details of cultic paraphernalia seems a clear reflection of P’s special interests. One may nevertheless ask why the editors, however sacerdotal their concerns, chose to introduce this large block of material at the very moment when Moses has disappeared into the cloud on the mountaintop to commune with God. That moment in the story is marked by the people’s fearful distance from the fiery divine presence up above and the daring closeness of one man, Moses the intercessor, to the deity. Against this background, the architectural plan for the Tabernacle and its décor offers a reassuring antithesis. God will come down from above to dwell among His people within the securely designated sanctum of the Tabernacle, will sit enthroned on the cherubim carved above the Ark of the Covenant, from whence He will issue divine instruction (verse 22), and where He will be accessible through the cultic mediation of the priests. The divinely endorsed donations and cultic procedures, moreover, set up a contrast with the transgressive donations that enable the forbidden cult of the Golden Calf. For further comments on the role of this long section, see the introduction to Exodus.

4. indigo and purple and crimson. These, at any rate, are the ends of the spectrum reflected by these color words, there being some margin of doubt about the precise indication of chromatic terms and considerably more doubt about the identification of precious stones in these lists. The first two colors indicate dyes extracted from a species of murex, and of Phoenician manufacture; the third is a dye derived from the eggs of scale insects found on oak trees. Both processes of dye production were immensely laborious and costly, and hence these colors were used especially for royal garments throughout the eastern part of the Mediterranean (one may recall Agamemnon “treading on purple” in the great welcome-carpet scene Clytemnestra stages for him near the beginning of the Oresteia). It is hard to imagine that these precious dyes would have been accessible to the Hebrews in the wilderness—this is one of several indications that the picture of the Tabernacle is in many ways an ideal projection rather than a strictly historical account.

5. ocher-dyed skins. Many translations interpret the Hebrew teḥashim as “dolphins” or “dugongs,” but a more plausible connection has been made with an Akkadian term that indicates a yellow or orange dye. That would be in keeping with the focus on brilliantly dyed stuff in the previous verse.

8. Tabernacle. The Hebrew mishkan literally means “abode” (“that I shall abide in their midst”). It is, of course, a portable sanctuary, to be carried from encampment to encampment in the wilderness, and provisions are made for carrying the Ark, beginning in verse 12. The mishkan looks like an amalgam of recollections of an ancient portable sanctuary—Umberto Cassuto notes certain parallels in Ugaritic literature—and a retrojection to the Wilderness period of the Jerusalem temple. More recent scholars detect a resemblance to the bicameral design and proportions of Pharaoh Rameses II’s tent used in military campaigns.

12. its four feet. One may infer that there were actually small carved feet at the four bottom corners so that the Ark would not rest directly on the ground.

16. set in the Ark the tablets of the Covenant. “Tablets” is merely implied by ellipsis. The word for “covenant” here is ʿedut, a synonym for the more prevalent berit. The stone tablets of the Law are the document of the eternal contract between God and Israel, and their placement here reflects a common ancient Near Eastern practice of placing documents of solemn contracts within sacred precincts.

18. cherubim. The Hebrew keruvim is derived from a root that suggests “hybrid” or “composite” and perhaps also “steed.” These are fearsome winged beasts (compare the Egyptian sphinx) that figure in poetry as God’s celestial steeds and that here serve as His terrestrial throne, “enthroned upon cherubim” being an epithet for the deity. (See the comment on Genesis 3:24.)

22. And I shall meet with you there. The “you” (singular) is Moses. The verb translated as “meet” has the sense of appointing a fixed time and place.

29. chalices. Though the Hebrew menaqiot might seem to derive from the verb that means “to clean” and so mean something like “scrapers,” Cassuto argues persuasively that these would have to be receptacles for pouring libations, and he cites cognates in Akkadian and Ugaritic.

30. the Presence. Literally, “face,” a word often used to designate “presence” for royal, or divine figures.

31. from that work. Literally, “from it,” the antecedent being “hammered work.”

40. see, and make it by their pattern which you are shown on the mountain. Rashi comments here: “to tell us that Moses had difficulty with the fashioning of the lamp stand, until the Holy One showed him a lamp stand of fire.” It is in fact no easy task to reconstruct the actual design of the lamp stand from these verbal instructions. The Priestly writer himself may have been aware of this difficulty and thus emphasizes that Moses was vouchsafed a vision (“you are shown”) of the precise pattern of the lamp stand. In any case, this reference to Moses’s being shown the pattern on the mountain reflects an effort to anchor the instructions for the Tabernacle, which look like an independent literary unit, in the narrative context that in effect they disrupt.