Tabernacle

The tabernacle was a portable sanctuary, a tent on a wooden frame. Exodus describes it in detail: upright frames of acacia wood overlaid with gold, covered by ten linen curtains in blue, purple and scarlet worked with cherubim, then layers of goat hair, ram skins dyed red and leather. About 30 cubits by 10, some 13.5 by 4.5 meters, it was divided by a veil into the Holy Place, with the lampstand, the table of the bread of the Presence and the incense altar, and the Most Holy Place, where the ark stood. A courtyard of linen screens, about 45 by 23 meters, held the bronze altar and the basin.

Craftsmen led by Bezalel of Judah and Oholiab of Dan built it, and the people gave so much that they were told to stop (Exodus 36:6). It was set up in the second year after the exodus. On the march the Levites carried it: the Kohathites the holy objects, the Gershonites the curtains, the Merarites the frames. Portable shrines were known in Egypt. In the land the tent stood at Shiloh (Joshua 18:1) and later at Gibeon (2 Chronicles 1:3), until the temple in Jerusalem replaced it.