Limitless Word
“Be sure that you make everything according to the pattern I have shown you here on the mountain.
Exodus 25:40 · New Living Translation
Parallel translations
  • WEB See that you make them after their pattern, which has been shown to you on the mountain.
  • KJV And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount.
  • BSB See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.
  • NKJV And see to it that you make them according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain.
  • NASB See that you make them by the pattern for them, which was shown to you on the mountain.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

Moses was charged to make everything exactly after the pattern shown him on the mountain. God's worship is to be ordered by His design, not human invention.

Overview

The tabernacle and its furnishings were to mirror a heavenly pattern revealed to Moses, leaving nothing to improvisation. This insistence on faithfulness to the divine blueprint shaped Israel's whole worship. Hebrews 8:5 cites this verse to show that the earthly tabernacle was a copy and shadow of heavenly realities fulfilled in Christ, our true High Priest in the true sanctuary.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 9

  • Acts 7:44“Our fathers had the tabernacle of the testimony in the wilderness, even as he who spoke to Moses commanded him to make it according to the pattern that he had seen;
  • Exod 26:30You shall set up the tabernacle according to the way that it was shown to you on the mountain.
  • Heb 8:5who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, even as Moses was warned by God when he was about to make the tabernacle, for he said, “See, you shall make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain.”
  • Exod 25:9According to all that I show you, the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all of its furniture, even so you shall make it.
  • Num 8:4This was the workmanship of the lamp stand, beaten work of gold. From its base to its flowers, it was beaten work: according to the pattern which Yahweh had shown Moses, so he made the lamp stand.
  • 1 Chr 28:19“All this”, said David, “I have been made to understand in writing from Yahweh’s hand, even all the works of this pattern.”
  • Exod 39:42–43According to all that Yahweh commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did all the work.
  • 1 Chr 28:11Then David gave to Solomon his son the plans for the porch of the temple, for its houses, for its treasuries, for its upper rooms, for its inner rooms, for the place of the mercy seat;
  • Ezek 43:11–12If they be ashamed of all that they have done, make known to them the form of the house, and its fashion, and its exits, and its entrances, and all its forms, and all its ordinances, and all its forms, and all its laws; and write it in their sight; that they may keep the whole form of it, and all its ordinances, and do them.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (3)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Exodus videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Exodus 25:40YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on ExodusMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

The Passover lamb whose blood turns away death, the exodus through the sea, the manna, the rock, and the tabernacle where God dwells with his people all foreshadow Jesus — our Passover, our redemption, the bread from heaven, and God-with-us in the flesh.

How Exodus 25:40 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.