“You are to construct the tabernacle itself with ten curtains of finely spun linen, each with blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and cherubim skillfully worked into them.
Parallel translations
- WEB “Moreover you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains; of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, with cherubim. The work of the skillful workman you shall make them.
- KJV Moreover thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet: with cherubims of cunning work shalt thou make them.
- NKJV “Moreover you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine woven linen and blue, purple, and scarlet thread; with artistic designs of cherubim you shall weave them.
- NASB “Moreover, you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twisted linen and violet, purple, and scarlet material; you shall make them with cherubim, the work of a skilled embroiderer.
- NLT “Make the Tabernacle from ten curtains of finely woven linen. Decorate the curtains with blue, purple, and scarlet thread and with skillfully embroidered cherubim.
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
The tabernacle proper was to be made of ten richly woven curtains of fine linen in blue, purple, and scarlet, embroidered with cherubim. Its beauty and the cherubim signaled God's holy, heavenly dwelling.
Overview
These ten skillfully crafted curtains formed the innermost covering of God's dwelling, their colors and craftsmanship marking it as royal and sacred. The cherubim woven into them recalled the guardians of God's presence, as at Eden's gate (Genesis 3:24). The whole structure pictured God dwelling among His people, a foretaste of the incarnation, when the Word 'tabernacled' among us (John 1:14).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 20
- Exod 36:8–19All the skilled craftsmen among the workmen made the ten curtains for the tabernacle. They were made of finely spun linen, as well as blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, with cherubim skillfully worked into them.
- Exod 26:36For the entrance to the tent, you are to make a curtain embroidered with blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and finely spun linen.
- Exod 26:31Make a veil of blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and finely spun linen, with cherubim skillfully worked into it.
- Exod 36:35Next, he made the veil of blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and finely spun linen, with cherubim skillfully worked into it.
- Exod 25:18Make two cherubim of hammered gold at the ends of the mercy seat,
- Rev 21:3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God.
- John 2:21But Jesus was speaking about the temple of His body.
- Heb 9:9It is an illustration for the present time, because the gifts and sacrifices being offered were unable to cleanse the conscience of the worshiper.
- Heb 9:23–24So it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
- Exod 25:8And they are to make a sanctuary for Me, so that I may dwell among them.
- 1 Chr 21:29For the tabernacle of the LORD that Moses had made in the wilderness and the altar of burnt offering were presently at the high place in Gibeon,
- John 1:14The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
- Exod 35:6blue, purple, and scarlet yarn; fine linen and goat hair;
- Heb 8:2and who ministers in the sanctuary and true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man.
- Exod 40:2“On the first day of the first month you are to set up the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting.
- 1 Chr 17:1After David had settled into his palace, he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am, living in a house of cedar, while the ark of the covenant of the LORD is under a tent.”
- Rev 19:8She was given clothing of fine linen, bright and pure.” For the fine linen she wears is the righteous acts of the saints.
- Exod 40:17–19So the tabernacle was set up on the first day of the first month of the second year.
- Exod 25:4blue, purple, and scarlet yarn; fine linen and goat hair;
- Exod 35:35He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as engravers, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple, and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and as weavers—as artistic designers of every kind of craft.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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 26:1 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.