Then he made the boards for the tabernacle of acacia wood, standing upright.
Parallel translations
- WEB He made the boards for the tabernacle of acacia wood, standing up.
- KJV And he made boards for the tabernacle of shittim wood, standing up.
- BSB Next, he constructed upright frames of acacia wood for the tabernacle.
- NKJV For the tabernacle he made boards of acacia wood, standing upright.
- NLT For the framework of the Tabernacle, Bezalel constructed frames of acacia wood.
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 vertical wooden frames of the tabernacle were made of acacia, an enduring desert wood. They formed the rigid structure that held the curtains in place.
Overview
Acacia wood, overlaid later with gold, combined common material with precious covering, a frequent pattern in the sanctuary. The upright boards gave the portable tent stability and form. This construction follows the divine instruction of Exodus 26:15, again stressing obedience to God's revealed pattern.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Exod 25:5rams’ skins dyed red, sea cow hides, acacia wood,
- Num 25:1Israel stayed in Shittim; and the people began to play the prostitute with the daughters of Moab;
- Exod 40:18–19Moses raised up the tabernacle, and laid its sockets, and set up its boards, and put in its bars, and raised up its pillars.
- Exod 25:10“They shall make an ark of acacia wood. Its length shall be two and a half cubits, its width a cubit and a half, and a cubit and a half its height.
- Exod 26:15–29“You shall make the boards for the tabernacle of acacia wood, standing up.
- Deut 10:3So I made an ark of acacia wood, and cut two stone tablets like the first, and went up onto the mountain, having the two tablets in my hand.
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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 36:20 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.