When Moses set up the tabernacle, he laid its bases, positioned its frames, inserted its crossbars, and set up its posts.
Parallel translations
- WEB Moses raised up the tabernacle, and laid its sockets, and set up its boards, and put in its bars, and raised up its pillars.
- KJV And Moses reared up the tabernacle, and fastened his sockets, and set up the boards thereof, and put in the bars thereof, and reared up his pillars.
- NKJV So Moses raised up the tabernacle, fastened its sockets, set up its boards, put in its bars, and raised up its pillars.
- NASB Moses erected the tabernacle and laid its bases, and set up its boards, and inserted its bars, and erected its pillars.
- NLT Moses erected the Tabernacle by setting down its bases, inserting the frames, attaching the crossbars, and setting up the posts.
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 set up the structural framework of the tabernacle—sockets, boards, bars, and pillars. The careful construction shows that God's dwelling was built exactly to His design.
Overview
This verse details the assembly of the tabernacle's load-bearing components in the order God specified. Every part had its appointed place, reflecting the orderliness and intentionality of God's instructions on Sinai. The tabernacle's design pointed beyond itself to God's plan to dwell with His people, ultimately fulfilled in Christ, in whom the fullness of God dwelt bodily.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Gal 4:4But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
- Matt 16:18And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.
- Ezek 37:27–28My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be My people.
- Lev 26:11And I will make My dwelling place among you, and My soul will not despise you.
- Exod 26:15–30You are to construct upright frames of acacia wood for the tabernacle.
- 1 Tim 3:15in case I am delayed, so that you will know how each one must conduct himself in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.
- Exod 36:20–34Next, he constructed upright frames of acacia wood for the tabernacle.
- Isa 33:24And no resident of Zion will say, “I am sick.” The people who dwell there will be forgiven of iniquity.
- Exod 40:2“On the first day of the first month you are to set up the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting.
- 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.
- 1 Pet 1:5who through faith are shielded by God’s power for the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
- 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.
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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 40:18 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.