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For a tabernacle was prepared: the first part, in which was the lampstand, the table, and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary;
Hebrews 9:2 · New King James Version
Parallel translations
  • WEB For a tabernacle was prepared. In the first part were the lamp stand, the table, and the show bread; which is called the Holy Place.
  • KJV For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the shewbread; which is called the sanctuary.
  • BSB A tabernacle was prepared. In its first room were the lampstand, the table, and the consecrated bread. This was called the Holy Place.
  • NASB For a tabernacle was equipped, the outer sanctuary, in which were the lampstand, the table, and the sacred bread; this is called the Holy Place.
  • NLT There were two rooms in that Tabernacle. In the first room were a lampstand, a table, and sacred loaves of bread on the table. This room was called the Holy Place.

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 outer room of the tabernacle, the Holy Place, contained the lampstand, table, and showbread. These furnishings were part of God's prescribed worship.

Overview

The writer describes the tabernacle's first compartment with its lampstand, table, and consecrated bread. These objects, detailed in Exodus, served daily priestly ministry. The description underscores the structured, limited access of old-covenant worship, contrasting with the open access believers now have through Christ.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 15

  • Exod 40:4You shall bring in the table, and set in order the things that are on it. You shall bring in the lamp stand, and light its lamps.
  • Lev 24:5–8“You shall take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes of it: two tenths of an ephah shall be in one cake.
  • Exod 26:35You shall set the table outside the veil, and the lamp stand over against the table on the side of the tabernacle toward the south: and you shall put the table on the north side.
  • Exod 40:22–24He put the table in the Tent of Meeting, on the side of the tabernacle northward, outside of the veil.
  • Exod 26:33You shall hang up the veil under the clasps, and shall bring the ark of the testimony in there within the veil: and the veil shall separate the holy place from the most holy for you.
  • Exod 40:18–20Moses raised up the tabernacle, and laid its sockets, and set up its boards, and put in its bars, and raised up its pillars.
  • Exod 39:32–34Thus all the work of the tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting was finished. The children of Israel did according to all that Yahweh commanded Moses; so they did.
  • Exod 40:2“On the first day of the first month you shall raise up the tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting.
  • Exod 36:8–38All the wise-hearted men among those who did the work made the tabernacle with ten curtains; of fine twined linen, blue, purple, and scarlet, with cherubim, the work of the skillful workman, they made them.
  • Exod 29:35“You shall do so to Aaron, and to his sons, according to all that I have commanded you. You shall consecrate them seven days.
  • Exod 39:36–38the table, all its vessels, the show bread,
  • Exod 25:8–9Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.
  • Exod 29:1“This is the thing that you shall do to them to make them holy, to minister to me in the priest’s office: take one young bull and two rams without defect,
  • Exod 25:23“You shall make a table of acacia wood. Two cubits shall be its length, and a cubit its width, and one and a half cubits its height.
  • Exod 37:10–24He made the table of acacia wood. Its length was two cubits, and its width was a cubit, and its height was a cubit and a half.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (8)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Hebrews videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

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

  • VideoWatch teaching on Hebrews 9:2YouTube · 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 HebrewsMatthew 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

Hebrews is sustained worship of Christ: better than angels, Moses, and the priests; the great High Priest after Melchizedek who by one sacrifice perfects forever those he saves.

How Hebrews 9:2 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 Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.