And they made the plate of the holy crown of pure gold, and wrote upon it a writing, like the engravings of a signet, "Holy to the Lord." And they tied unto it a lace of blue, to fasten it upon the miter above; as the Lord commanded Moses.
Thus was finished all the work of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting: and the children of Israel did according to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so did they.
The Work Is Approved.
And they brought the tabernacle to Moses, the Tent, and all its furniture, its clasps, its boards, its bars, and [{232}] its pillars, and its sockets; and the covering of rams' skins dyed red, and the covering of sealskins, and the veil of the screen; the ark of the testimony, and the staves thereof, and the mercy seat; the table, all the vessels thereof, and the shewbread; the pure candlestick, the lamps thereof, even the lamps to be set in order, and all the vessels thereof, and the oil for the light; and the golden altar, and the anointing oil, and the sweet incense, and the screen for the door of the Tent; the brazen altar, and its grating of brass, its staves, and all its vessels, the laver and its base; the hangings of the court, its pillars, and its sockets, and the screen for the gate of the court, the cords thereof, and the pins thereof, and all the instruments of the service of the tabernacle, for the tent of meeting; the finely wrought garments for ministering in the holy place, and the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons, to minister in the priest's office. According to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did all the work. And Moses saw all the work, and, behold, they had done it; as the Lord had commanded, even so had they done it: and Moses blessed them.
The Tabernacle Is Set Up.
And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, "On the first day of the first month shalt thou set up the tabernacle of the tent of meeting. And thou shalt put therein the ark of the testimony, and thou shalt screen the ark with the veil. And thou shalt bring in the table, and set in order the things that are upon it; and thou shalt bring in the candlestick, and light the lamps thereof.
FOUR THOUSAND YEARS UNCHANGED PATRIARCHAL LIFE IN PALESTINE TO-DAY
Copyright by Underwood & Underwood and used by special permission.
The unchanged habits of the East render it in this respect a kind of living Pompeii. The outward appearances, which in the case of the Greeks and Romans we know only through art and writing, through marble, fresco, and parchment, in the case of Jewish history we know through the forms of actual men, living and moving before us, wearing almost the same garb, speaking in almost the same language, and certainly with the same general turns of speech and tone and manners. Such as we see them now, starting on a pilgrimage, or a journey, were Abraham and his brother's son, when they "went forth" to go into the land of Canaan. All their substance that they had "gathered" is heaped high on the backs of their kneeling camels. The slaves that they "had bought in Haran" run along by their sides. Round about them are their flocks of sheep and goats, and the asses moving underneath the towering forms of the camels. The chief is there, amidst the stir of movement, or resting at noon within his black tent, marked out from the rest by his cloak of brilliant scarlet, by the fillet of rope which binds the loose handkerchief round his head, by the spear which he holds in his hand to guide the march, and to fix the encampment. The chief's wife, the princess of the tribe, is there in her own tent, to make the cakes and prepare the usual meal of milk and butter; the slave or the child is ready to bring in the red lentil soup for the weary hunter, or to kill the calf for the unexpected guest