Terumah

God tells Moses to receive an offering from every person whose heart moves them: gold, silver, and bronze; blue, purple, and scarlet yarn; fine linen and goats' hair; skins, acacia wood, oil, spices, and gemstones. The purpose is stated in a sentence: "Let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them" — all of it after the pattern shown to Moses on the mountain.

The furniture comes first. The ark of acacia wood overlaid with gold inside and out, carried on gilded poles never removed, holds the testimony; its cover of pure gold bears two cherubim of hammered work, wings spread, facing one another — "there I will meet with you, from above the cover, from between the two cherubim." The table, gold-overlaid, holds the bread of the Presence set before God always. The menorah is hammered from a single talent of pure gold — a central shaft and six branches, with cups shaped like almond blossoms — carrying seven lamps.

Then the dwelling itself: ten embroidered curtains of fine linen with cherubim, joined by loops and gold clasps; a tent of goats' hair over it, and coverings of rams' skins and fine leather above that. Boards of acacia in silver sockets form the walls, held by bars. A veil of blue, purple, and scarlet divides the holy place from the most holy, where the ark rests; a screen closes the entrance. Outside stands the altar of bronze-covered acacia with horns at its four corners, and around it all the courtyard: hangings of fine linen on pillars, a hundred cubits by fifty.