Bible Strands
Exodus 38:21
This is the inventory for the tabernacle, the tabernacle of the Testimony, as recorded at Moses’ command by the Levites under the direction of Ithamar son of Aaron the priest.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The narrator documents the finished construction materials at the conclusion of the tabernacle’s assembly, recording the inventory under Moses’ direct order while the Levites prepare for the upcoming camp layout.
The words — פְקוּדֵי (fe.ku.dei) denotes the counted valuation or expenses of the materials, and מִשְׁכַּן הָעֵדוּת (mishkan ha-edut) literally names the dwelling place of the divine testimony.
The thread — This recorded inventory establishes the physical sanctuary later identified as the mobile tabernacle in Acts 7:44 and grounds the Levitical oversight mandate in Numbers 1:50 and Numbers 1:53.
Why it lands — The text requires a reader to acknowledge that sacred space operates through precise accounting and delegated authority, leaving no materials unrecorded and no handling unauthorized.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
This is the sum of the tabernacle, even of the tabernacle of testimony, as it was counted, according to the commandment of Moses, for the service of the Levites, by the hand of Ithamar, son to Aaron the priest.
Cross-references
- Acts 7:44 Our fathers had the tabernacle of the Testimony with them in the wilderness. It was constructed exactly as God had directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen.
- Numbers 1:50 Instead, you are to appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of the Testimony, all its furnishings, and everything in it. They shall carry the tabernacle and all its articles, care for it, and camp around it.
- Numbers 1:53 But the Levites are to camp around the tabernacle of the Testimony and watch over it, so that no wrath will fall on the congregation of Israel. So the Levites are responsible for the tabernacle of the Testimony.”
- Numbers 9:15 On the day that the tabernacle, the Tent of the Testimony, was set up, the cloud covered it and appeared like fire above the tabernacle from evening until morning.
- Numbers 10:11 On the twentieth day of the second month of the second year, the cloud was lifted from above the tabernacle of the Testimony,
- 2 Chronicles 24:6 So the king called Jehoiada the high priest and said, “Why have you not required the Levites to bring from Judah and Jerusalem the tax imposed by Moses the servant of the LORD and by the assembly of Israel for the Tent of the Testimony?”
- Exodus 6:23 And Aaron married Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab and sister of Nahshon, and she bore him Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.
- Numbers 17:7 Then Moses placed the staffs before the LORD in the Tent of the Testimony.
- Numbers 18:2 But bring with you also your brothers from the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, that they may join you and assist you and your sons before the Tent of the Testimony.
- Exodus 25:16 And place inside the ark the Testimony, which I will give you.