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Exodus 26 Bible study: The veil

The verb for what the veil does, "separate" (26:33), comes only this once in Exodus; Genesis 1 uses it five times, for dividing light from darkness, waters from waters, and day from night. And Hebrews says Jesus opened "a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh" (Hebrews 10:20).

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“You shall hang up the veil under the clasps, and shall bring the ark of the covenant in there within the veil. The veil shall separate the holy place from the most holy for you.”
Exodus 26:33 · World English Bible

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“In Exodus 26, the table and the lamp stand are set outside the veil, and the ark with the mercy seat within it.”

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What's really going on

The tabernacle is the linen

In the text

The chapter builds from the inside out. First, "you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, with cherubim" (26:1), joined with fifty clasps of gold: "The tabernacle shall be a unit" (26:6). Next come eleven "curtains of goats’ hair for a covering over the tabernacle" (26:7), joined with fifty clasps of bronze: "couple the tent together, that it may be one" (26:11). In Hebrew, 26:7 calls the goats' hair a tent (ohel) over the tabernacle (mishkan). Over it all go "a covering for the tent of rams’ skins dyed red, and a covering of sea cow hides above" (26:14). So the linen with its cherubim, the layer 26:1 calls "the tabernacle", is the innermost one.

Where it leads to Jesus

Through the veil

In the text

Exodus 26:31leads toHebrews 10:19-20

The veil kept the most holy place shut off: "The veil shall separate the holy place from the most holy for you" (26:33). Hebrews makes the link itself: "Having therefore, brothers, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the way which he dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh" (Hebrews 10:19-20). Where the veil shut the way in, Hebrews speaks of boldness to enter.

Honest questions

Questions people ask about Exodus 26

That was a taste

The rest of Exodus 26 is waiting in Favor

  • Holy, and most holy
  • The verb of Genesis 1
  • Cherubim at the way in
  • How Hebrews reads this tent
  • A tent that moved
  • 13 questions as you read
  • 11 more Hebrew words
  • A short check at the end
  • Your notes, saved as you go
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The Hebrew word behind it

פָּרֹכֶתparokhetsay pa-RO-khet

Brown-Driver-Briggs: "curtain, before Most Holy Place", and it adds "that which habitually shuts off". Strong's: "(the sacred) screen". The Hebrew Bible uses it 25 times, and this chapter is the first: "You shall make a veil of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, with cherubim" (26:31). It comes five times here (26:31, 33 three times, 35), and every use is of the curtain before the most holy place: in Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers, and once in the temple Solomon built: "He made the veil of blue, purple, crimson, and fine linen, and ornamented it with cherubim" (2 Chronicles 3:14). Leviticus uses the phrase "within the veil" (Leviticus 16:2), and so does Hebrews, of where "as a forerunner Jesus entered for us" (Hebrews 6:19-20).

For your group

Exodus 26 Bible study questions

  1. 1"The veil shall separate the holy place from the most holy for you" (26:33). What helps you remember that God is holy, and what helps you remember that he wants you near?
  2. 2Hebrews says we have "boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus" (Hebrews 10:19). What keeps you from coming to God boldly?
  3. 3The tabernacle was to be set up "according to the way that it was shown to you on the mountain" (26:30). Where are you tempted to do things your own way instead of the way God has shown?

Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads Exodus 26 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.

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Questions

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home