Chapter Overview
Summary
Exodus 25 begins the tabernacle construction instructions — ark, atonement-cover (hilastērion), table of the bread of the Presence, and lampstand. The chapter supplies the LXX vocabulary for the entire Hebrews 9 argument on the heavenly tabernacle. The key verse is 25:40 ('according to the pattern shown you on the mountain'), cited verbatim at Hebrews 8:5 as the proof that earthly worship is a copy of heavenly realities.
Notable Variants
The 'sanctuary that I may dwell' at 25:8 supplies NT indwelling-theology vocabulary; the hilastērion at 25:17 — the atonement-cover — is the key LXX term Rom 3:25 applies to Christ; the 'bread of the Presence' (artoi enōpioi) at 25:30 carries into Matt 12:4 / Mark 2:26 / Luke 6:4 (Jesus' Sabbath argument); 25:40 'according to the pattern' (kata ton typon) cited at Heb 8:5 word-for-word.
Structural Notes
LXX Exodus 25 preserves MT's 40-verse structure. The Greek order for 25–31 vs. 35–40 (tabernacle instructions vs. tabernacle construction) diverges from MT in several minor rearrangements.
The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
Divine speech formula tracks MT.
"Speak to the sons of Israel, that they take for Me a contribution. From every person whose heart moves him, you shall receive My contribution.
The 'heart moves him' free-will offering formula tracks MT. The LXX's aphairema ('contribution') is the standard cultic-gift vocabulary.
This is the contribution you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze,
The metals list (gold, silver, bronze) tracks MT.
blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, fine linen, and goats' hair,
The yarn colors (blue, purple, scarlet) and linen and goats' hair — the materials palette of the tabernacle and later temple — track MT.
rams' skins dyed red, fine leather, and acacia wood,
The rams' skins and acacia wood track MT. Acacia (xylon asēpton, 'indestructible wood') is the LXX's specific term.
oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense,
The oils and spices track MT. The 'anointing oil' (elaion chriseos) supplies vocabulary that carries into the NT's 'Christ' (Christos, the Anointed One).
onyx stones and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece.
The onyx stones for the ephod and breastpiece track MT.
They are to construct a sanctuary for Me so that I may dwell in their midst.
Masoretic (WLC)
וְעָשׂוּ לִי מִקְדָּשׁ וְשָׁכַנְתִּי בְּתוֹכָם
They are to construct a sanctuary for Me so that I may dwell in their midst
Septuagint (LXX)
καὶ ποιήσεις μοι ἁγίασμα καὶ ὀφθήσομαι ἐν ὑμῖν
You shall make for me a sanctuary, and I will be seen among you
The LXX softens the indwelling claim slightly: MT 'I may dwell' (ve-shakhanti) becomes LXX 'I will be seen' (ophthēsomai). The Hebrew shekhen root — dwelling — becomes the basis for the Shekhinah theology of later Jewish tradition.
John 1:14 ('the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,' eskēnōsen en hēmin) uses the exact LXX skēn- root that translates Hebrew shakhan. The NT's incarnation-language is programmatically Sinai-tabernacle-language: God dwells among his people now in flesh.
2 Corinthians 6:16 ('I will dwell in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people') — a composite citation of LXX Exodus 25:8, 29:45, Lev 26:12 — establishes the church as the new tabernacle in LXX-Exodus vocabulary.
According to all that I show you — the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings — so you shall make it.
Masoretic (WLC)
כְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר אֲנִי מַרְאֶה אוֹתְךָ אֵת תַּבְנִית הַמִּשְׁכָּן
the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings
Septuagint (LXX)
κατὰ πάντα ὅσα ἐγώ σοι δεικνύω ἐν τῷ ὄρει τὸ παράδειγμα τῆς σκηνῆς
all that I show you on the mountain — the paradigm of the tabernacle
Hebrew tavnit ('pattern, model, plan') is rendered paradeigma ('paradigm, model, pattern') in LXX. The LXX's paradeigma is a philosophically-weighted term — the same word Plato uses for the eternal Forms.
Hebrews 8:5 cites v. 40 (the parallel statement) with the Greek typos ('type, pattern'): "they serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things … as Moses was instructed, 'See that you make everything according to the pattern (typos) shown you on the mountain.'"
The LXX's paradeigma and Hebrews' typos both press the same theological logic: earthly worship is a copy of a heavenly reality. Platonism and biblical theology fuse at this LXX text.
They shall make an ark of acacia wood. It shall be two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high.
The ark dimensions (2.5 × 1.5 × 1.5 cubits) track MT. The LXX's kibōtos for the ark is the same word used for Noah's ark at Gen 6 — a deliberate lexical link between the two rescue-containers.
You shall overlay it with pure gold — inside and outside you shall overlay it — and you shall make a molding of gold around it.
The gold-overlay and molding tracks MT.
You shall cast four gold rings for it and put them on its four feet, two rings on one side and two rings on the other.
The four gold rings for carrying track MT.
You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold.
The acacia-wood poles overlaid with gold track MT.
You shall put the poles through the rings on the sides of the ark, to carry the ark by them.
Poles through rings for carrying tracks MT.
The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be removed from it.
The never-remove-the-poles provision tracks MT. The ark as permanently-carryable symbolizes divine mobility.
You shall put into the ark the Testimony that I shall give you.
The 'Testimony' (martyrion) inside the ark tracks MT. Hebrews 9:4 ('the ark of the covenant … containing the golden jar of manna, Aaron's staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant') lists what's inside the ark.
You shall make an atonement cover of pure gold, two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide.
Masoretic (WLC)
וְעָשִׂיתָ כַפֹּרֶת זָהָב טָהוֹר
You shall make an atonement cover of pure gold
Septuagint (LXX)
καὶ ποιήσεις ἱλαστήριον ἐπίθεμα χρυσίου καθαροῦ
You shall make a hilastērion — a cover — of pure gold
HILASTĒRION. The LXX's consistent rendering of kapporet as hilastērion is the single most important cultic-theological vocabulary decision in the entire Septuagint.
Romans 3:25 calls Christ a hilastērion 'through faith in his blood.' The typology is unmistakable in Greek: Christ is the place where atoning blood is applied — the mercy seat of Exodus 25:17 transposed onto the cross.
Hebrews 9:5 names the kapporet explicitly as hilastērion in its tabernacle-inventory. The whole Hebrews 9 Day-of-Atonement Christology depends on this LXX Exodus 25:17.
The English 'mercy seat' (Tyndale following Luther's Gnadenstuhl), 'propitiation,' and 'atonement cover' all render the same hilastērion.
You shall make two cherubim of gold. You shall make them of hammered work at the two ends of the atonement cover.
The two cherubim of hammered gold track MT. The cherubim-on-the-mercy-seat imagery carries into Hebrews 9:5 and shapes Christian iconography.
Make one cherub at one end and one cherub at the other end. Of one piece with the atonement cover you shall make the cherubim at its two ends.
The one-piece construction of the cherubim with the atonement-cover tracks MT.
The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the atonement cover with their wings, facing one another. The faces of the cherubim shall be turned toward the atonement cover.
The wing-outspread-over-the-cover posture tracks MT. The cherubim-wings-over-mercy-seat image underlies Psalm 80:1 ('you who sit enthroned above the cherubim') — a divine-throne-icon that Revelation 4 cites directly.
You shall put the atonement cover on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the Testimony that I shall give you.
The atonement-cover on the ark with the Testimony inside tracks MT.
There I will meet with you, and from above the atonement cover, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the Testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will command you concerning the sons of Israel.
'There I will meet with you, from above the atonement cover, from between the cherubim' tracks MT. The epiphaneuomai soi ('I will appear to you') is the same word-root as 1 Timothy 6:14 and Titus 2:13's epiphaneia of Christ. The mercy-seat is the earthly prototype of Christ's self-manifestation.
You shall make a table of acacia wood, two cubits long, a cubit wide, and a cubit and a half high.
The table of acacia wood, 2 × 1 × 1.5 cubits, tracks MT.
You shall overlay it with pure gold and make a molding of gold around it.
Gold overlay and molding track MT.
You shall make a rim around it a handbreadth wide, and a gold molding around the rim.
Handbreadth rim and gold molding track MT.
You shall make four gold rings for it and attach the rings to the four corners at its four legs.
Four gold rings track MT.
The rings shall be close to the rim, as holders for the poles to carry the table.
Ring placement for carrying poles tracks MT.
You shall make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold, and the table shall be carried with them.
Acacia poles overlaid with gold track MT.
You shall make its plates, its dishes, its pitchers, and its bowls for pouring drink offerings. You shall make them of pure gold.
The table utensils (plates, dishes, pitchers, bowls) track MT.
You shall set the bread of the Presence on the table before Me at all times.
Masoretic (WLC)
וְנָתַתָּ עַל־הַשֻּׁלְחָן לֶחֶם פָּנִים
You shall set the bread of the Presence on the table before Me at all times
Septuagint (LXX)
καὶ ἐπιθήσεις ἐπὶ τὴν τράπεζαν ἄρτους ἐνωπίους ἐναντίον μου διὰ παντός
You shall set on the table the shewbread before me continually
The 'bread of the Presence' (lechem panim) — literally 'bread of the face' — is rendered artoi enōpioi ('bread-before-the-face'). The LXX preserves the Hebrew idiom woodenly.
Matthew 12:4, Mark 2:26, Luke 6:4 — Jesus' Sabbath-argument about David eating the showbread — cite this tabernacle bread. The showbread tradition is specifically cultic: only priests may eat it.
The LXX's dia pantos ('continually') emphasizes the perpetual setting-before of the bread, a feature Hebrews 9:2 picks up: 'in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the Presence.'
You shall make a lampstand of pure gold. The lampstand shall be made of hammered work — its base, its stem, its cups, its buds, and its blossoms shall be of one piece with it.
The lampstand (lychnia) construction tracks MT. Revelation 1:12 ('seven golden lampstands') develops the symbol Christologically: the church is the lampstand.
Six branches shall extend from its sides — three branches from one side and three branches from the other.
The six branches on the lampstand tracks MT.
Three cups shaped like almond blossoms, each with a bud and a blossom, on one branch, and three cups shaped like almond blossoms, each with a bud and a blossom, on the other branch — so for all six branches extending from the lampstand.
The almond-blossom cups on the branches track MT. The almond imagery recurs at Numbers 17:8 (Aaron's budding rod) and Jeremiah 1:11 (the almond vision).
On the lampstand itself there shall be four cups shaped like almond blossoms, with their buds and blossoms.
Four cups on the lampstand itself track MT.
A bud shall be under each pair of branches extending from it — a bud under the first pair, a bud under the second pair, and a bud under the third pair — for the six branches extending from the lampstand.
Buds-under-branches arrangement tracks MT.
Their buds and their branches shall be of one piece with it, the whole of it a single piece of hammered work of pure gold.
The one-piece hammered gold construction tracks MT.
You shall make seven lamps for it, and the lamps shall be set up so as to give light on the area in front of it.
The seven lamps tracks MT. The seven-lampstand imagery carries into Zechariah 4 and Revelation 1.
Its tongs and its trays shall be of pure gold.
Tongs and trays of pure gold track MT.
It shall be made, with all these utensils, from a talent of pure gold.
The lampstand weighs a talent of gold. The talent (talanton) is a specific weight, c. 30–35 kg of pure gold — an extraordinary amount.
See that you make them according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain."
Masoretic (WLC)
וּרְאֵה וַעֲשֵׂה בְּתַבְנִיתָם אֲשֶׁר־אַתָּה מָרְאֶה בָּהָר
See that you make them according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain
Septuagint (LXX)
ὅρα ποιήσεις κατὰ τὸν τύπον τὸν δεδειγμένον σοι ἐν τῷ ὄρει
See — you shall make them according to the type shown you on the mountain
Hebrews 8:5 cites this verse verbatim in its LXX form: 'See that you make everything according to the pattern (kata ton typon) that was shown you on the mountain.' Hebrews' whole argument for the heavenly tabernacle — of which the earthly is a type (typos) — hangs on this single LXX verse.
The LXX's typos ('type, pattern') is the key word. The entire NT typology tradition — Adam-as-typos of Christ (Rom 5:14), the wilderness events as 'types' (1 Cor 10:6, 11), the tabernacle as 'type' of the heavenly (Heb 8:5, 9:24) — builds on the LXX's semantic range of typos.
This verse is arguably the single most important OT proof-text for the NT's typological hermeneutic.