Exodus 31
1 Then the LORD said to Moses, 2 “ See, I have called by name Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. 3 And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability, and knowledge in all kinds of craftsmanship, 4 to design artistic works in gold, silver, and bronze, 5 to cut gemstones for settings, and to carve wood, so that he may be a master of every craft. 6 Moreover, I have selected Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, as his assistant. I have also given skill to all the craftsmen, that they may fashion all that I have commanded you: 7 the Tent of Meeting, the ark of the Testimony and the mercy seat upon it, and all the other furnishings of the tent— 8 the table with its utensils, the pure gold lampstand with all its utensils, the altar of incense, 9 the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the basin with its stand — 10 as well as the woven garments, both the holy garments for Aaron the priest and the garments for his sons to serve as priests, 11 in addition to the anointing oil and fragrant incense for the Holy Place. They are to make them according to all that I have commanded you.” The Sign of the Sabbath (Numbers 15:32–36) 12 And the LORD said to Moses, 13 “ Tell the Israelites, ‘ Surely you must keep My Sabbaths, for this will be a sign between Me and you for the generations to come, so that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you. 14 Keep the Sabbath, for it is holy to you. Anyone who profanes it must surely be put to death. Whoever does any work on that day must be cut off from among his people. 15 For six days work may be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day must surely be put to death. 16 The Israelites must keep the Sabbath, celebrating it as a permanent covenant for the generations to come. 17 It is a sign between Me and the Israelites forever; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, but on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.’” Moses Receives the Tablets 18 When the LORD had finished speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai, He gave him the two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God.
✦ What the text says
## Summary
Yahweh tells Moses that he has filled Bezalel and Oholiab with divine skill to construct the tabernacle and its furnishings (vv.1-11), then commands that the Sabbath be kept as a perpetual sign between Yahweh and Israel, with death as the penalty for violation (vv.12-17). The chapter closes with Yahweh giving Moses the two stone tablets, written by the finger of God (v.18).
## Key words
- *chokmah* ("skill/wisdom", H2451) — feminine singular noun; paired in v.3 with *tevunah* ("understanding") and *da'at* ("knowledge") to describe the threefold content of the *ruach Elohim* given to Bezalel.
- *ruach Elohim* — *ruach* ("spirit of", H7307G) in construct with *Elohim* ("God", H0430G); the construct chain marks the *ruach* as belonging to/originating from God, filling (*'amalle'*, H4390, piel imperfect) the craftsman.
- *'ot* ("sign", H0226H) — feminine singular noun in construct, used twice (vv.13, 17) to designate the Sabbath as a marker relationship "between me and you," a term shared with other covenant-signs in the corpus.
- *shabat* ("he rested", H7673A) — qal perfect describing Yahweh's own completed action on the seventh day, paired with the niphal *vayyinnafash* ("he refreshed/breathed himself", H5314) in v.17.
- *ketuvim be'etzba' Elohim* ("written by the finger of God", v.18) — *ketuvim* is a qal passive participle (H3789) describing the tablets' state, with *'etzba'* ("finger of", H0676) in construct before *Elohim*.
## What the text says
The chapter opens with the standard narrative formula *vayedabber Yahweh 'el-Mosheh lemor* ("and Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying", H1696G piel), a pattern repeated in v.12 to mark the shift from craftsmanship instructions to Sabbath law. In vv.1-11, the verbs describing Bezalel's endowment move from *qara'ti* ("I have called", H7121G perfect) to *'amalle'* ("I have filled", H4390 piel) to *natati* ("I have appointed/put", H5414 perfect, used twice in v.6), all first-person perfects presenting Yahweh's action as already accomplished before the work begins. The infinitives *lachshov* ("to design", H2803G) and *la'asot* ("to work/make", H6213A, repeated in vv.4-5) describe the scope of the skill: conceptual design as well as physical execution in gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood.
In the Sabbath section, the syntax shifts to legal formulation: *shesheth yamim ye'aseh melakhah* ("six days work will be done", niphal imperfect passive, H6213A) contrasts with the seventh day marked by the doubled noun phrase *shabbat shabbaton* ("a sabbath of sabbath-observance", H7676 + H7677), an intensifying construction. The penalty clause uses the absolute infinitive construction *mot yumat* ("he will surely be put to death", H4191 twice, once as infinitive absolute and once as hophal imperfect), a grammatical intensifier that reinforces certainty rather than merely possibility. The closing rationale in v.17 grounds the human Sabbath in Yahweh's own six-day work and seventh-day rest, using the same verb *shavat* ("he rested", H7673A) that gives the noun *shabbat* its name, followed by *vayyinnafash*, a niphal form built on the noun *nefesh* ("soul/life", H5315J), describing Yahweh's seventh-day state as a "besouling" or "self-refreshing."
## Differences between versions
In v.4, the LXX adds items not present in the Hebrew construct list — "hyacinth," "purple," and "scarlet" (τὴν ὑάκινθον καὶ τὴν πορφύραν καὶ τὸ κόκκινον), materials absent from the Hebrew *TAHOT* text
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.