2] and when
he had measured the open court, fifty cubits broad and a hundred long,
he set up brazen pillars, five cubits high, twenty on each of the longer
sides, and ten pillars for the breadth behind; every one of the pillars
also had a ring. Their chapiters were of silver, but their bases were of
brass: they resembled the sharp ends of spears, and were of brass, fixed
into the ground. Cords were also put through the rings, and were tied
at their farther ends to brass nails of a cubit long, which, at every
pillar, were driven into the floor, and would keep the tabernacle from
being shaken by the violence of winds; but a curtain of fine soft linen
went round all the pillars, and hung down in a flowing and loose manner
from their chapiters, and enclosed the whole space, and seemed not at
all unlike to a wall about it. And this was the structure of three of
the sides of this enclosure; but as for the fourth side, which was fifty
cubits in extent, and was the front of the whole, twenty cubits of it
were for the opening of the gates, wherein stood two pillars on each
side, after the resemblance of open gates. These were made wholly of
silver, and polished, and that all over, excepting the bases, which were
of brass. Now on each side of the gates there stood three pillars, which
were inserted into the concave bases of the gates, and were suited to
them; and round them was drawn a curtain of fine linen; but to the gates
themselves, which were twenty cubits in extent, and five in height, the
curtain was composed of purple, and scarlet, and blue, and fine linen,
and embroidered with many and divers sorts of figures, excepting
the figures of animals. Within these gates was the brazen laver for
purification, having a basin beneath of the like matter, whence the
priests might wash their hands and sprinkle their feet; and this was
the ornamental construction of the enclosure about the court of the
tabernacle, which was exposed to the open air.

3. As to the tabernacle itself, Moses placed it in the middle of that
court, with its front to the east, that, when the sun arose, it might
send its first rays upon it. Its length, when it was set up, was thirty
cubits, and its breadth was twelve [ten] cubits. The one of its walls
was on the south, and the other was exposed to the north, and on the
back part of it remained the west. It was necessary that its height
should be equal to its breadth [ten cubits]. There were also pillars
made of