NOTE: As for the previous section where we measured the "Linen Curtain", it is not intended here to analyse the significance of the colour or material of the Goats' Hair Curtain; we are only concerned with the "measurement" of Moses' Tabernacle curtains in our study.

The size of the fully assembled Goat's Hair Curtain differed from the Linen Curtain in the following ways:

NOTES:

(1) I have reversed the words "width" and "length" in the above chart as compared with the biblical description below, because when all sections of the curtains are assembled, the overall joined curtains make the "widths" much longer than the "lengths" as biblically described below. If this seems confusing at this stage, then the meaning will become obvious in the diagrams which follow throughout this Section.

(2) It can be observed from the above measurements, that the area of the assembled Goats' Hair Curtain was greater than that of the Linen Curtain, and when draped over the framework of the Tabernacle Boards, the Goats' Hair Curtain would drop longer than the Linen Curtain from ceiling towards ground level. The extra panel in the Goats' Hair Curtain was treated in a special way, and this is described later in this Section.

Exodus 26.7-8 7. And thou shalt make curtains of goats' hair to be a covering upon the tabernacle: eleven curtains shalt thou make. 8. The length of one curtain shall be thirty cubits, and the breadth of one curtain shall be four cubits: and the eleven curtains shall be all of one measure.

SIZE OF ONE CURTAIN

Exodus 36.14-15 14. And he made curtains of goats' hair for the tent over the tabernacle: eleven curtains he made them. 15. The length of one curtain was thirty cubits, and four cubits was the breadth of one curtain: the eleven curtains were of one size.

Exodus 26.9-11 9. And thou shalt couple five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves, and shalt double the sixth curtain in the forefront of the tabernacle. 10. And thou shalt make fifty loops on the edge of the one curtain that is outmost in the coupling, and fifty loops in the edge of the curtain which coupleth the second. 11. And thou shalt make fifty taches of brass, and put the taches into the loops, and couple the tent together, that it may be one.

A diagram of the assembled curtains can be seen immediately below. When the sixth curtain in the forefront of the tabernacle is doubled back, the front section curtain becomes the same length as the back section curtain. The actual treatment of the sixth panel is not clear. In working through the design of the Goats' Hair Curtain, at first I thought that maybe the sixth panel was to be an overhang at the front entrance of the tabernacle. However, Exodus verses 26.8 and 36.15 (see text above) seem to indicate that the front section curtain and the back section curtain were the exact same size in measure. For this to happen, then the front two panels of the six-curtain section would need to be joined together, one on top of the other.

Exodus 36.16-18 16. And he coupled five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves. 17. And he made fifty loops upon the uttermost edge of the curtain in the coupling, and fifty loops made he upon the edge of the curtain which coupleth the second. 18. And he made fifty taches of brass to couple the tent together, that it might be one.

NOTES: (1) The total length of the 11 panels of curtain is 968 inches. (2) The fifth and sixth panels at the front section of the goat curtain were not joined side-by-side as illustrated above, but were joined together, one panel on top of the other, so that each two sections of the goat curtain measured 440" long, and when buckled together, 880" long (see diagram * shown immediately below) (3) The width of the two joined sections was 660". The draping of the curtains over the tabernacle can be seen later in this section on the Goats' Hair Curtain.

* Diagram Overall View of the two sets of 11 panelled Goats' Hair Curtains when coupled together into one curtain

The goat curtain (660" wide) was 44 inches wider than the linen curtain (616" wide). Both the linen curtain, and the goat curtain had 50 loops in each of the outer selvedges which were joined with 50 taches (buckles). The linen curtain's buckles were made of gold, but the goat curtain's buckles were made of brass. Because the goat curtain was wider than the linen curtain, it is assumed that the 50 buckles spread across the joining width of the goat curtain would be larger than the buckles which joined the linen curtain.

In this work we have seen over and over, the significance of the numbers 8, 88 and 888 and their relationship to Jesus Christ. They are numbers symbolic of regeneration, renewal and resurrection. The Bible book of Revelation 1.15, describes Jesus Christ thus: "And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters."

In both the study of the Linen Curtain, and the Goat Curtain, we have no hint as to whether or not there was any space between the buckles which joined the two curtain sections, nor do we have any idea as to the space between the loops.

We could try to design the curtains so that the gold buckles fitted snugly underneath the brass buckles, so that there was minimum bulge across the joinings of the linen and goat curtains along top centre of the tabernacle roof; but this would not work because the linen curtain was not as wide as the goat curtain, and they both used the same number of buckles.

Let's turn again to the book of Revelation for the symbolic description of Jesus Christ. Chapter 1, verse 16 reads: "And he had in his right hand seven stars; and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword; and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength." When we studied the coupling of the Linen Curtain, we considered the SOLAR/LUNAR equation:

50 loops of 12.225 inches wide 50 buckles of 0.484 inch thickness framing the 50 loops 0.007 inch space after each buckle that is 50 x 12.225 = 611.25 inches, plus 50 x (0.484 x 2) = 48.4 inches, plus 50 x .007 = 0.35 inches TOTAL = 660 inches   The numbers featured in the measure of the Goats' Hair curtain include: 1, 10 11 5, 50 6, 660 7 440 (22 x 20) 484 (22 x 22) 528 88, 880 968 1222.5 1320 The significance of these numbers is given in the next boxed chart below

The tabernacle structure was 264 inches wide. If we divide 264 inches by each brass buckle size, 13.20 inches, we arrive at the number of 20 buckles covering the roof of the tabernacle, which leaves a curtain drop containing 15 buckles on each of the tabernacle.

As far as the Linen Curtain is concerned, the maximum size for the gold buckles was 12.32 inches. If we divide 264 inches by each gold buckle size, 12.32 inches, we arrive at the number of 21.428571 buckles, from which one can assume that 22 buckles straddled across the roof of the tabernacle, leaving a curtain drop containing 14 buckles on each side of the tabernacle. Throughout this Temple/Tabernacle study, we have seen that numbers 11 and 22 are numbers which, separately and combined with other numbers, reflect the priestly role of God's servant people and His purpose for mankind.

Man's relationship with God is both a private and public communication. Often God's revelation to man is communicated privately as He did with the prophets of old. The hidden numbers of 11 and 22 in the Tabernacle design signify this - the eleventh panel in the Goats' Hair Curtain is hidden under the 10th panel; the number 484 (which is 22 x 22) is hidden in the design of the brass buckles, the buckles themselves being symbolic of Jesus Christ as described in the Book of Revelation; the assembled length of the Goats' Hair Curtain (968 inches which is 22 x 22 x 2) is an added witness to the priestly role of Jesus Christ as The Way, The Truth, and The Light to mankind as descriped throughout the New Testament.

The Linen Curtain's numeric symbolism reflects the supreme Deity of God, His Created Universe, God's House, His Son (Jesus Christ) who at the time of erecting the Tabernacle was yet to come, His grace towards His servant people which enables total regeneration, renewal and ultimately resurrection from the "fallen" human state of being. The Goats' Hair Curtain's numeric symbolism provides the protective covering for the Linen Curtain, and it reflects the role of the priesthood working in God's everlasting "Stone" Kingdom, with Jesus Christ as the High Priest and Holy Master. The Old Testament ritual under the Laws of Moses, of sending the goat to the wilderness bearing the sin (or shortcomings) of the people was a symbolic prefiguration of Jesus Christ bearing the sin of mankind when He was crucified. It is fitting, that the curtain which provided protective covering over the Linen Curtain, should be made of Goats' Hair; and that at the entrance of the Tabernacle the Goats' Curtain should be doubled to give added protective strength and covering for those of the priesthood who enter the Tabernacle to do God's work. (Without getting onto another vast subject for study here, God's house is open to all, if we are prepared to accept and follow His Laws of Life - it was the Lord Jesus Christ who showed the Way.)

As we did with the Linen Curtain, let's ponder the spiritual significance of our relationship with God, while we hang the Goats' Hair Curtain over the tabernacle framework. At this stage, I refer readers to Bonnie Gaunt's Book "The Stones Cry Out" (ISBN No.0-9602688-2-0) which describes the relevance of the number 132 in relation to the gematria of the language of the Bible to describe God's Stone Kingdom, which would never be destroyed, but would stand forever. How it describes the promise of God to Jacob, as Jacob rested his head on the "Bethel Rock", that through him and his descendants "all the families of the earth would be blessed". In this section Bonnie Gaunt quotes the text of Revelation about "Measuring the Temple" - and here we are with the design of Moses' Tabernacle - extracting similar numeric combinations as those numeric combinations found in the description of the heavenly Temple of Revelation, and openly displayed in various ancient stone monuments around the world. Again, I have included some of Bonnie Gaunt's gematria below to correlate the spiritual of significance some of our Temple research findings.

(The dotted lines represent the Tabernacle Boards lying on the ground under the Curtains, and for the purpose of the exercise, I have placed the Goats' Hair Curtain (yellow), underneath the Linen Curtain (blue) This exercise is to show how much of the Tabernacle Boards are exposed when viewed from outside the Tabernacle before the outer coverings of Rams' and Badgers' Skins are placed over the Tabernacle.)

The Jewish historian Josephus who lived during the first century AD, said that the curtains "were spread over the temple, and covered all the top and parts of the walls, on the sides and behind, so far as within one cubit of the ground". He was, however, describing the Linen Curtain, and his general description of Moses' Tabernacle is quite different from our application here, which we have derived from the scriptural description given in the King James version of the Old Testament record. But we do agree with Josephus in that at least one curtain (the Goats' Hair curtain, dropped on each side of the tabernacle to a measure of one cubit from the ground.

Tabernacle - Front View

Tabernacle - Back View

The above diagrams clearly show the width of the curtain draped over the tabernacle entrance to be 660", and the length of "the remainder" to be 220" which drops down from ceiling to ground level over the West Wall.

Tabernacle Side View - looking from south to north

In the above diagram, it can be seen that the drop from the top to the bottom of the north and south walls, is a shortfall of 22 inches (one "tabernacle" cubit as used in this research work). This shortfall exposes the gold-coated Tabernacle Boards beneath the Goats' Hair Curtain. The curtain at the back section of the brass buckle coupling, measures 220" from the buckles to the west wall, with the remaining 220" of curtain drops down behind the west wall. The 88" wide front panel over the entrance of the Tabernacle is a double thickness of curtain to give strength to the structure.

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