1Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 2“On the first day of the first month you shall raise up the tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting. 3You shall put the ark of the covenant in it, and you shall screen the ark with the veil. 4You shall bring in the table, and set in order the things that are on it. You shall bring in the lamp stand, and light its lamps. 5You shall set the golden altar for incense before the ark of the covenant, and put the screen of the door to the tabernacle.
6“You shall set the altar of burnt offering before the door of the tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting. 7You shall set the basin between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and shall put water therein. 8You shall set up the court around it, and hang up the screen of the gate of the court.
9“You shall take the anointing oil, and anoint the tabernacle and all that is in it, and shall make it holy, and all its furniture, and it will be holy. 10You shall anoint the altar of burnt offering, with all its vessels, and sanctify the altar, and the altar will be most holy. 11You shall anoint the basin and its base, and sanctify it.
12“You shall bring Aaron and his sons to the door of the Tent of Meeting, and shall wash them with water. 13You shall put on Aaron the holy garments; and you shall anoint him, and sanctify him, that he may minister to me in the priest’s office. 14You shall bring his sons, and put tunics on them. 15You shall anoint them, as you anointed their father, that they may minister to me in the priest’s office. Their anointing shall be to them for an everlasting priesthood throughout their generations.” 16Moses did so. According to all that Yahweh commanded him, so he did.
17In the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month, the tabernacle was raised up. 18Moses raised up the tabernacle, and laid its sockets, and set up its boards, and put in its bars, and raised up its pillars. 19He spread the covering over the tent, and put the roof of the tabernacle above on it, as Yahweh commanded Moses. 20He took and put the covenant into the ark, and set the poles on the ark, and put the mercy seat above on the ark. 21He brought the ark into the tabernacle, and set up the veil of the screen, and screened the ark of the covenant, as Yahweh commanded Moses. 22He put the table in the Tent of Meeting, on the north side of the tabernacle, outside of the veil. 23He set the bread in order on it before Yahweh, as Yahweh commanded Moses. 24He put the lamp stand in the Tent of Meeting, opposite the table, on the south side of the tabernacle. 25He lit the lamps before Yahweh, as Yahweh commanded Moses. 26He put the golden altar in the Tent of Meeting before the veil; 27and he burned incense of sweet spices on it, as Yahweh commanded Moses. 28He put up the screen of the door to the tabernacle. 29He set the altar of burnt offering at the door of the tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting, and offered on it the burnt offering and the meal offering, as Yahweh commanded Moses. 30He set the basin between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and put water therein, with which to wash. 31Moses, Aaron, and his sons washed their hands and their feet there. 32When they went into the Tent of Meeting, and when they came near to the altar, they washed, as Yahweh commanded Moses. 33He raised up the court around the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the screen of the gate of the court. So Moses finished the work.
34Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and Yahweh’s glory filled the tabernacle. 35Moses wasn’t able to enter into the Tent of Meeting, because the cloud stayed on it, and Yahweh’s glory filled the tabernacle. 36When the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward, throughout all their journeys; 37but if the cloud wasn’t taken up, then they didn’t travel until the day that it was taken up. 38For the cloud of Yahweh was on the tabernacle by day, and there was fire in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.
Aaron was the son of Amram and Jochebed, the brother of Moses and Miriam, and the first priest of Israel. God appointed Aaron to be Moses' spokesman in his audiences with the unnamed Pharaoh of Exodus. As a symbol of his office, Aaron received a magical rod. He turned the rod into a snake - the first in a series of signs, by which he and Moses hoped to persuade Pharaoh to let the Israelites leave Egypt. Aaron also used the rod to call down three of the plagues that followed this first sign (polluting the Nile, frogs and gnats). God also caused the rod to blossom and bear ripe almonds, as a sign that Aaron's descendants would inherit the priesthood.
God summoned Aaron to be present when Moses received the Ten Commandments. But Aaron did not stay on Sinai. Instead he agreed to oversee the casting of an idol (a golden calf) for the Israelites who had rebelled against the authority of the absent Moses.
Aaron was generally a supporter of Moses, but took him to task for his marrying a Cushite wife. For this God rebuked Aaron (and Miriam). His role as priest was critical when he made atonement for the Israelites and stayed the plague that had followed the rebellion of Dathan and Abiram. Exodus and Leviticus give a detailed account of the vestments and duties of Aaron and of his sons.
Aaron's elder sons, Nadab and Abihu, died early but the younger pair, Eleazar and Ithamar, succeeded him in the priesthood. When Aaron was a hundred and twenty three, God instructed him to go up onto Mt. Hor, where he died. Aaron figures prominently in Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy and Numbers, and is named in other books of both Old and New Testaments.