Exodus 26:27 — Bars for the Rear Wall of the Tabernacle

Exodus 26:27 completes the bar inventory that verse 26 began. While verse 26 names five bars for the boards of one side, verse 27 adds two more sets of five: five bars for the boards of "the other side," and a further five bars for the boards of the side that is "for the hinder part westward." The threefold repetition of "five bars" makes clear that every one of the three framed walls of the tabernacle — north, south, and west — receives the same number of crossbars.

The phrase "the hinder part westward" identifies which wall is meant by the second "the side of the tabernacle" in the verse. Verses 22–25 describe six boards (plus two corner boards) forming the rear, west-facing wall, and verse 27 supplies its matching set of five bars. The result is a symmetrical frame: identical horizontal reinforcement on the south side (vv. 18–19), the north side (vv. 20–21), and the west side (vv. 22–25, 27).

Read together with verse 28, the five bars per wall serve a structural purpose: they brace the acacia boards, holding the rectangular tabernacle frame rigid so it can be assembled, transported, and re-erected. Verse 29 further specifies that both the boards and the bars are overlaid with gold, and that gold rings are set into the boards to receive the bars — details that turn plain wooden beams into parts of a sanctuary. The verse, then, is less about decoration than about ensuring that every wall of the dwelling shares the same reinforced, gold-overlaid construction.

Exodus 26:27 sits inside the longer unit describing the wooden frame of the tabernacle (vv. 15–30). Verses 15–17 introduce acacia boards standing upright, with each board ten cubits long and a cubit and a half wide, fitted with two paired tenons. Verses 18–21 allocate twenty boards (and forty silver sockets) to the south side, then another twenty to the north side. Verses 22–25 assign six boards plus two corner boards to the rear, west-facing wall, with sixteen silver sockets. Verse 26 begins the bar instructions with five bars for the first side, verse 27 adds five for the second side and five for the west side, verse 28 specifies a middle bar that runs end to end, verse 29 calls for gold overlay on boards, rings, and bars, and verse 30 closes the unit with the command to erect the tabernacle according to the pattern shown on the mountain.

The full chapter also covers layers that go over the frame (vv. 1–14): ten linen curtains with cherubim coupled by fifty gold clasps, eleven goat-hair curtains coupled by fifty bronze clasps, and outer coverings of rams' skins dyed red and sealskins. After the frame instructions close at verse 30, chapter 26 goes on to describe the veil separating the holy place from the most holy (vv. 31–33), the mercy-seat on the ark (v. 34), the placement of the table and lampstand (v. 35), and the embroidered screen at the tent entrance (vv. 36–37). Within this larger picture, verse 27 is one precise line in the middle of the framework specifications.