תַּבְנִית

You must make the tabernacle and design all its furnishings according to the pattern I show you.

See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.

…that you do not act corruptly and make an idol for yourselves of any form or shape, whether in the likeness of a male or female,

…of any beast that is on the earth or bird that flies in the air,

…or of any creature that crawls on the ground or fish that is in the waters below.

Therefore we said, ‘If they ever say this to us or to our descendants, we will answer: Look at the replica of the altar of the LORD that our fathers made, not for burnt offerings or sacrifices, but as a witness between us and you.’

Then King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria. On seeing the altar in Damascus, King Ahaz sent Uriah the priest a model of the altar and complete plans for its construction.

Then David gave his son Solomon the plans for the portico of the temple, its buildings, storehouses, upper rooms, inner rooms, and the room for the mercy seat.

The plans contained everything David had in mind for the courts of the house of the LORD, for all the surrounding rooms, for the treasuries of the house of God and of the dedicated things,

…the weight of the refined gold for the altar of incense; and the plans for the chariot of the gold cherubim that spread their wings and overshadowed the ark of the covenant of the LORD.

“All this,” said David, “all the details of this plan, the LORD has made clear to me in writing by His hand upon me.”

They exchanged their Glory for the image of a grass-eating ox.

Then our sons will be like plants nurtured in their youth, our daughters like corner pillars carved to adorn a palace.

The woodworker extends a measuring line; he marks it out with a stylus; he shapes it with chisels and outlines it with a compass. He fashions it in the likeness of man, like man in all his glory, that it may dwell in a shrine.

He stretched out what looked like a hand and took me by the hair of my head. Then the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and carried me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate of the inner court, where the idol that provokes jealousy was seated.

So I went in and looked, and engraved all around the wall was every kind of crawling creature and detestable beast, along with all the idols of the house of Israel.

(The cherubim appeared to have the form of human hands under their wings.)