Traditionally, verse 3 has been interpreted to say that one cannot have a fire burning in the home on Sabbath.  Others interpret this to mean that one cannot add fuel (i.e. wood) to a fire on the Sabbath.  So as long as the fire was started before Sabbath, in their view, it is okay to continue burning this fire on Sabbath.

Before I bring the technical evidence to show what this Scripture really indicates, let's first have a practical look at burning a fire on the Sabbath.  Winter in Israel is cold.  They sometimes have snow.  If the Sabbath is to be a delight, then how delightful would Sabbath be if we were freezing in our own homes on the Sabbath because we are commanded not to burn a fire on the Sabbath?  It doesn't seem likely (if I were to guess) that the Almighty would have us miserable from the cold on Sabbath.

Alright, enough conjecture!  Let's allow the Scriptures to teach us the meaning of "kindle."  There are several words in Hebrew that are translated "burn."  One such word is @r;f' (pronounced "saraph").  This word is found in a number of places, including:

You must leave nothing until morning, but you must burn with fire whatever remains of it until morning (Shemot 12:10).

But the meat of the bull, its skin, and its dung you are to burn with fire outside the camp. It is the purification offering (Shemot 29:14).

The meaning of this word is clear enough.  It means "to burn."

Another word is hr'x' (pronounced "charah") and is translated, "burn, be kindled" and is frequently a metaphor for anger:

And my anger will burn and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives will be widows and your children will be fatherless (Shemot 22:24).

This word is used many times as a description of the feeling of rage or anger (as above).

A third word is rj;q' (pronounced "qatar") - "to burn incense or sacrifice."  This word is found in the following Scriptures:

And you are to take all the fat that covers the entrails, and the lobe that is above the liver, and the two kidneys and the fat that is on them, and burn them on the altar (Shemot 29:13).

And Aharon is to burn sweet incense on it morning by morning; when he attends to the lamps he is to burn incense (Shemot 30:7).

... all the rest of the bull--he must bring outside the camp to a clean place, to the fatty ash pile, and he must burn it on wood; it must be burned on the fatty ash pile (Vayiqra 4:12).

Then the priest will take a handful of the grain offering as its memorial portion, burn it on the altar, and afterward make the woman drink the water (Bemidbar 5:26).

Each of these three words, saraph, charah and qatar, speak of the burning caused by fire.  Simple enough.

But in Shemot 35:3 “You must not kindle a fire in all your homes on the Sabbath day,” a different word is used - the word for “burn, kindle” is r[b (pronounced "ba’ar").  This Hebrew word and its cognates (its meaning in sister languages), are defined by the Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament:  I r[b: MHb. hif. to kindle, MHb.² qal, JArm.^tg CPArm. to burn, to kindle, Mnd. (MdD 49b) to burn something.  and II r[b:  to clear away; Ug. bÁr  plunder, expel (UTGl. 495); Syr. to enquire, to acquire, pa. to search through, to gather, to glean, to devastate: buÒÁaÒraÒ second harvest, devastation; CPArm. to glean.   Additionally, r[;B' (b¹±ar) III, to put away, take away, feed on, waste. (ASV similar. RSV translates "purge" in Deut, elsewhere with a variety of words including "consume, destroy, exterminate, devour").  Of interest to us is the concept of "gleaning, gathering" in cognate languages.

The BDB lexicon notes that our word in the Piel stem means "feed, graze," and in the Hiphil stem, "caused to be grazed over."

The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (TWOT) defines our word r[;B' as "burn, consume."  But of great interest to us here, the TWOT notes that in the Targum, r[;B. "burn" also can mean "to seek out, collect, glean."

All three Hebrew lexicons attest to the fact that "ba'ar" can mean "to collect, glean, gather."  Such is its meaning when it is translated "graze."  For grazing is nothing more than eating while gathering.  It is even used in the Hebrew Scriptures in this way.

If a man grazes (ba’ar) his livestock in a field or a vineyard, and he lets the livestock loose and they graze (ba’ar) in the field of another man, he must make restitution from the best of his own field and the best of his own vineyard.   If a fire breaks out and spreads to thorn bushes, so that stacked grain or standing grain or the whole field is consumed, the one who started the fire (the "ba’ar" – note: the fire is “grazing” the grass just as the cattle did) must surely make restitution (Shemot 22:5,6).

Here, the man who is grazing (ba'ar) his livestock in another man's field is punished in the same fashion as the fire that "grazes" (ba'ar) a man's field.  A comparison is being made here which helps us to understand the meaning of "ba'ar."

Picture livestock grazing through a field.  What are they doing?  They are going here and there and picking up and consuming mouthfuls of grass from all around the field.  Picture the fire.  What is it doing?  It is going about and consuming grass (or hay, or whatever) from all around the field.  Both are ba'aring!  Thus, the core meaning of ba'ar seems to refer in this context to "the going around about" to consume.

This early meaning of "ba'ar" as "grazing" is also the meaning of related Hebrew words, which are derivatives of the verb "ba'ar" (to graze).  For example, hr"([eB.h;  (pronounced "ha-be-eirâ"), appears once in Shemot 22:6 [H 5] where it is used as a cognate accusative with ba-ar, "the one who kindled the fire" (as noted in the Scripture cited above).  In addition to this, the Hebrew ry[iB. (pronounced "be-ir") means "beasts, cattle. (derived from their grazing, wandering?  “grazer”)"!  Another word, r[;B; (pronounced "ba-ar") means "brutish person," probably also deriving from the grazing aspect of some animals, thus suggesting that such a person is more like an animal than a man, and is likely a reference to a person who stubbornly refuses to accept Yahuwah's grace (Psa 73:22).

With this early meaning before us, it is easy to understand the meaning of the instruction, “You must not kindle a fire in all your homes on the Sabbath day.”  If we understand ba'ar, "kindle" as "wandering, grazing, seeking out, collecting, gleaning," the meaning emerges.  Keep in mind the previous teaching that gathering and preparing (food) is prohibited on Sabbath.  Thus, also, "collecting" a fire on the Sabbath is also prohibited.  The prohibition has to do with the gathering, collecting, gleaning of the fire (wood) to make the fire.  The work of gathering and preparing a fire is clearly what is prohibited.  Just as the work of preparing food or collecting food or wood is prohibited on the seventh day, the preparing and collecting (grazing) of wood (for the fire) is prohibited on the Sabbath.

With this core understanding of the earliest meaning of ba'ar, it is also easy to see how the word developed into its more common meaning of "to consume."  The beast which grazes the field consumes it.  The fire which grazes the field consumes it.  So, ba'ar came to mean "consume."

The Angel of Yahuwah appeared to him in a flame of fire from within a bush. He looked--and the bush was ablaze (ba’ar) with fire, but it was not being consumed!  So Moshe thought, "I will turn aside to see this amazing sight. Why does the bush not burn up (ba’ar)?" (Shemot 3:2,3).

When the people complained, it displeased Yahuwah. When Yahuwah heard it, his anger burned (charah), and so the fire of Yahuwah burned (ba’ar) among them and consumed some of the outer parts of the camp.  When the people cried to Moshe, he prayed to Yahuwah, and the fire died out.  So he called the name of that place Taberah (pronounced “tav-a-rah” [t ba’ar ah]) because the fire of Yahuwah burned (ba’ar) among them (Bemidbar 11:1-3).

Another

common usage of the word has to do with removing evil or evil influence from the land (20 times, 10 of which are in Deut). If a person has committed some flagrant sin (idolatry, murder, fornication, prostitution, adultery, intranational slavery) not only must he himself be removed, but through his execution the evil which he has set in train must be removed (Deut 13:1-5 [H 2-6]; 2Sam 4:11; 1Kings 14:10 etc.). The necessity for this latter is seen in the provision made for purging the evil when a body is found and the murderer is not known (Deut 21:1-9). Evil cannot be explained away nor wished away. It must be dealt with and that in terms of life and death. J.N.O.

An example of this is found in

Devarim 13:5 As for that prophet or dreamer, he must be executed because he encouraged rebellion against Yahuwah your Elohim who brought you from the land of Egypt, redeeming you from the place of slavery, and because he has tried to entice you from the way Yahuwah your Elohim has commanded you to go. In this way you must purge out (ba’ar) evil from within.

The Collection of the Materials for the Tabernacle

⁴ Mosheh said to the whole community of the sons of Yisrael, "This is what Yahuwah has commanded:

⁵ From what you have, take an offering for Yahuwah. Everyone who is willing is to bring to Yahuwah an offering of gold, silver and bronze;

⁶ blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen; goat hair;

⁷ ram skins dyed red and hides of sea cows; acacia wood;

⁸ olive oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense;

⁹ and onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and breastpiece.

¹⁰ "All who are skilled among you are to come and make everything Yahuwah has commanded:

¹¹ the tabernacle with its tent and its covering, clasps, frames, crossbars, posts and bases;

¹² the ark with its poles and the atonement cover and the curtain that shields it;

¹³ the table with its poles and all its articles and the bread of the Presence;

¹⁴ the lampstand that is for light with its accessories, lamps and oil for the light;

¹⁵ the altar of incense with its poles, the anointing oil and the fragrant incense; the curtain for the doorway at the entrance to the tabernacle;

¹⁶ the altar of burnt offering with its bronze grating, its poles and all its utensils; the bronze basin with its stand;

¹⁷ the curtains of the courtyard with its posts and bases, and the curtain for the entrance to the courtyard;

¹⁸ the tent pegs for the tabernacle and for the courtyard, and their ropes;

¹⁹ the woven garments worn for ministering in the sanctuary-- both the set apart garments for Aharon the priest and the garments for his sons when they serve as priests."

In stark contrast to the teaching of the Torah about the tithe, which is for the Lewite, the orphan and the widow, the tabernacle was built from the freewill offerings of Yahuwah's people.  "Everyone who is willing" was to give to the priests those items which were needed for the construction of the tabernacle and all the articles and furniture which was used in the set-apart place.

It may also be instructive to Christian churches that the pattern of giving here is not so that each of the givers can have their name engraved into the items they contributed so that all would see their name and praise the giver.  No.  Nor did they name anything after the givers like churches like to do to motivate giving to their building projects.  Those who gave put their trust in Yahuwah to reward them according to their generosity, rather than receiving the praises of men.

These materials were mostly those which the nation of Israel collected from the Egyptians on the morning of their exodus when they "plundered the Egyptians."  Elohim provided all these things to Israel so that they would have the supplies with which to build his tabernacle.  Those among the Israelites who did not love material possessions, but loved Yahuwah, were those who freely and willingly gave to the priests for the construction of the tabernacle.

²⁰ Then the whole community of the sons of Yisrael withdrew from Mosheh' presence,

²¹ and everyone who was willing and whose heart moved him came and brought an offering to Yahuwah for the work on the Tent of Appointment, for all its service, and for the set apart garments.

²² All who were willing, men and women alike, came and brought gold jewelry of all kinds: brooches, earrings, rings and ornaments. They all presented their gold as a wave offering to Yahuwah.

²³ Everyone who had blue, purple or scarlet yarn or fine linen, or goat hair, ram skins dyed red or hides of sea cows brought them.

²⁴ Those presenting an offering of silver or bronze brought it as an offering to Yahuwah, and everyone who had acacia wood for any part of the work brought it.

²⁵ Every skilled woman spun with her hands and brought what she had spun-- blue, purple or scarlet yarn or fine linen.

²⁶ And all the women who were willing and had the skill spun the goat hair.

²⁷ The leaders brought onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and breastpiece.

²⁸ They also brought spices and olive oil for the light and for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense.

²⁹ Every man and woman who was willing brought to Yahuwah freewill offerings for all the work Yahuwah through Mosheh had commanded the sons of Yisrael to do.

We know of some of the valuables which were plundered from the Egyptians.

The sons of Yisrael did as Mosheh instructed and asked the Mitzrites for articles of silver and gold and for clothing.  Yahuwah had made the Mitzrites favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Mitzrites. (Shemot 12:35-36)

Thus, the jewelry and the various yarns and fabrics which were used in the tabernacle were among those which they received from the Mitzrites.

But also among those things which the sons of Israel had in their possession was acacia wood!  Where did they get this?  Keep in mind that the planks which were used were quite big.  The boards which were connected to make the wall around the tabernacle were about 12 feet long (high) by 2 feet wide.  The exact dimensions are given a little later:

They made upright frames of acacia wood for the tabernacle.  Each frame was ten cubits long and a cubit and a half wide (36:20-21)

Now it doesn't tell us if these were solid boards of acacia wood or if they were smaller pieces which were cut and connected by a craftsman in wood.  But there was a significant amount of acacia wood used in the project.

The lesson of the building of the tabernacle was that everything was made from the freewill offerings of the people.  Evidently the people had this acacia wood in their possession and offered it to Yahuwah's service.

Bezalel and Oholiab