This verse follows the instructions given in 27.16 and 18, but there are differences in the word order. The screen, of course, should be distinguished from the “veil,” as explained at 26.36. Embroidered with needlework is also discussed at 26.36. (For the materials and the colors, see the comments at 26.1 and 25.4.)

Five cubits high in its breadth, literally “and height in breadth five cubits,” is an awkward expression. It refers to the entire piece of material for the screen, which was twenty by five cubits, or “10 yards” by “2½ yards” (Good News Translation). (In the British edition it is “9 metres long and 2 metres high.”) But when it was hung the breadth of the material would become the height of the “curtain” (Good News Translation). Corresponding to the hangings of the court refers to 27.18, which specifies that the hangings all around the entire “enclosure” (Good News Translation) were to be five cubits in height. The word for corresponding means “just like,” or “in keeping with” (New American Bible).

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .