to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze,
The Israelites were trained in brick and clay, not in the fine arts; they had no goldsmiths or jewelers among them. Yet God knew exactly who was sufficient for this work and chose Bezaleel Himself, avoiding all envy and contest over preferment. He supplies what men cannot.
AI summary
Commenting on Exodus 31:1-11
To devise cunning works,.... To invent, contrive, and draw patterns, for the weavers particularly, for the making of the curtains of the tabernacle, the vail of the most holy place, the ephod, and the curious girdle of it, which were made of cunning work, curiously wrought by the weaver; and so Jarchi interprets this of the weaving of the work of Chosheb, or cunning work...
Cunning works - מחשבת machashaboth, works of invention or genius, in the goldsmith and silversmith line.