Bible Commentaries

the tabernacle with ten curtains

The word mishcan, from shachan, to dwell, means simply a dwelling-place, or habitation. "When God had brought the children of Israel out of Egypt," says the very learned Dr. Cudworth, "resolving to manifest himself in a peculiar manner present among them, he thought good to dwell amongst them in a visible and external manner; and therefore, while they were in the wilderness, and sojourned in tents, he would have a tent or tabernacle built, to sojourn with them also.--Now, the tabernacle being thus a house for God to dwell in visibly, to make up the notion of dwelling or habitation complete, there must be all things suitable to a house belonging to it. Hence, in the holy place, there must be a table and a candlestick, because these were the ordinary furniture of a room. The table must have its dishes, and spoons, and bowls, and covers, belonging to it, though they were never used; and always be furnished with bread upon it. The candlestick must have its lamps continually burning, etc."

25:8, 36:8-19, 40:2,17-19, 1 Chronicles 17:1, 21:29, John 1:14, 2:21, Hebrews 8:2, Hebrews 9:9,23,24, Revelation 21:3

fine twined linen

36, 25:4, 35:6,35, Revelation 19:8

cherubims

25:18

cunning work

Heb. the work of a cunning workman, or embroiderer.

curtain

7,8, Numbers 4:25, 2 Samuel 7:2, 1 Chronicles 17:1

coupled together

9, 36:10, John 17:21, 1 Corinthians 12:4,12-27, Ephesians 2:21,22, 4:3-6,16, Colossians 2:2,19

loops of blue

5,10,11, 36:11,12,17

taches of gold

11,33, 35:11, 36:13,18, 39:33

one tabernacle

Ephesians 1:22,23, 4:16, 1 Peter 2:4,5

curtains

35:26, 36:14-18, Numbers 4:25, Psalms 45:13, 1 Peter 3:4, 5:5

goats' hair

Izzim, goats, but used here elliptically for goats' hair. In different parts of Asia Minor, Syria, Cilicia, and Phrygia, the goats have long, fine, and beautiful hair; in some cases, almost as fine as silk, which is shorn at proper times, and manufactured into garments.

25:4, 35:6,23, Numbers 31:20

a

14, Isaiah 4:5

eleven

1,9,12

length of one curtain

2,13

five curtains by themselves

fifty loops

tent

or, covering.

3,6

shall hang over

a cubit

2,8

of that which remaineth

Heb. in the remainder or surplusage.

a covering

36:19, Numbers 4:5, Psalms 27:5, 121:4,5, Isaiah 4:6, 25:4

rams' skins dyed red

Oroth ailim meoddamim, literally, the skins of red rams. It is a fact, attested by many respectable travellers, that in the Levant, sheep are often met with having red or violet coloured fleeces. Almost all ancient writers speak of the same thing.

25:5, 35:7,23, 39:34, Numbers 4:10, Ezekiel 16:10

badgers' skins

Oroth techashim, which nearly all the ancient versions have taken to be the name of a colour, though they differ very much with regard to the particular colour intended: the LXX., Vulgate, and Coptic, have skins dyed of a violet colour; the Syriac, azure; and the Arabic, black; and Bochart contends for the hysginus, a very deep blue. It may, however, denote an animal; for Dr. Geddes remarks, had the sacred writer meant to express only a variety of colour, he would hardly have repeated óroth, skins, after meoddamim, red, in ch. 25:5.

boards

18,22-29, 36:20-33, 40:17,18, Numbers 4:31,32, Ephesians 2:20,21

of shittim

25:5

tenons

Heb. hands.

19, 36:22,24

forty sockets of silver

25,37, 27:10,12-18, 36:24-26, 38:27,30,31, 40:18, Numbers 3:36, Numbers 4:31,32, Song of Solomon 5:15

two sockets under one board

corners: [Strong‘s H4742], Exodus 36:28

be coupled

Heb. twined. and they shall be coupled together above.

36:29,30, Psalms 133:1-3, 1 Corinthians 1:10, 3:16, 1 Peter 2:5

bars of shittim wood

36:31-38, Numbers 3:36, 4:31, Romans 15:1, 1 Corinthians 9:19,20, Galatians 6:1,2, Ephesians 4:16, Colossians 2:19

reach: lit, flee, 1 Chronicles 12:15; Nehemiah 13:28; Job 41:28; Proverbs 19:26

overlay the boards with gold

25:11,12

rear up the tabernacle

40:2,17,18, Numbers 10:21, Joshua 18:1, Hebrews 8:2

according to the fashion

25:9,40, 27:8, Acts 7:44, Hebrews 8:5, 9:23

a vail of

36:35, 40:3,21, Leviticus 16:2,15, 2 Chronicles 3:14, Matthew 27:51, Mark 15:38, Luke 23:45, Ephesians 2:14, Hebrews 9:3-8, 10:20,21

blue

25:4, 35:6,25,35, 36:8

purple

Argaman, a very precious colour, extracted from the purpura, or murex, a species of shell-fish; and supposed to be the same with the costly and much celebrated Tyrian purple.

scarlet

Tolaâth; properly the worm whence the scarlet colour was produced; which grew in a coccus, or excrescence, of a shrub of the ilex kind, like the cochineal worm in the Opuntia of America; which is arranged under the same genus as the Arabic Kermez, which also denotes this colour.

cunning work

1, 28:15, 38:23, 2 Chronicles 2:7-13, Psalms 137:5, Song of Solomon 7:1

cherubims shall it be made

25:18

pillars of shittim

37, 36:38, Esther 1:6

their hooks shall be of gold

The Hebrew waveyhem, which we translate their hooks, is rendered by the LXX. [kephalides] and by the Vulgate, capiata, capitals. Hence Calmet contends, 1. That if Moses does not mean the capitals of the pillars by this word, he mentions them nowhere else; and it would seem strange, that while he describes them with so much exactness, that he should not mention the capitals; or that pillars every way so correctly formed, should have been destitute of this necessary ornament. 2. As Moses was commanded to make the wavim of the pillars, and their fillets, of silver, (ch. 27:10, 11,) and the wavim of the pillars of the vail of gold, (ch. 36:36,) and that 1,775 shekels were employed in making them, overlaying their chapiters, rasheyhem, their heads, and filleting them, (ch. 38:28,) it is more reasonable to suppose that all this is spoken of the capitals of pillars, than of any kind of hooks, especially as hooks are mentioned under the word taches or clasps. But as the root wavah seems to signify to connect, (for [wwy] in Arabic, is to marry a wife,) and as the letter [ww] wav, if it has not its name from its hook-like form, is yet used as a connective particle, it would rather appear to denote hooks, which connected the curtains or vails to the pillars. The LXX. also render it [agkulai] "handles", and [krikoi] "rings" or "clasps".

the taches

27:10, 36:36

within the vail

Genesis 9:4,5

the ark of the testimony

25:16, 40:21

the holy place

Leviticus 16:2, 1 Kings 8:6,10, 2 Chronicles 5:7-10, Hebrews 9:2,3

put the mercy seat

25:21, 40:20, Hebrews 9:5

the table

40:22, Hebrews 9:2,8,9

the candlestick

25:31-37, 40:24

hanging

This may be termed the first vail, as it occupied the door or entrance to the tabernacle; the vail that separated the Holy of Holies is called the second vail, Heb 9:3. Mr. Morier, (Second Journey Through Persia, p. 251,) describing the tent of a chief of the Eelauts, says, "It was composed of a wooden frame of circular laths, which were fixed on the ground, and then covered over with large felts, that were fastened down by a cord, ornamented by tassels of various colours. A curtain, curiously worked by the women, with coarse needle-work of various colours, was suspended over the door. In the king of Persia's tents, magnificent perdahs, or hangings of needle-work, are suspended, as well as on the doors of the great mosques in Turkey; and these circumstances combined, will, perhaps, illustrate Ex 26:36."

36:37, 40:28, John 10:9, 14:6

the tent

35:11, 39:33, 40:29, Numbers 3:25, 9:15, 2 Samuel 7:6, Psalms 78:60

of blue

overlay them with gold

36:38