Exo 26, 27:9-19, 36:8-38 | TSK | STEP | The ten curtains of the tabernacle. The eleven curtains of goats' hair, and the covering of rams' and badgers' skins. The boards of the tabernacle, with their sockets and bars. The vail for the ark. The hanging for the door. 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." fine twined linen. cherubims. cunning work. Heb. the work of a cunning workman, orembroiderer.

‏ Exodus 26

1 The ten curtains of the tabernacle.

7 The eleven curtains of goats' hair, and the covering of rams' and badgers' skins.

15 The boards of the tabernacle, with their sockets and bars.

31 The vail for the ark.

36 The hanging for the door.

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; 1Ch 17:1; 21:29; Joh 1:14; 2:21; Heb 8:2

Heb 9:9,23,24; Re 21:3

fine twined linen.

36; 25:4; 35:6,35; Re 19:8

cherubims.

25:18

cunning work. Heb. the work of a cunning workman, orembroiderer.

curtain.

7,8; Nu 4:25; 2Sa 7:2; 1Ch 17:1

coupled together.

9; 36:10; Joh 17:21; 1Co 12:4,12-27; Eph 2:21,22; 4:3-6,16

Col 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.

Eph 1:22,23; 4:16; 1Pe 2:4,5

curtains.

35:26; 36:14-18; Nu 4:25; Ps 45:13; 1Pe 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; Nu 31:20

14; Isa 4:5

eleven.

1,9,12

length of one curtain.

2,13

five curtains by themselves.

fifty loops.

4-6

tent. or, covering.

3,6

shall hang over.

a cubit.

2,8

of that which remaineth. Heb. in the remainder orsurplusage.

a covering.

36:19; Nu 4:5; Ps 27:5; 121:4,5; Isa 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; Nu 4:10; Eze 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; Nu 4:31,32; Eph 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; Nu 3:36

Nu 4:31,32; So 5:15

two sockets under one board.

be coupled. Heb. twined. and they shall be coupled togetherabove.

36:29,30; Ps 133:1-3; 1Co 1:10; 3:16; 1Pe 2:5

bars of shittim wood.

36:31-38; Nu 3:36; 4:31; Ro 15:1; 1Co 9:19,20; Ga 6:1,2; Eph 4:16

Col 2:19

overlay the boards with gold.

25:11,12

rear up the tabernacle.

40:2,17,18; Nu 10:21; Jos 18:1; Heb 8:2

according to the fashion.

25:9,40; 27:8; Ac 7:44; Heb 8:5; 9:23

a vail of.

36:35; 40:3,21; Le 16:2,15; 2Ch 3:14; Mt 27:51; Mr 15:38; Lu 23:45

Eph 2:14; Heb 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; 2Ch 2:7-13; Ps 137:5; So 7:1

cherubims shall it be made.

25:18

pillars of shittim.

37; 36:38; Es 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.

Ge 9:4,5

the ark of the testimony.

25:16; 40:21

the holy place.

Le 16:2; 1Ki 8:6,10; 2Ch 5:7-10; Heb 9:2,3

put the mercy seat.

25:21; 40:20; Heb 9:5

the table.

40:22; Heb 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; Joh 10:9; 14:6

the tent.

35:11; 39:33; 40:29; Nu 3:25; 9:15; 2Sa 7:6; Ps 78:60

of blue.

overlay them with gold.

36:38

‏ Exodus 27:9-19

the court.

38:9-20; 40:8; 1Ki 6:36; 8:64; 2Ch 33:5; Ps 84:10; 92:13; 100:4

Ps 116:19; Eze 40:14,20,23,28,32,44; 42:3,19,20; 46:20-24

hangings for.

26:31-37; 36:17; 39:40

sockets shall be of brass.

26:19-21

fillets shall be of silver.

36:38; Jer 52:21

hangings of one side.

9; 26:36

of blue.

26:31,36

needle-work.

28:39; 36:37; 39:29; Jud 5:30; Ps 45:14

length of the court.

9-12

fifty every where. Heb. fifty by fifty.

all the pins thereof.

3; 35:18; 38:20,31; 39:40; Nu 3:37; 4:32; Ezr 9:8; Ec 12:11

Isa 22:23-25; 33:20; Zec 10:4

‏ Exodus 36:8-38

wise.

31:6; 35:10

made.

26:1-37; 1Ch 15:1

cherubims.{Keroovim,} cherubim, not cherubims. What these were we cannot determine. Some, observing that the verb {kerav} in Syriac, sometimes means to resemble, make like, conceive the noun {keroov} signifies no more than an image, figure, or representation of anything. Josephus says they were flying animals, like none of those which are seen by man, but such as Moses saw about the throne of God. In another place he says, "As for the cherubim, nobody can tell or conceive what they were like." These symbolical figures, according to the description of them by Ezekiel, (ch. 1:10; 10:14,) were creatures with four heads and one body; and the animals of which these forms consisted were the noblest of their kind; the lion among the wild beasts; the bull among the tame ones; the eagle among the birds, and man at the head of all. Hence some have conceived them to be somewhat of the shape of flying oxen; and it is alleged in favour of this opinion, that the far more common meaning of the verb {kerav,} in Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic, being to plough, the natural meaning of {keroov,} is a creature used in ploughing. This seems to have been the ancient opinion which tradition had handed down, concerning the shape of the cherubim with the flaming sword, that guarded the tree of life. (Ge 3:24.)

25:18,22; 1Ki 6:23; 2Ch 3:10; Eze 1:5-28; 10:1-19

26:3; Ps 122:3; 133:1; Zep 3:9; Ac 2:1; 1Co 1:10; 12:20,27; Eph 1:23

Eph 2:21,22; 4:2-6; Php 2:2; 3:15

26:4

26:5,10

so it became.

1Co 12:20; Eph 2:20-22; 1Pe 2:4,5

26:7-13

covering.

26:14

rams' skins dyed red.This was the third covering of the tabernacle. The first and lowermost was made of fine linen, richly embroidered with figures of cherubim, in shades of blue, purple, and scarlet (ver. 8-13). It is reasonable to suppose, that the right side of this curtain was undermost, and so it formed a beautiful ceiling in the inside of the tabernacle. The second covering, which lay over the embroidered one, was made of a sort of mohair, (ver. 14-17,) and the fourth, or uppermost one, which was to keep the others from the weather, was made of {tachash,} or badgers' skins.

boards.

26:15-25; 40:18,19

shittim wood.

25:5,10; Nu 25:1; De 10:3

The length.Each of these boards, taking the cubit at nearly twenty-two inches, was about eighteen feet long, and two feet nine inches broad. As these boards are said to be standing up (ver. 20,) their length was consequently the height of the tabernacle; and as the two sides were composed of twenty of these, standing up (ver. 23, 25,) and the west end of six, with two boards to project at the corners, (ver. 27, 28,) the tabernacle must therefore, have been thirty cubits, or fifty-five feet long, and about ten cubits, or eighteen feet broad. These boards were fastened at the bottom by two tenons in each board, which fitted into two mortices in the foundation, at the top by links or hasps, and on the sides by five wooden bars, which ran through rings or staples in each of the boards. The boards and bars were all overlaid with gold; and their rings for the staves, and their hasps at top, were of the same metal. The foundation on which they stood consisted of about ninety-six solid blocks of silver, two under each board, about eighteen inches long, and of a suitable thickness; and each weighing a talent, or about a hundred weight. Four blocks of silver formed the bases of the columns which supported the curtain that divided the inside of the tabernacle into two rooms.

westward.

26:22,27

coupled. Heb. twined.

26:24; Ps 122:3; 133:1; Ac 2:46; 4:32; 1Co 1:10; 12:13; 2Co 1:10

Eph 2:15,19,21; 3:18,19; 4:2-6,15,16

under every board two sockets. Heb. two sockets, twosockets, under one board.

26:25

25:28; 26:26-29; 30:5

the tabernacle.

26:26

vail of blue.{Parachoth,} from {parach,} to separate, divide, make a distinction between somewhat, the inner vail, which divided the tabernacle into two, and separated, and made a distinction between the Holy place and the Holy of Holies. This vail was made of the same rich materials as the inner covering of the tabernacle, and curiously embroidered with cherubim and other ornaments. Though it does not appear from Scripture at what distance from either end of the tabernacle this vail was hung, yet is reasonably conjectured, that it divided it in the same proportion in which the temple, built after this model, was divided; that is, two-thirds of the whole length were allotted to the first room, and one-third to the second; so that the room beyond the vail, the Holy of Holies, was exactly square, being ten cubits each way, and the first room, the sanctuary, was twice as long as it was broad.

26:31-35; 30:6; 40:21; Mt 27:51; Heb 10:20

Jer 1:18

an hanging.This vail was a fine embroidered curtain, of the same materials and of the same workmanship as the inner vail and inner covering of the tabernacle. The text does not say how low it hung. Philo makes it touch the ground; but Josephus will have it to come down but half way, so that the people might have a view of the inside of the tabernacle; but then he says there was another curtain over that, which came to the ground, to keep it from the weather, and was drawn aside on the sabbath and other festivals.

26:36,37; 40:28

of needlework. Heb. the work of a needle worker, orembroider.

26:36

fillets with gold.

27:10