Exodus 25:23-24

The Table for the Bread of the Presence

25:23 ¹ “You are to make a table of acacia wood; its length is to be three feet, its width one foot six inches, and its height two feet three inches. 25:24 You are to overlay it with ²  pure gold, and you are to make a surrounding border of gold for it.

Exodus 37:10-16

The Making of the Table

37:10 He made the table of acacia wood; its length was three feet, its width one foot six inches, and its height two feet three inches. 37:11 He overlaid it with pure gold, and he made a surrounding border of gold for it. 37:12 He made a surrounding frame for it about three inches wide, and he made a surrounding border of gold for its frame. 37:13 He cast four gold rings for it and attached the rings at the four corners where its four legs were. 37:14 The rings were close to the frame to provide places for the poles to carry the table. 37:15 He made the poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold, to carry the table. 37:16 He made the vessels which were on the table out of pure gold, its ³  plates, its ladles, its pitchers, and its bowls, to be used in pouring out offerings.

Exodus 39:36

39:36 the table, all its utensils, and the Bread of the Presence;

Exodus 40:22-23

40:22 And he put the table in the tent of meeting, on the north side of the tabernacle, outside the curtain. 40:23 And he set the bread in order on it ⁴  before the Lord, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

Exodus 40:1

Setting Up the Sanctuary

40:1 ⁵ Then the Lord spoke to Moses: ⁶ 

Exodus 7:1-2

7:1 So the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God ⁷  to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. ⁸  7:2 You are to speak ⁹  everything I command you, ¹⁰  and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh that he must release ¹¹  the Israelites from his land.

Exodus 4:19

4:19 The Lord said to Moses in Midian, “Go back ¹²  to Egypt, because all the men who were seeking your life are dead.” ¹³ 

Exodus 13:11

13:11 When the Lord brings you ¹⁴  into the land of the Canaanites, ¹⁵  as he swore to you and to your fathers, and gives it ¹⁶  to you,

Hebrews 9:2

9:2 For a tent was prepared, the outer one, ¹⁷  which contained ¹⁸  the lampstand, the table, and the presentation of the loaves; this ¹⁹  is called the holy place.

[25:23]  ¹ sn The Table of the Bread of the Presence (Tyndale’s translation, “Shewbread,” was used in KJV and influenced ASV, NAB) was to be a standing acknowledgment that Yahweh was the giver of daily bread. It was called the “presence-bread” because it was set out in his presence. The theology of this is that God provides, and the practice of this is that the people must provide for constant thanks. So if the ark speaks of communion through atonement, the table speaks of dedicatory gratitude.

[25:24]  ² tn “Gold” is an adverbial accusative of material.

[37:16]  ³ tn The suffixes on these could also indicate the indirect object (see Exod 25:29).

[40:23]  ⁴ tn Heb uses a cognate accusative construction, “he arranged the arrangement.”

[40:1]  ⁵ sn All of Exod 39:32-40:38 could be taken as a unit. The first section (39:32-43) shows that the Israelites had carefully and accurately completed the preparation and brought everything they had made to Moses: The work of the Lord builds on the faithful obedience of the people. In the second section are the instruction and the implementation (40:1-33): The work of the Lord progresses through the unifying of the work. The last part (40:34-38) may take the most attention: When the work was completed, the glory filled the tabernacle: By his glorious presence, the Lord blesses and directs his people in their worship.

[40:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “and Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying.”

[7:1]  ⁷ tn The word “like” is added for clarity, making explicit the implied comparison in the statement “I have made you God to Pharaoh.” The word אֱלֹהִים (’elohim) is used a few times in the Bible for humans (e.g., Pss 45:6; 82:1), and always clearly in the sense of a subordinate to GOD – they are his representatives on earth. The explanation here goes back to 4:16. If Moses is like God in that Aaron is his prophet, then Moses is certainly like God to Pharaoh. Only Moses, then, is able to speak to Pharaoh with such authority, giving him commands.

[7:1]  ⁸ tn The word נְבִיאֶךָ (nÿvi’ekha, “your prophet”) recalls 4:16. Moses was to be like God to Aaron, and Aaron was to speak for him. This indicates that the idea of a “prophet” was of one who spoke for God, an idea with which Moses and Aaron and the readers of Exodus are assumed to be familiar.

[7:2]  ⁹ tn The imperfect tense here should have the nuance of instruction or injunction: “you are to speak.” The subject is singular (Moses) and made emphatic by the presence of the personal pronoun “you.”

[7:2]  ¹⁰ tn The phrase translated “everything I command you” is a noun clause serving as the direct object of the verb “speak.” The verb in the clause (אֲצַוֶּךָ, ’atsavvekha) is the Piel imperfect. It could be classified as a future: “everything that I will command you.” A nuance of progressive imperfect also fits well: “everything that I am commanding you.”

[7:2]  ¹¹ tn The form is וְשִׁלַּח (vÿshillakh), a Piel perfect with vav (ו) consecutive. Following the imperfects of injunction or instruction, this verb continues the sequence. It could be taken as equal to an imperfect expressing future (“and he will release”) or subordinate to express purpose (“to release” = “in order that he may release”).

[4:19]  ¹² tn The text has two imperatives, “Go, return”; if these are interpreted as a hendiadys (as in the translation), then the second is adverbial.

[4:19]  ¹³ sn The text clearly stated that Pharaoh sought to kill Moses; so this seems to be a reference to Pharaoh’s death shortly before Moses’ return. Moses was forty years in Midian. In the 18th dynasty, only Pharaoh Thutmose III had a reign of the right length (1504-1450 b.c.) to fit this period of Moses’ life. This would place Moses’ returning to Egypt near 1450 b.c., in the beginning of the reign of Amenhotep II, whom most conservatives identify as the pharaoh of the exodus. Rameses II, of course, had a very long reign (1304-1236). But if he were the one from whom Moses fled, then he could not be the pharaoh of the exodus, but his son would be – and that puts the date of the exodus after 1236, a date too late for anyone. See E. H. Merrill, Kingdom of Priests, 62.

[13:11]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and it will be when Yahweh brings (will bring) you.”

[13:11]  ¹⁵ sn The name “the Canaanite” (and so collective for “Canaanites”) is occasionally used to summarize all the list of Canaanitish tribes that lived in the land.

[13:11]  ¹⁶ tn The verb וּנְתָנָהּ (unÿtanah) is the Qal perfect with the vav (ו) consecutive; this is in sequence to the preceding verb, and forms part of the protasis, the temporal clause. The main clause is the instruction in the next verse.

[9:2]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “the first,” in order of approach in the ritual.

[9:2]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “in which [were].”

[9:2]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “which,” describing the outer tent.