Exodus 26:1-37
tabernacle ........ ten curtains <04908 06235 03407> [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 twisted linen <08336 07806> [fine twined linen.]
cherubim <03742> [cherubims.]
work .... artistic designer <04639 02803> [cunning work. Heb. the work of a cunning workman, or embroiderer.]
curtain ............ curtain .............. curtains <03407> [curtain.]
joined ............. joined <02266> [coupled together.]
loops ... blue <03924 08504> [loops of blue.]
gold clasps ......... clasps <07165 02091> [taches of gold.]
tabernacle .... unit <04908 0259> [one tabernacle.]
curtains ................ curtains <03407> [curtains.]
goats ..... tent <05795 0168> [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.
tent <0168> [a.]
eleven <06249> [eleven.]
length ... each curtain ............ curtain ........ same ...... curtains <0259 03407 0753> [length of one curtain.]
five curtains ...... curtains ........... curtain <02568 03407> [five curtains by themselves.]
fifty loops ............. fifty loops <02572 03924> [fifty loops.]
tent <0168> [tent. or, covering.]
hang ..... back <05628 0268> [shall hang over.]
foot and a half ........ foot and a half <0520> [a cubit.]
remains <05736> [of that which remaineth. Heb. in the remainder or surplusage.]
covering ............... covering <04372> [a covering.]
ram skins dyed red ......... leather <05785 0119 0352> [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.
skins .......... fine leather <05785 08476> [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 {¢roth,} skins, after {meoddamim,} red, in ch. 25:5.
frames <07175> [boards.]
acacia <07848> [of shittim.]
projections <03027> [tenons. Heb. hands.]
forty silver bases ......... bases ............. bases <0705 0134 03701> [forty sockets of silver.]
bases two bases ..... frame ... two bases ..... frame <0134 08147 0259 07175> [two sockets under one board.]
doubled <08382> [be coupled. Heb. twined. and they shall be coupled together above.]
bars ... acacia wood <01280 07848 06086> [bars of shittim wood.]
overlay ... frames ... gold ....... gold ............ overlay ..... gold <07175 02091 06823> [overlay the boards with gold.]
set .... tabernacle <04908 06965> [rear up the tabernacle.]
plan <04941> [according to the fashion.]
curtain ... blue <06532 08504> [a vail of.]
blue <08504> [blue.]
purple <0713> [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.
yarn <08144> [scarlet.]
TolaÆ’th; 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.
work .... artistic designer <04639 02803> [cunning work.]
make ................... made ... cherubim <06213 03742> [cherubims shall it be made.]
posts ... acacia <05982 07848> [pillars of shittim.]
gold hooks .......... gold <02053 02091> [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".
clasps <07165> [the taches.]
curtain .............. behind ... curtain ... curtain <06532 01004> [within the vail.]
ark .... testimony <0727 05715> [the ark of the testimony.]
Holy Place ..... Holy Place <06944> [the holy place.]
put ... atonement lid <03727 05414> [put the mercy seat.]
table ................. table ........ table <07979> [the table.]
lampstand <04501> [the candlestick.]
hanging <04539> [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."
tent <0168> [the tent.]
blue <08504> [of blue.]
overlay .... gold ....... gold <02091 06823> [overlay them with gold.]
Exodus 31:7-9
tent ..................... tent <0168> [tabernacle.]
ark <0727> [ark.]
furnishings <03627> [furniture. Heb. vessels.]
table <07979> [the table.]
pure lampstand <04501 02889> [pure candlestick.]
altar <04196> [the altar.]
altar <04196> [the altar.]
basin <03595> [the laver.]
Exodus 36:8-34
skilled <02450> [wise.]
doing .... made ................... made <06213> [made.]
cherubim <03742> [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.)
together ... one ............ unit <0259> [so it became.]
covering ............... covering <04372> [covering.]
ram skins dyed red ......... leather <05785 0119 0352> [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.
frames <07175> [boards.]
acacia wood <06086 07848> [shittim wood.]
length <0753> [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.
west <03220> [westward.]
doubled <08382> [coupled. Heb. twined.]
frames ..... bases ... bases two bases ... each frame <0134 0259 07175 08147> [under every board two sockets. Heb. two sockets, two sockets, under one board.]
tabernacle .......... tabernacle <04908> [the tabernacle.]
