21 This is the price of the making of the House, even the House of witness, as it was valued by the word of Moses, for the work of the Levites under the direction of Ithamar, the son of Aaron the priest.
Our fathers had the Tent of witness in the waste land, as God gave orders to Moses to make it after the design which he had seen.
Then the king sent for Jehoiada, the chief priest, and said to him, Why have you not given the Levites orders that the tax fixed by Moses, the servant of the Lord, and by the meeting of Israel, for the Tent of witness, is to be got in from Judah and Jerusalem and handed over?
And on the day when the House was put up, the cloud came down on it, on the Tent of witness; and in the evening there was a light like fire over the House till the morning.
But the tents of the Levites are to be round the Tent of meeting, so that wrath may not come on the children of Israel: the Tent of meeting is to be in the care of the Levites.
Let your brothers, the family of Levi, come near with you, so that they may be joined with you and be your servants: but you and your sons with you are to go in before the ark of witness.
And Moses put the rods before the Lord in the Tent of witness. Now on the day after, Moses went into the Tent of witness; and he saw that Aaron's rod, the rod of the house of Levi, had put out buds, and was covered with buds and flowers and fruit.
For the first Tent was made ready, having in it the vessels for the lights and the table and the ordering of the bread; and this is named the holy place. And inside the second veil was the place which is named the Holy of holies;
And there came to my ears a great voice out of the high seat, saying, See, the Tent of God is with men, and he will make his living-place with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them, and be their God.
And it seems right to me, as long as I am in this tent of flesh, to keep your minds awake by working on your memory;
But now Christ has come as the high priest of the good things of the future, through this greater and better Tent, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this world,
As a servant of the holy things and of the true Tent, which was put up by God, not by man.
For we are conscious that if this our tent of flesh is taken down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in heaven.
<A Psalm. Of David.> Lord, who may have a resting-place in your tent, a living-place on your holy hill?
You may say, My way is clean, and I am free from sin in your eyes.
Measuring into their hands six hundred and fifty talents of silver, and silver vessels, a hundred talents' weight, and a hundred talents of gold, And twenty gold basins, of a thousand darics, and two vessels of the best bright brass, equal in value to gold. And I said to them, You are holy to the Lord and the vessels are holy: and the silver and the gold are an offering freely given to the Lord, the God of your fathers. Take care of them and keep them, till you put them on the scales before the chiefs of the priests and the Levites and the chiefs of the families of Israel, in Jerusalem, in the rooms of the house of the Lord. So the priests and the Levites took the weight of silver and gold and the vessels, to take them to Jerusalem into the house of our God.
How fair are your tents, O Jacob, your houses, O Israel!
This is the work of the family of the Gershonites in the Tent of meeting, and they will be under the direction of Ithamar, the son of Aaron the priest. The sons of Merari are to be numbered by families, in the order of their fathers' houses; Every one from thirty to fifty years old who is able to do the work of the Tent of meeting. And this is their part in the work of the Tent of meeting: the transport of the boards and the rods of the Tent, with the pillars and their bases; And the pillars of the open space outside it, with their bases and their nails and cords and all the instruments used, and everything which has to be done there; all the instruments for which they are responsible are to be numbered by name. This is the work which the sons of Merari are to do in connection with the Tent of meeting, under the direction of Ithamar, the son of Aaron the priest.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Exodus 38
Commentary on Exodus 38 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 38
Here is an account,
Exd 38:1-8
Bezaleel having finished the gold-work, which, though the richest, yet was ordered to lie most out of sight, in the tabernacle itself, here goes on to prepare the court, which lay open to the view of all. Two things the court was furnished with, and both made of brass:-
Exd 38:9-20
The walls of the court, or church-yard, were like the rest curtains or hangings, made according to the appointment, ch. 27:9, etc. This represented the state of the Old-Testament church: it was a garden enclosed; the worshippers were then confined to a little compass. But the enclosure being of curtains only intimated that the confinement of the church in one particular nation was not to be perpetual. The dispensation itself was a tabernacle-dispensation, movable and mutable, and in due time to be taken down and folded up, when the place of the tent should be enlarged and its cords lengthened, to make room for the Gentile world, as is foretold, Isa. 54:2, 3. The church here on earth is but the court of God's house, and happy they that tread these courts and flourish in them; but through these courts we are passing to the holy place above. Blessed are those that dwell in that house of God: they well be still praising him. The enclosing of a court before the tabernacle teaches us a gradual approach to God. The priests that ministered must pass through the holy court, before they entered the holy house. Thus before solemn ordinances there ought to be the separated and enclosed court of a solemn preparation, in which we must wash our hands, and so draw near with a true heart.
Exd 38:21-31
Here we have a breviat of the account which, by Moses's appointment, the Levites took and kept of the gold, silver, and brass, that was brought in for the tabernacle's use, and how it was employed. Ithamar the son of Aaron was appointed to draw up this account, and was thus by less services trained up and fitted for greater, v. 21. Bezaleel and Aholiab must bring in the account (v. 22, 23), and Ithamar must audit it, and give it in to Moses. And it was thus:-