11 The tabernacle, his tent, and his covering, his taches, and his boards, his bars, his pillars, and his sockets,
Moreover thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet: with cherubim of cunning work shalt thou make them. The length of one curtain shall be eight and twenty cubits, and the breadth of one curtain four cubits: and every one of the curtains shall have one measure. The five curtains shall be coupled together one to another; and other five curtains shall be coupled one to another. And thou shalt make loops of blue upon the edge of the one curtain from the selvedge in the coupling; and likewise shalt thou make in the uttermost edge of another curtain, in the coupling of the second. Fifty loops shalt thou make in the one curtain, and fifty loops shalt thou make in the edge of the curtain that is in the coupling of the second; that the loops may take hold one of another. And thou shalt make fifty taches of gold, and couple the curtains together with the taches: and it shall be one tabernacle. And thou shalt make curtains of goats' hair to be a covering upon the tabernacle: eleven curtains shalt thou make. The length of one curtain shall be thirty cubits, and the breadth of one curtain four cubits: and the eleven curtains shall be all of one measure. And thou shalt couple five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves, and shalt double the sixth curtain in the forefront of the tabernacle. And thou shalt make fifty loops on the edge of the one curtain that is outmost in the coupling, and fifty loops in the edge of the curtain which coupleth the second. And thou shalt make fifty taches of brass, and put the taches into the loops, and couple the tent together, that it may be one. And the remnant that remaineth of the curtains of the tent, the half curtain that remaineth, shall hang over the backside of the tabernacle. And a cubit on the one side, and a cubit on the other side of that which remaineth in the length of the curtains of the tent, it shall hang over the sides of the tabernacle on this side and on that side, to cover it. And thou shalt make a covering for the tent of rams' skins dyed red, and a covering above of badgers' skins. And thou shalt make boards for the tabernacle of shittim wood standing up. Ten cubits shall be the length of a board, and a cubit and a half shall be the breadth of one board. Two tenons shall there be in one board, set in order one against another: thus shalt thou make for all the boards of the tabernacle. And thou shalt make the boards for the tabernacle, twenty boards on the south side southward. And thou shalt make forty sockets of silver under the twenty boards; two sockets under one board for his two tenons, and two sockets under another board for his two tenons. And for the second side of the tabernacle on the north side there shall be twenty boards: And their forty sockets of silver; two sockets under one board, and two sockets under another board. And for the sides of the tabernacle westward thou shalt make six boards. And two boards shalt thou make for the corners of the tabernacle in the two sides. And they shall be coupled together beneath, and they shall be coupled together above the head of it unto one ring: thus shall it be for them both; they shall be for the two corners. And they shall be eight boards, and their sockets of silver, sixteen sockets; two sockets under one board, and two sockets under another board. And thou shalt make bars of shittim wood; five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle, And five bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the side of the tabernacle, for the two sides westward. And the middle bar in the midst of the boards shall reach from end to end. And thou shalt overlay the boards with gold, and make their rings of gold for places for the bars: and thou shalt overlay the bars with gold. And thou shalt rear up the tabernacle according to the fashion thereof which was showed thee in the mount. And thou shalt make a vail of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen of cunning work: with cherubim shall it be made: And thou shalt hang it upon four pillars of shittim wood overlaid with gold: their hooks shall be of gold, upon the four sockets of silver. And thou shalt hang up the vail under the taches, that thou mayest bring in thither within the vail the ark of the testimony: and the vail shall divide unto you between the holy place and the most holy. And thou shalt put the mercy seat upon the ark of the testimony in the most holy place. And thou shalt set the table without the vail, and the candlestick over against the table on the side of the tabernacle toward the south: and thou shalt put the table on the north side. And thou shalt make an hanging for the door of the tent, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with needlework. And thou shalt make for the hanging five pillars of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold, and their hooks shall be of gold: and thou shalt cast five sockets of brass for them.
The tabernacle of the congregation, and the ark of the testimony, and the mercy seat that is thereupon, and all the furniture of the tabernacle, And the table and his furniture, and the pure candlestick with all his furniture, and the altar of incense, And the altar of burnt offering with all his furniture, and the laver and his foot,
And every wise hearted man among them that wrought the work of the tabernacle made ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet: with cherubim of cunning work made he them. The length of one curtain was twenty and eight cubits, and the breadth of one curtain four cubits: the curtains were all of one size. And he coupled the five curtains one unto another: and the other five curtains he coupled one unto another. And he made loops of blue on the edge of one curtain from the selvedge in the coupling: likewise he made in the uttermost side of another curtain, in the coupling of the second. Fifty loops made he in one curtain, and fifty loops made he in the edge of the curtain which was in the coupling of the second: the loops held one curtain to another. And he made fifty taches of gold, and coupled the curtains one unto another with the taches: so it became one tabernacle. And he made curtains of goats' hair for the tent over the tabernacle: eleven curtains he made them. The length of one curtain was thirty cubits, and four cubits was the breadth of one curtain: the eleven curtains were of one size. And he coupled five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves. And he made fifty loops upon the uttermost edge of the curtain in the coupling, and fifty loops made he upon the edge of the curtain which coupleth the second. And he made fifty taches of brass to couple the tent together, that it might be one. And he made a covering for the tent of rams' skins dyed red, and a covering of badgers' skins above that. And he made boards for the tabernacle of shittim wood, standing up. The length of a board was ten cubits, and the breadth of a board one cubit and a half. One board had two tenons, equally distant one from another: thus did he make for all the boards of the tabernacle. And he made boards for the tabernacle; twenty boards for the south side southward: And forty sockets of silver he made under the twenty boards; two sockets under one board for his two tenons, and two sockets under another board for his two tenons. And for the other side of the tabernacle, which is toward the north corner, he made twenty boards, And their forty sockets of silver; two sockets under one board, and two sockets under another board. And for the sides of the tabernacle westward he made six boards. And two boards made he for the corners of the tabernacle in the two sides. And they were coupled beneath, and coupled together at the head thereof, to one ring: thus he did to both of them in both the corners. And there were eight boards; and their sockets were sixteen sockets of silver, under every board two sockets. And he made bars of shittim wood; five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle, And five bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the tabernacle for the sides westward. And he made the middle bar to shoot through the boards from the one end to the other. And he overlaid the boards with gold, and made their rings of gold to be places for the bars, and overlaid the bars with gold.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Exodus 35
Commentary on Exodus 35 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
Preliminaries to the Work. - Ex 35:1-29. After the restoration of the covenant, Moses announced to the people the divine commands with reference to the holy place of the tabernacle which was to be built. He repeated first of all (Exodus 35:1-3) the law of the Sabbath according to Exodus 31:13-17, and strengthened it by the announcement, that on the Sabbath no fire was to be kindled in their dwelling, because this rule was to be observed even in connection with the work to be done for the tabernacle. (For a fuller comment, see at Exodus 20:9.). Then, in accordance with the command of Jehovah, he first of all summoned the whole nation to present freewill-offerings for the holy things to be prepared (Exodus 35:4, Exodus 35:5), mentioning one by one all the materials that would be required (Exodus 35:5-9, as in Exodus 25:3-7); and after that he called upon those who were endowed with understanding to prepare the different articles, as prescribed in ch. 25-30, mentioning these also one by one (Exodus 35:11-19), even down to the pegs of the dwelling and court (Exodus 27:19), and “their cords,” i.e., the cords required to fasten the tent and the hangings round the court to the pegs that were driven into the ground, which had not been mentioned before, being altogether subordinate things. (On the “cloths of service,” Exodus 35:19, see at Exodus 31:10.) In Exodus 35:20-29 we have an account of the fulfilment of this command. The people went from Moses, i.e., from the place where they were assembled round Moses, away to their tents, and willingly offered the things required as a heave-offering for Jehovah; every one “whom his heart lifted up,” i.e., who felt himself inclined and stirred up in his heart to do this. The men along with ( על as in Genesis 32:12; see Ewald , §217) the women brought with a willing heart all kinds of golden rings and jewellery: chak , lit., hook, here a clasp or ring; nezem , an ear or nose-ring (Genesis 35:4; Genesis 24:47); tabbaath , a finger-ring; cumaz , globulus aureus , probably little golden balls strung together like beads, which were worn by the Israelites and Midianites (Numbers 31:50) as an ornament round the wrist and neck, as Diod. Sic. relates that they were by the Arabians (3, 44). “ All kinds of golden jewellery, and every one who had waved (dedicated) a wave (offering) of gold to Jehovah, ” sc., offered it for the work of the tabernacle. The meaning is, that in addition to the many varieties of golden ornaments, which were willingly offered for the work to be performed, every one brought whatever gold he had set apart as a wave-offering (a sacrificial gift) for Jehovah. הניף to wave , lit., to swing or move to and fro, is used in connection with the sacrificial ritual to denote a peculiar ceremony, through which certain portions of a sacrifice, which were not intended for burning upon the altar, but for the maintenance of the priests (Numbers 18:11), were consecrated to the Lord, or given up to Him in a symbolical manner (see at Leviticus 7:30). Tenuphah , the wave-offering, accordingly denoted primarily those portions of the sacrificial animal which were allotted to the priests as their share of the sacrifices; and then, in a more general sense, every gift or offering that was consecrated to the Lord for the establishment and maintenance of the sanctuary and its worship. In this wider sense the term tenuphah (wave-offering) is applied both here and in Exodus 38:24, Exodus 38:29 to the gold and copper presented by the congregation for the building of the tabernacle. So that it does not really differ from terumah , a lift of heave-offering, as every gift intended for the erection and maintenance of the sanctuary was called, inasmuch as the offerer lifted it off from his own property, to dedicate it to the Lord for the purposes of His worship. Accordingly, in Exodus 35:24 the freewill-offerings of the people in silver and gold for the erection of the tabernacle are called terumah ; and in Exodus 36:6, all the gifts of metal, wood, leather, and woven materials, presented by the people for the erection of the tabernacle, are called קדשׁ תּרוּמת . (On heaving and the heave-offering, see at Exodus 25:2 and Leviticus 2:9.)
All the women who understood it (were wise-hearted, as in Exodus 28:3) spun with their hands, and presented what they spun, viz., the yarn required for the blue and red purple cloth, the crimson and the byssus; from which it is evident that the coloured cloths were dyed in the yarn or in the wool, as was the case in Egypt according to different specimens of old Egyptian cloths (see Hengstenberg, Egypt and the Books of Moses , p. 144). Other women spun goats' hair for the upper or outer covering of the tent (Exodus 26:7.). Spinning was done by the women in very early times ( Plin. hist. n. 8, 48), particularly in Egypt, where women are represented on the monuments as busily engaged with the spindle (see Wilkinson, Manners ii. p. 60; iii. p. 133, 136), and at a later period among the Hebrews (Proverbs 31:19). At the present day the women in the peninsula of Sinai spin the materials for their tents from camels' and goats' hair, and prepare sheep's wool for their clothing ( Rppell , Nubien , p. 202); and at Neswa, in the province of Omהn , the preparation of cotton yarn is the principal employment of the women ( Wellstedt , i. p. 90). Weaving also was, and still is to a great extent, a woman's work (cf. 2 Kings 23:7); it is so among the Arab tribes in the Wady Gharandel, for example ( Russegger , iii. 24), and in Nubia ( Burckhardt , Nub. p. 211); but at Neswa the weaving is done by the men ( Wellstedt ). The woven cloths for the tabernacle were prepared by men, partly perhaps because the weaving in Egypt was mostly done by the men ( Herod . 2, 35; cf. Hengstenberg, p. 143), but chiefly for this reason, that the cloths for the hangings and curtains were artistic works, which the women did not understand, but which the men had learned in Egypt, where artistic weaving was carried out to a great extent (Wilkinson, iii. pp. 113ff.).
(Note: For drawings of the Egyptian weaving-stool, see Wilkinson, iii. p. 135; also Hartmann , die Hebräerinn am Putztisch i. Taf. 1.)
The precious stones for the robes of the high priest, and the spices for the incense and anointing oil, were presented by the princes of the congregation, who had such costly things in their possession.
Moses then informed the people that God had called Bezaleel and Aholiab as master-builders, to complete the building and all the work connected with it, and had not only endowed them with His Spirit, that they might draw the plans for the different works and carry them out, but “had put it into his (Bezaleel's) heart to teach” (Exodus 35:34), that is to say, had qualified him to instruct labourers to prepare the different articles under his supervision and guidance. “ He and Aholiab ” (Exodus 35:34) are in apposition to “his heart:” into his and Aholiab's heart (see Ges. §121, 3; Ewald , §311 a). The concluding words in Exodus 35:35 are in apposition to אתם ( them ): “ them hath He filled with wisdom...as performers of every kind of work and inventors of designs,” i.e., that they may make every kind of work and may invent designs. In Exodus 36:1, ועשׂה with vav consec . is dependent upon what precedes, and signifies either, “and so will make,” or, so that he will make (see Ewald , §342 b). The idea is this, “Bezaleel, Aholiab, and the other men who understand, into whom Jehovah has infused ( בּ נתן ) wisdom and understanding, that they may know how to do, shall do every work for the holy service (worship) with regard to ( ל as in Exodus 28:38, etc.) all that Jehovah has commanded.”