16 and thou hast put unto the ark the testimony which I give unto thee.
`Take this Book of the Law, and thou hast set it on the side of the ark of the covenant of Jehovah your God, and it hath been there against thee for a witness;
having a golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid all round about with gold, in which `is' the golden pot having the manna, and the rod of Aaron that budded, and the tables of the covenant,
as Jehovah hath given commandment unto Moses, so doth Aaron let it rest before the Testimony, for a charge.
and I write on the tables the words which were on the first tables, which thou hast broken, and thou hast placed them in the ark; and I make an ark of shittim wood, and grave two tables of stone like the first, and go up to the mount, and the two tables in my hand. `And He writeth on the tables, according to the first writing, the Ten Matters, which Jehovah hath spoken unto you in the mount, out of the midst of the fire, in the day of the assembly, and Jehovah giveth them unto me, and I turn and come down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made, and they are there, as Jehovah commanded me.
`The tabernacle of the testimony was among our fathers in the wilderness, according as He did direct, who is speaking to Moses, to make it according to the figure that he had seen;
And in their bringing out the money that is brought in to the house of Jehovah, hath Hilkiah the priest found the book of the law of Jehovah by the hand of Moses, and Hilkiah answereth and saith unto Shaphan the scribe, `A book of the law I have found in the house of Jehovah;' and Hilkiah giveth the book unto Shaphan,
in the tent of meeting, at the outside of the vail, which `is' over the testimony, doth Aaron -- his sons also -- arrange it from evening till morning before Jehovah -- a statute age-during to their generations, from the sons of Israel.
and thou hast placed them in the tent of meeting, before the testimony, where I meet with you.
And it cometh to pass, when Moses is coming down from mount Sinai (and the two tables of the testimony `are' in the hand of Moses in his coming down from the mount), that Moses hath not known that the skin of his face hath shone in His speaking with him,
And Moses turneth, and goeth down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony `are' in his hand, tables written on both their sides, on this and on that `are' they written;
and thou hast beaten `some' of it small, and hast put of it before the testimony, in the tent of meeting, whither I am met with thee; most holy it is to you.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Exodus 25
Commentary on Exodus 25 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 25
At this chapter begins an account of the orders and instructions God gave to Moses upon the mount for the erecting and furnishing of a tabernacle to the honour of God. We have here.
Exd 25:1-9
We may suppose that when Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and abode there so long, where the holy angels attended the shechinah, or divine Majesty, he saw and heard very glorious things relating to the upper world, but they were things which it was not lawful nor possible to utter; and therefore, in the records he kept of the transactions there, he says nothing to satisfy the curiosity of those who would intrude into the things which they have not seen, but writes that only which he was to speak to the children of Israel. For the scripture is designed to direct us in our duty, not to fill our heads with speculations, nor to please our fancies.
In these verses God tells Moses his intention in general, that the children of Israel should build him a sanctuary, for he designed to dwell among them (v. 8); and some think that, though there were altars and groves used for religious worship before this, yet there never was any house, or temple, built for sacred uses in any nation before this tabernacle was erected by Moses, and that all the temples which were afterwards so much celebrated among the heathen took rise from this and pattern by it. God had chosen the people of Israel to be a peculiar people to himself (above all people), among whom divine revelation, and a religion according to it, should be lodged and established: he himself would be their King. As their King, he had already given them laws for the government of themselves, and their dealings one with another, with some general rules for religious worship, according to the light of reason and the law of nature, in the ten commandments and the following comments upon them. But this was not thought sufficient to distinguish them from other nations, or to answer to the extent of that covenant which God would make with them to be their God; and therefore,
Exd 25:10-22
The first thing which is here ordered to be made is the ark with its appurtenances, the furniture of the most holy place, and the special token of God's presence, for which the tabernacle was erected to be the receptacle.
Exd 25:23-30
Here is,
Exd 25:31-40