1 The altar of burned offerings he made of hard wood; a square altar, five cubits long, five cubits wide and three cubits high,
2 And he put horns at its four angles made of the same, plating it all with brass;
3 And brass was used for all the vessels of the altar, the baskets and the spades, the basins and the meat-hooks and the fire-trays; all the vessels he made of brass
4 And he made a network of brass for the altar, under the frame round it, stretching half-way up;
5 And four rings for the four angles of this network, to take the rods.
6 The rods he made of hard wood plated with brass.
7 He put the rods through the rings at the opposite sides of the altar for lifting it; he made the altar hollow, boarded in with wood.
8 And he made the washing-vessel of brass on a brass base, using the polished brass looking-glasses given by the women who did work at the doors of the Tent of meeting.
9 To make the open space, he put hangings on the south side, of the best linen, a hundred cubits long:
10 Their twenty pillars and their twenty bases were brass; and the hooks of the pillars and their bands were of silver.
11 And for the north side. hangings a hundred cubits long, on twenty brass pillars in brass bases, with silver hooks and bands.
12 And on the west side, hangings fifty cubits long, on ten pillars in ten bases, with silver bands.
13 And on the east side, the open space was fifty cubits long.
14 The hangings on one side of the doorway were fifteen cubits long, on three pillars with their three bases;
15 And the same on the other side of the doorway; on this side and on that the hangings were fifteen cubits long, on three pillars with their three bases.
16 All the hangings were of the best linen.
17 And the bases of the pillars were of brass; their hooks and the bands round the tops of them were of silver; all the pillars were ringed with silver.
18 And the curtain for the doorway of the open space was of the best linen, with designs of blue and purple and red in needlework; it was twenty cubits long and five cubits high, to go with the hangings round the sides.
19 There were four pillars with their bases, all of brass, the hooks being of silver, and their tops and their bands being covered with silver.
20 All the nails used for the House and the open space round it were of brass.
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.
22 Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made everything as the Lord had given orders to Moses.
23 And with him was Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; a designer and a trained workman, expert in needlework of blue and purple and red and the best linen.
24 The gold used for all the different work done for the holy place, the gold which was given, was twenty-nine talents, and seven hundred and thirty shekels in weight, by the scale of the holy place.
25 And the silver given by those who were numbered of the people was a hundred talents, and a thousand, seven hundred and seventy-five shekels in weight, by the scale of the holy place.
26 A beka, that is, half a shekel by the holy scale, for everyone who was numbered; there were six hundred and three thousand, five hundred and fifty men of twenty years old and over.
27 Of this silver, a hundred talents was used for making the bases of the pillars of the holy place and of the veil; a talent for every base.
28 And a thousand, seven hundred and seventy-five shekels of silver was used to make the hooks for the pillars, and for plating the tops of the pillars and for making their bands.
29 The brass which was given was seventy talents, two thousand four hundred shekels;
30 From it he made the bases of the doorway of the Tent of meeting and the brass altar and the network for it and all the vessels for the altar,
31 And the bases for the open space all round and for its doorway, and all the nails for the House and for the open space.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Exodus 38
Commentary on Exodus 38 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 38
Ex 38:1-31. Furniture of the Tabernacle.
1. the altar of burnt offering—The repetitions are continued, in which may be traced the exact conformity of the execution to the order.
8. laver of brass … of the looking glasses of the women—The word mirrors should have been used, as those implements, usually round, inserted into a handle of wood, stone, or metal, were made of brass, silver, or bronze, highly polished [Wilkinson]. It was customary for the Egyptian women to carry mirrors with them to the temples; and whether by taking the looking glasses of the Hebrew women Moses designed to put it out of their power to follow a similar practice at the tabernacle, or whether the supply of brass from other sources in the camp was exhausted, it is interesting to learn how zealously and to a vast extent they surrendered those valued accompaniments of the female toilet.
of the women assembling … at the door—not priestesses but women of pious character and influence, who frequented the courts of the sacred building (Lu 2:37), and whose parting with their mirrors, like the cutting the hair of the Nazarites, was their renouncing the world for a season [Hengstenberg].
9. the court—It occupied a space of one hundred and fifty feet by seventy-five, and it was enclosed by curtains of fine linen about eight feet high, suspended on brazen or copper pillars. Those curtains were secured by rods fastened to the top, and kept extended by being fastened to pins stuck in the ground.
10. hooks—The hooks of the pillars in the court were for hanging up the carcasses of the sacrificial beasts—those on the pillars at the entry of the tabernacle were for hanging the sacerdotal robes and other things used in the service.
11. sockets—mortices or holes in which the end of the pillars stood.
17. chapiters—or capitals of the pillars, were wooden posts which ran along their top, to which were attached the hooks for the hangings.
18. the height in the breadth—or, "in the measure." The sense is that the hangings of the court gate, which was twenty cubits wide, were of the same height as the hangings all round the court [Wall].
21. This is the sum of the tabernacle—Having completed his description of the component parts of the tabernacle, the inspired historian digresses into a statement respecting the gold and silver employed in it, the computation being made according to an order of Moses—by the Levites, under the direction of Ithamar, Aaron's youngest son.
24. twenty and nine talents, and seven hundred and thirty shekels—equivalent to £150,00 sterling.
25. the silver of them that were numbered—603,550 men at half a shekel each would contribute 301,775 shekels; which at 2s. 4d. each, amounts to £35,207 sterling. It may seem difficult to imagine how the Israelites should be possessed of so much wealth in the desert; but it should be remembered that they were enriched first by the spoils of the Egyptians, and afterwards by those of the Amalekites. Besides, it is highly probable that during their sojourn they traded with the neighboring nations who bordered on the wilderness [Hewlett].