33 Then they took the House to Moses, the tent with all the things for it; its hooks, its boards, its rods, its pillars, and its bases;
And the Lord said to Moses, Say to the children of Israel that they are to make me an offering; from every man who has the impulse in his heart take an offering for me. And this is the offering you are to take from them: gold and silver and brass; And blue and purple and red, and the best linen, and goats' hair; And sheepskins coloured red, and leather, and hard wood; Oil for the light, spices for the sweet-smelling oil, sweet perfumes for burning; Beryls and stones of value to be put on the ephod and on the priest's bag. And let them make me a holy place, so that I may be ever present among them. Make the House and everything in it from the designs which I will give you. And they are to make an ark of hard wood; two and a half cubits long, and a cubit and a half wide and high. It is to be plated inside and out with the best gold, with an edge of gold all round it And make four rings of gold for it, to be fixed on its four feet, two rings on one side of it and two on the other. And make rods of the same wood, plating them with gold. And put the rods through the rings at the sides of the ark, for lifting it. The rods are to be kept in the rings, and never taken out. Inside the ark you are to put the record which I will give you. And you are to make a cover of the best gold, two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide. And at the two ends of the cover you are to make two winged ones of hammered gold, One at one end and one at the other; the winged ones are to be part of the cover. And their wings are to be outstretched over the cover, and the winged ones are to be opposite one another, facing the cover. And put the cover over the ark, and in the ark the record which I will give you. And there, between the two winged ones on the cover of the ark, I will come to you, face to face, and make clear to you all the orders I have to give you for the children of Israel. And you are to make a table of the same wood, two cubits long, a cubit wide and a cubit and a half high, Plated with the best gold, with a gold edge all round it; And make a frame all round it, as wide as a man's hand, with a gold edge to the frame. And make four gold rings and put them at the four angles, on the four feet of the table; The rings are to be fixed under the frame to take the rods with which the table is to be lifted. Make rods of the same wood, plated with gold, for lifting the table. And make the table-vessels, the spoons and the cups and the basins for liquids, all of the best gold. And on the table at all times you are to keep my holy bread.
The Tent of meeting, and the ark of the law, and the cover which is on it, and all the things for the tent, And the table with its vessels, and the holy light-support with all its vessels, and the altar for the burning of spices, And the altar of burned offerings with all its vessels, and the washing-vessel with its base, And the robes of needlework, the holy robes for Aaron and for his sons, for their use when acting as priests, And the holy oil, and the perfume of sweet spices for the holy place; they will do whatever I have given you orders to have done.
The House and its tent and its cover, its hooks and its boards, its rods and its pillars and its bases; The ark with its cover and its rods and the veil hanging before it; The table and its rods and all its vessels, and the holy bread; And the support for the lights, with its vessels and its lights and the oil for the light; And the altar for burning spices, with its rods, and the holy oil and the sweet perfume, and the curtain for the door, at the door of the House; The altar of burned offerings, with its network of brass, its rods, and all its vessels, the washing-vessel and its base; The hangings for the open space, its pillars and their bases, and the curtain for the doorway; The nails for the House, and the nails for the open space and their cords; The robes of needlework for the work of the holy place, the holy robes for Aaron the priest, and the robes for his sons when acting as priests.
So let Bezalel and Oholiab get to work, with every wise-hearted man to whom the Lord has given wisdom and knowledge, to do whatever is necessary for the ordering of the holy place, as the Lord has given orders. Then Moses sent for Bezalel and Oholiab, and for all the wise-hearted men to whom the Lord had given wisdom, even everyone who was moved by the impulse of his heart to come and take part in the work: And they took from Moses all the offerings which the children of Israel had given for the building of the holy place. And still they went on giving him more free offerings every morning. Then the wise men, who were doing all the work of the holy place, came from their work; And said to Moses, The people are giving much more than is needed for the work which the Lord has given us orders to do. So Moses made an order and had it given out through all the tents, saying, Let no man or woman make any more offerings for the holy place. So the people were kept from giving more. For the material they had was enough and more than enough for all the work which had to be done. Then all the expert workmen among them made the House with its ten curtains; of the best linen, blue and purple and red, they made them, with winged ones worked by expert designers. Every curtain was twenty-eight cubits long and four cubits wide, all of the same measure. And five curtains were joined together, and the other five curtains were joined together. And they put twists of blue cord on the edge of the outside curtain of the first group, and in the same way on the outside curtain of the second group. Fifty twists on the one curtain and fifty on the edge of the curtain of the other group; the twists being opposite to one another. And they made fifty hooks of gold, joining the curtains one to another with the hooks; and so the House was made. And they made curtains of goats' hair for the tent; eleven curtains were made. Every curtain was thirty cubits long and four cubits wide, all of the same measure. Five curtains were joined together to make one group, and six curtains were joined together to make the other group. And they put fifty twists of cord on the edge of the outside curtain of the first group, and fifty twists on the edge of the outside curtain of the second group, And fifty hooks of brass for joining them together to make the tent. And they made a cover of sheepskins coloured red, to go over the tent, and a cover of leather over that. And for the uprights of the House they made boards of hard wood. The boards were ten cubits long and one cubit and a half wide. Every board had two tongues fixed into it; all the boards were made in this way. They made twenty boards for the south side of the House: And for these twenty boards, forty silver bases, two bases under every board, to take its tongues. And for the second side of the House, on the north, they made twenty boards, With their forty silver bases, two bases for every board. And for the west side of the House, at the back, they made six boards, And two boards for the angles at the back. These were joined together at the base and at the top to one ring, so forming the two angles. So there were eight boards with sixteen bases of silver, two bases under every board. And they made rods of hard wood; five for the boards on one side of the House, And five for the boards on the other side of the House, and five for the boards at the back, on the west. The middle rod was made to go right through the rings of all the boards from one end to the other. All the boards were plated with gold, and the rings through which the rods went were of gold, and the rods were plated with gold. And he made the veil of the best linen, blue and purple and red, worked with winged ones designed by expert workmen. And they made four pillars for it of hard wood plated with gold: they had hooks of gold and four silver bases. And they made a curtain for the door of the tent, of the best linen with needlework of blue and purple and red; And five pillars for the curtain, with their hooks; the heads of the pillars were of gold and they were circled with bands of gold; and their five bases were of brass.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » John Gill's Exposition of the Bible » Commentary on Exodus 39
Commentary on Exodus 39 John Gill's Exposition of the Bible
INTRODUCTION TO EXODUS 39
In this chapter is continued the account of making the several things belonging to the sanctuary, particularly the clothes for the service of the tabernacle, and the garments of the priests, as the ephod and its curious girdle, Exodus 39:1 the breastplate and the putting of the stones in it, and the fastening of it to the ephod, Exodus 39:8 the robe of the ephod, with the bells and pomegranates to it, Exodus 39:21 and the coats, mitre, bonnets, breeches, and girdle of fine linen, for Aaron and his sons, Exodus 39:27 and the golden plate, Exodus 39:30 and all being finished, the tabernacle and everything belonging to it were brought to Moses, and viewed by him; who seeing that all was done exactly according to the commandment of the Lord, blessed the people, and particularly the artificers, Exodus 39:38.
And of the blue, and purple, and scarlet, they made cloths of service,.... Jarchi observes that there is no mention made of linen, because these were not the priestly garments in which there was linen; but these were they with which they covered the vessels of the sanctuary when they journeyed; and so says Aben Ezra; and those were covered with cloths of blue, purple, and scarlet, Numbers 4:5 though some think these were clothes wore by the priests:
to do service in the holy place: and which they only wore when in it, and employed in the service of it; and therefore what follows must be by way of explanation:
and made the holy garments for Aaron, as the Lord commanded Moses; the particulars of which are given in the following verses.
And he made the ephod of gold,.... From hence to the end of verse thirty one we have a very particular account of the making of the priest's garments exactly according to the directions given to Moses; see Gill on Exodus 28:1 &c. to end of chapter twenty eight; only it may be observed, that here in Exodus 39:3 an account is given of the manner in which they made the gold fit to be worked along with the blue, purple, and scarlet yarn; they beat the gold into thin plates, and then cut them into wires, and then twisted them together with the yarn: the gold that was used in the weaving of the ephod and the breastplate, spoken of in the law, was wrought after this manner; the workman took one thread of pure gold, and put it with six threads of blue, and twisted the seven threads as one, and so he wrought a thread of gold with six of purple, and another thread with six of scarlet, and another with six of linen or flax, so that there were four threads of gold, and all the threads were twenty eight, as it is said; "they did beat" or spread out "the gold", &c. "to work in the midst of blue", &c. from whence is learnt that the thread of gold was twisted in the midst of themF25Maimon. Cele Hamikdash, c. 9. sect. 5. : and it may be further observed, that after the enumeration of the stones in the breastplate, Exodus 39:10 no mention is made of the Urim and Thummim, which seems to confirm the opinion of many, and which is my own, that they are the same with the stones: moreover, in Exodus 39:28, it may be observed, that what the coats for the common priests were made of is expressed, which is not before, which was linen; expressive of their purity and holiness, and in which they ought always to appear before God and man, and in which apparel they have been imitated among the Heathens: the priests of Hercules are said to be clothed with linenF26Silius Ital. de Bell. Punic. l. 3. , and the Egyptian priests wore only a linen garmentF1Herodot. Euterpe sive, l. 2. c. 38. ; hence the priests of Isis, with whom she is represented as surrounded by JuvenalF2Satyr. 6. , are called by him "grex liniger", and by Martial, "linigeri"F3L. 12. Epigram. 26. .
Thus was all the work of the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation finished,.... Both the tabernacle, consisting of the court, the holy place, and the most holy place, and the tent or covering that was over it, with all things appertaining to the service of it, as before described:
and the children of Israel did according to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so did they: both the people in general, and the artificers in particular; the people brought gold, silver, and brass, &c. as was proposed to them; and the artificers wrought these and all other things, according to the directions and instructions they received.
And they brought the tabernacle unto Moses,.... That is, the several parts of it before it was put together, with all its furniture, and everything appertaining to it; which are examined in the order in which they were directed to be made, from hence to the end of Exodus 39:42 and this was done, that Moses might inspect the whole, and see whether it was done according to the pattern shown him, and the instructions he had given to the workmen.
And Moses did look upon all the work,.... Made a survey of it, and with great care and accuracy examined every particular thing, and the manner in which it was finished:
and, behold, they had done it as the Lord had commanded, even so had they done it; both as to matter and manner in every point, on all accounts, just as they were ordered and directed; they being throughout the whole filled by the Spirit of God with wisdom and understanding, to do everything just as it was the will and pleasure of God it should be done:
and Moses blessed them; commended them for what they had done, and implored the divine blessing upon them; and which may be understood both of the people who had so liberally and plentifully contributed to this good work, and of the artificers who had so carefully and punctually performed it. The form of blessing, as the Targum of Jonathan gives it, is,"may the Shechinah (or the divine Majesty) of the Lord dwell in the works of your hands;'or as Jarchi expresses it,"may it be the pleasure (of God) that the Shechinah may dwell in the works of your hands, and the beauty of the Lord our God may be upon us, &c.'which last words were part of the prayer of Moses, Psalm 90:17.