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 » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Exodus 39
Commentary on Exodus 39 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
Preparation of the priests' clothes . - Previous to the description of the dress itself, we have a statement in Exodus 39:1 of the materials employed, and the purpose to which they were devoted (“cloths of service,” see at Exodus 31:10). The robes consisted of the ephod (Exodus 39:2-7, as in Exodus 28:6-12), the choshen or breastplate (Exodus 39:8-21, as in Exodus 28:15-29), the meïl or over-coat (Exodus 39:22-26, as in Exodus 28:31-34); the body-coats, turbans, drawers, and girdles, for Aaron and his sons (Exodus 39:27-29, as in Exodus 28:39-40, and Exodus 28:42). The Urim and Thummim are not mentioned (cf. Exodus 28:30). The head-dresses of the ordinary priests, which are simply called “bonnets” in Exodus 28:40, are called “goodly bonnets” or “ornamental caps” in Exodus 39:28 of this chapter ( מגבּעת פּארי , from פּאר an ornament, cf. פּאר ornatus fuit ). The singular, “ girdle ,” in Exodus 39:29, with the definite article, “ the girdle, ” might appear to refer simply to Aaron's girdle, i.e., the girdle of the high priest; but as there is no special description of the girdles of Aaron's sons (the ordinary priests) in Exodus 29:40, where they are distinctly mentioned and called by the same name ( abnet ) as the girdle of Aaron himself, we can only conclude that they were of the same materials and the same form and make as the latter, and that the singular, האבנט , is used here either in the most general manner, or as a generic noun in a collective sense (see Ges. §109, 1). The last thing mentioned is the diadem upon Aaron's turban (Exodus 39:30, Exodus 39:31, as in Exodus 28:36-38), so that the order in which the priests' robes are given here is analogous to the position in which the ark of the covenant and the golden altar stand to one another in the directions concerning the sacred things in ch. 25-30. “For just as all the other things are there placed between the holy ark and the golden altar as the two poles, so here all the rest of the priests' robes are included between the shoulder-dress, the principal part of the official robes of the high priest, and the golden frontlet, the inscription upon which rendered it the most striking sign of the dignity of his office” ( Baumgarten ).
Delivery of the work to Moses . - The different things are again mentioned one by one. By “the tent,” in Exodus 39:33, we are to understand the two tent-cloths, the one of purple and the other of goats' hair, by which the dwelling ( משׁכּן , generally rendered tabernacle) was made into a tent ( אלה ). From this it is perfectly obvious, that the variegated cloth formed the inner walls of the dwelling, or covered the boards on the inner side, and that the goats' hair-cloth formed the other covering. Moreover it is also obvious, that this is the way in which האהל is to be understood, from the fact, that in the list of the things belonging to the ohel the first to be mentioned are the gold and copper hooks (Exodus 26:6, Exodus 26:11) with which the two halves of the drapery that formed the tent were joined together, and then after that the boards, bolts, pillars, and sockets, as though subordinate to the tent-cloths, and only intended to answer the purpose of spreading them out into a tent of dwelling.
“ The lamps of the order, ” i.e., the lamps set in order upon the candlestick. In addition to all the vessels of the sanctuary, shew-bread (Exodus 39:36), holy oil for the candlestick and for anointing, and fragrant incense (Exodus 39:38), were also prepared and delivered to Moses, - everything, therefore, that was required for the institution of the daily worship, as soon as the tabernacle was set up.
“ Vessels of service: ” see Exodus 27:19.
When Moses had received and examined all the different articles, and found that everything was made according to the directions of Jehovah, he blessed the children of Israel. The readiness and liberality with which the people had presented the gifts required for this work, and the zeal which they had shown in executing the whole of the work in rather less than half a year (see at Exodus 40:17), were most cheering signs of the willingness of the Israelites to serve the Lord, for which they could not fail to receive the blessing of God.