Barnes' Notes And he made the altar of burnt offering of shittim wood: five cubits was the length thereof, and five cubits the breadth thereof; it was foursquare; and three cubits the height thereof.
And he made the horns thereof on the four corners of it; the horns thereof were of the same: and he overlaid it with brass.
And he made all the vessels of the altar, the pots, and the shovels, and the basons, and the fleshhooks, and the firepans: all the vessels thereof made he of brass.
And he made for the altar a brasen grate of network under the compass thereof beneath unto the midst of it.
And he cast four rings for the four ends of the grate of brass, to be places for the staves.
And he made the staves of shittim wood, and overlaid them with brass.
And he put the staves into the rings on the sides of the altar, to bear it withal; he made the altar hollow with boards.
And he made the laver of brass, and the foot of it of brass, of the lookingglasses of the women assembling, which assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. See the marginal reference. The women who assembled at the entrance of the tent of meeting were most probably devout women who loved the public service of religion. The giving up of their mirrors for the use of the sanctuary was a fit sacrifice for such women to make (compare Exodus 35:22 note).
And he made the court: on the south side southward the hangings of the court were of fine twined linen, an hundred cubits:
Their pillars were twenty, and their brasen sockets twenty; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets were of silver.
And for the north side the hangings were an hundred cubits, their pillars were twenty, and their sockets of brass twenty; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver.
And for the west side were hangings of fifty cubits, their pillars ten, and their sockets ten; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver.
And for the east side eastward fifty cubits.
The hangings of the one side of the gate were fifteen cubits; their pillars three, and their sockets three.
And for the other side of the court gate, on this hand and that hand, were hangings of fifteen cubits; their pillars three, and their sockets three.
All the hangings of the court round about were of fine twined linen.
And the sockets for the pillars were of brass; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver; and the overlaying of their chapiters of silver; and all the pillars of the court were filleted with silver.
And the hanging for the gate of the court was needlework, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen: and twenty cubits was the length, and the height in the breadth was five cubits, answerable to the hangings of the court.
And their pillars were four, and their sockets of brass four; their hooks of silver, and the overlaying of their chapiters and their fillets of silver.
And all the pins of the tabernacle, and of the court round about, were of brass.
This is the sum of the tabernacle, even of the tabernacle of testimony, as it was counted, according to the commandment of Moses, for the service of the Levites, by the hand of Ithamar, son to Aaron the priest. This is the sum ... - "This is the reckoning of the tabernacle, the tabernacle of the Testimony as it was reckoned up according to the commandment of Moses, by the service of the Levites, by the hand of Ithamar," etc. The weight of the metals was taken by the Levites, under the direction of Ithamar. The tabernacle is called the tabernacle of the testimony, or the depository of the testimony, i. e. the tables of the law Exodus 25:16.
And Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made all that the LORD commanded Moses.
And with him was Aholiab, son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, an engraver, and a cunning workman, and an embroiderer in blue, and in purple, and in scarlet, and fine linen. See Exodus 35:35 note.
All the gold that was occupied for the work in all the work of the holy place, even the gold of the offering, was twenty and nine talents, and seven hundred and thirty shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary. Of the holy place - Rather, of the sanctuary. The gold was employed not only in the holy place, but in the most holy place and in the entrance to the tent Exodus 36:38.The gold of the offering - The gold of the wave offering. Talents ... the shekel of the sanctuary - The shekel was the common standard of weight and value with the Hebrews: and is probably to be estimated at 220 English grains (just over half an ounce avoirdupois) and its value in silver as 2 Samuel 7d. The shekel of the sanctuary (or, the holy shekel) would seem to denote no more than an exact shekel, "after the king's weight" 2 Samuel 14:26, "current money with the merchant" Genesis 23:16. In the reign of Joash, a collection similar to that here mentioned, apparently at the same rate of capitation, was made for the repairs of the temple 2 Chronicles 24:9. The tax of later times, called didrachma, στατήρ statēr, Matthew 17:27, was not, like this and that of Joash, a collection for a special occasion, but a yearly tax, for the support of the temple, of a whole shekel. See also Exodus 30:13. The talent contained 3,000 shekels, as may be gathered from Exodus 38:25-26. According to the computation here adopted, the Hebrew talent was 94 2/7 lbs. avoirdupois. The Greek (Aeginetan) talent, from which the Septuagint and most succeeding versions have taken the name "talent," was 82 1/4 lbs. The original Hebrew word, ככר kı̂kār, would denote a circular mass, and nearly the same word, kerker, was in use among the Egyptians for a mass of metal cast in the form of a massive ring with its weight stamped upon it.
And the silver of them that were numbered of the congregation was an hundred talents, and a thousand seven hundred and threescore and fifteen shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary:
A bekah for every man, that is, half a shekel, after the shekel of the sanctuary, for every one that went to be numbered, from twenty years old and upward, for six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty men. A bekah - Literally, "a half": the words "half a shekel," etc. appear to be inserted only for emphasis, to enforce the accuracy to be observed in the payment. See Exodus 30:13. Respecting the capitation and the numbering of the people, see Exodus 30:12.
And of the hundred talents of silver were cast the sockets of the sanctuary, and the sockets of the vail; an hundred sockets of the hundred talents, a talent for a socket. Sockets - Bases. See the margin reference.
And of the thousand seven hundred seventy and five shekels he made hooks for the pillars, and overlaid their chapiters, and filleted them. The hooks, chapiters, and fillets here spoken of belonged to the pillars of the court. See Exodus 27:10, Exodus 27:17.
And the brass of the offering was seventy talents, and two thousand and four hundred shekels. According to the estimate of the shekel that has here been adopted, the weight of the metals mentioned in this chapter would be nearly as follows, in avoirdupois weight:Gold 1 ton 4 cwt. 2 qrs. 13 lbs. Silver 4 tons 4 cwt. 2 qrs. 20 lbs. Bronze 2 tons 19 cwt. 2 qrs. 11 lbs. The value of the gold, if pure, in our money would be 175,075 British pounds, 13 shillings, and of the silver, 38,034 British pounds, 15 shillings 10d. These quantities of the precious metals come quite within the limits of probability, if we consider the condition of the Israelites when they left Egypt (see Exodus 25:3 note), and the object for which the collection was made. Many have remarked that the quantities collected for the tabernacle are insignificant when compared with the hoards of gold and silver collected in the East in recent times, as well as in ancient times.
And therewith he made the sockets to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and the brasen altar, and the brasen grate for it, and all the vessels of the altar,
And the sockets of the court round about, and the sockets of the court gate, and all the pins of the tabernacle, and all the pins of the court round about. |
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