Exodus 26:18

And thou shalt make the boards for the tabernacle, twenty boards on the south side southward.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(18) On the south side southward.—Rather, on the south side to the right. The tabernacle faced the east, and was regarded as looking in that direction. Thus its south wall was on the right.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

26:15-30 The sockets of silver each weighed about 115 pounds; they were placed in rows on the ground. In every pair of these sockets, a strong board of shittim-wood, covered with plates of gold, was fitted by mortises and tenons. Thus walls were formed for the two sides, and for the west end. The wall was further held together by bars, which passed through rings of gold. Over this the curtains were spread. Though movable, it was strong and firm. The materials were very costly. In all this it was a type of the church of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner-stone, Eph 2:20,21.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The entire length of the structure was about 45 ft. in the clear, and its width about 15 ft.

The south side southward - Or, the south side on the right. As the entrance of the tabernacle was at its east end, the south side, to a person entering it, would be on the left hand: but we learn from Josephus that it was usual, in speaking of the temple, to identify the south with the right hand and the north with the left hand, the entrance being regarded as the face of the structure and the west end as its back.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

15-30. thou shalt make boards … rear up the tabernacle according to the fashion … which was showed thee—The tabernacle, from its name as well as from its general appearance and arrangements, was a tent; but from the description given in these verses, the boards that formed its walls, the five (cross) bars that strengthened them, and the middle bar that "reached from end to end," and gave it solidity and compactness, it was evidently a more substantial fabric than a light and fragile tent, probably on account of the weight of its various coverings as well as for the protection of its precious furniture.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And thou shalt make the boards for the tabernacle,.... As in the manner before described, so in number as follows:

twenty boards on the south side southward; which being a cubit and a half broad, made the length of the tabernacle fifteen yards according to the common account; but if these were cubits of twenty one inches, then its length was much greater.

Geneva Study Bible

And thou shalt make the boards for the tabernacle, twenty boards on the south side southward.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

18. for the south side southward] lit., with not quite the same tautology as the English, towards (the) Negeb, southward. The ‘Negeb’ (properly, as Aram. shews, meaning dry land) is a geographical term denoting the arid district in the S. of Judah (Genesis 12:9 RVm., Joshua 15:21, and often); as this district was on the S. of Canaan, it became the most usual word in Heb. for ‘south.’ Its use in the Pent. is an indication that this was written after Israel had lived long enough in Canaan for ‘négeb’ to have acquired this sense. The same pleonasm recurs in Exodus 27:9, and in the "" "", Exodus 38:9, Exodus 36:23, Ezekiel 47:19; Ezekiel 48:28; and there are similar ones in Exodus 27:13 ("" Exodus 38:13), Numbers 34:15.

18–25. The number of frames for each side of the Dwelling, and the arrangements for holding them firmly in their place.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 18. - Twenty boards. Each board being a cubit and a half in width (ver. 16), the length of the chamber was, necessarily, thirty cubits. On the south side southward. Literally, "On the south side, to the right." The Orientals regarded it as natural to look to the east, and spoke of the east as "in front," the west as "behind," the north as "on the left," and the south as "on the right hand." Exodus 26:18

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Twenty of these boards were to be prepared for the side of the dwelling that was turned towards the south, and forty sockets (אדנים foundations, Job 38:6) or bases for the pegs, i.e., to put the pegs of the boards into, that the boards might stand upright; and the same number of boards and sockets for the north side. תּימנה, "southward," is added to נגבּה לפאת in Exodus 26:18, to give a clearer definition of negeb, which primarily means the dry, and then the country to the south; an evident proof that at that time negeb was not established as a geographical term for the south, and therefore that it was not written here by a Palestinian, as Knobel supposes, but by Moses in the desert.

The form of the "sockets" is not explained, and even in Exodus 38:27, in the summing up of the gifts presented for the work, it is merely stated that a talent of silver (about 93 lb.) was applied to every socket.