CHAPTER XXVI.

The ten curtains of the tabernacle, and of what composed, 1. Their length, 2, 3, their loops, 4, 5, their taches, 6 The curtains of goats hair for a covering, 7, their length, and breadth, 8. Couple with loops, 9, 10, and taches, 11. The The covering of rams' remnant of the curtains, how to be en.ployed, 12, 13.

skin, 11. The board of the tabernacle for the south side, 15, their length, 16, senons, 17, number, 15, sockets, 19. Boards, &e. for the north sile, 20, 21. Boards, &c. for the west sile, 22. For the corners, 23, their rings and sockets, 21, 25. The bars of the tabernacle, 26-30. The veil, its pillars, hooks, and taches, 3183. How to place the merry-seat, 31, the table and the candlestick, 35, the hanging for the door of the tent, 36, and the hangings for the pillars, 37. An. Exal. Ir. 1. OREOVER thou shalt make Sivan. the tabernacle, with ten cur

t

r Ch. 25. 30. Numb. 8. 4. 1 Chron. 23. 11, 19. Acts 7. 44. Hebr. 8. 5.-s Heb. which thou wast caused to see.

their salvation, and God shortly gave unto those heathens, that very salvation, of which these things were the emblems! Thus, because of their unbelief and rebellion, the kingdom of heaven, according to the prediction of our blessed Lord, was taken from the Jews, and given to a nation, the Gentiles, that brought forth the fruits thereof! Matt. xxi. 43. Behold the GOODNESS and SEVERITY of God! Verse 39. Of a talent of pure gold shall he make it, with all these vessels] That is, a talent of gold in weight was used in making the candlestick, and the different vessels and instruments which belonged to it. According to Bishop Cumberland, a talent was three thousand shekels. As the Israelites brought each half a shekel, ch. xxxviii. 26. so that one hundred talents, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five shekels, were contributed by six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty persons. By halving the number of the Israelites, he finds they contributed three hundred and one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five shekels in all. Now, as we find that this number of shekels made one hundred talents, and one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five shekels over, if we subtract one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five, the odd shekels, from three hundred and one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five, we shall have for a remainder three hundred thousand; the number of shekels in one hundred talents; and if this remainder be divided by one hundred, the number of talents, it quotes three thousand, the number of shekels in each talent. A silver shekel of the sanctuary, being equal, according to Dr. Prideaux, to three shillings English, three thousand such shekels will amount to four hundred and fifty pounds sterling; and reckoning gold to silver as fifteen to one, a talent of gold will amount to six thousand seven hundred and fifty pounds sterling: to which add two hundred and sixty-three pounds for the one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five shekels, at three shillings each, and it makes a total of seven thousand and thirteen pounds, which immense sum was expended on the candlestick and its furniture. It is no wonder, then, (if the candlestick in the second temple were equal in value to that in the ancient tabernacle) that Titus should think it of sufficient consequence to be one of the articles, with the golden table and silver trumpets, that should be employed to grace his triumph. Their intrinsic worth was a matter of no consequence to Him, whose are the silver and gold, the earth and its fulness: they had accomplished their design, and were of no farther use, either in the kingdom of Providence, or the kingdom of grace.-See the note on ver. 31. and see that on chap. xxxviii. 24.

Verse 40. And look that thou make, &c.] This verse should be understood as an order to Moses after the tabernacle, &c. had been described to him: as if he had said, "When thou comest to make all the things that I have already described to thee, with the other matters of which I shall afterward treat, see that thou make every thing according to the pattern which thou didst see in the mount.' The Septuagint have it κατα τον τύπον τον δεδειγμένον σου. According to the TYPE, FORM, or fashion which was shown thee. It appears to me, that St. Paul had this command particularly in view, when he gave that to his son Timothy, which we find in his second epistle, chap. i. ver. 13. υποτύπωσιν εχε υγιαινόντων λόγων, ων παρ' εμου ήκουσας--Hold fast the FORM of sound words which thou hast heard of

me.

The tabernacle was a type of the church of God: that church is built upon the foundation of the prophets and apostles, Jesus Christ being the chief corner-stone, Eph. ii. 20-22. the doctrines, therefore, delivered by the prophets, Jesus Christ, and his apostles, are essential to the constitution of this church. As God, therefore, gave the plan, or form, according to which the tabernacle must be constructed, so he gives the doctrines according to which the Christian church is to be modelled; and apostles, and subordinate builders, are to have and hold fast that FORM of sound words, and construct this heavenly

2 The length of one curtain shall be eight and twenty cubits, and the breadth of one curtain four cubits: and every one of the curtains shall have one measure.

3 The five curtains shall be coupled together one to another; and other five curtains shall be coupled one to another.

4 And thou shalt make loops of blue, upon the edge of the one curtain, from the selvedge in the

t Ch. 36. 8-u Heb. the work of a cunning workman, or embroiderer.

building according to that form or pattern, which has come through the express revelation of God. IN different parts of this work we have had occasion to remark, that the heathens borrowed their best things from Divine Revelation, both as it refers to what was pure in their doctrines, and significant in their religious rites. Indeed, they seem in many cases to have studied the closest imitation possible, consistent with the adaptation of all to their preposterous and idolatrous worship. They had their IAO, or Jove, in imitation of the true JEHOVAH; and from different attributes of the Divine Nature, they formed an innumerable group of gods and goddesses. They had also their temples, in imitation of the temple of God; and in these they had their holy and more holy places, in imitation of the courts of the Lord's house. The heathen temples consisted of several parts or divisions: 1. The arca or porch; 2. The Nos, or temple, similar to the nave of our churches; 3. The adytum, or holy place, called also penetrale, and sacrarium; and, 4. The Soos, or the inner temple, the most secret recess, where they had their mysteria, and which answered to the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle. And as there is no evidence whatever, that there was any temple among the heathens, prior to the tabernacle, it is reasonable to conclude, that it served as a model for all that they afterward builded. They had even their portable temples, to imitate the tabernacle: and the shrines for Diana, mentioned, Acts xix. 24. were of this kind. They had even their arks, or sacred coffers, where they kept their most holy things, and the mysterious emblems of their religion; together with candlesticks, or lamps, to illuminate their temples, which had few windows, to imitate the golden candlestick in the Mosaic tabernacle. They had even their processions, in imitation of the carrying about of the ark in the wilderness; accompanied by such ceremonies, as sufficiently show, to an unprejudiced mind, that they borrowed them from this sacred original. Dr. Dodd has a good note on this subject which I shall take the liberty to extract.

Speaking of the ark, he says, "We meet with imitations of this divinely instituted emblem, among several heathen nations. Thus Tucitus, De Moribus Germanorum, cap. 40. informs us, that the inhabitants of the north of Germany, our Saxon ancestors, in general, worshipped Herthum, or Hertham, i. e. the mother earth; Hertham being plainly derived from parets, earth, and DN am, mother; and they believed her to interpose in the affairs of men, and to visit nations; that to her, in a sacred grove, in a certain island of the ocean, a vehicle covered with a vestment, was consecrated, and allowed to be touched by the priests only, (compare 2 Sam. vi. 6, 7. 1 Chron. xiii. 9, 10.) who perceived, when the goddess entered into her secret place, penetrale, and with profound veneration attended her vehicle, which was drawn by cows: see 1 Sam. vi. 7-10. While the goddess was on her progress, days of rejoicing were kept in every place which she vouchsafed to visit-they engaged in no war, they handled no weapons; peace and quietness were then only known, only relished, till the same priest reconducted the goddess to her temple. Then the vehicle and vestment, and if you can believe it, the goddess herself, were washed in a sacred lake."

Apuleius, describing a solemn idolatrous procession, De Aur. Asin. lib. ii. after the Egyptian mode, says, "A chest, or ark, was carried by another, containing their secret things, entirely concealing the mysteries of religion."

And Plutarch, in his treatise De Iside, &c. describing the rites of Osiris, says-"On the tenth day of the month, at night, they go down to the sea, and the stolists, together with the priest, carry forth the sacred chest, in which is a small boat or vessel of gold."

Pausanias likewise testifies, (lib. vii. c. 19.) that the ancient Trojans had a sacred ark, wherein was the image of BACCHUS, made by Vulcan, which had been given to Dardanus by Jupiter. As the ark was deposited in the

16 Ten cubits shall be the length of a board, and a cubit and a half shall be the breadth of one board.

17 Two tenons shall there be in one board, set in order one against another: thus shalt thou make for all the boards of the tabernacle. 18 And thou shalt make the boards for the tabernacle, twenty boards on the south side southward.

19 And thou shalt make forty sockets of silver under the twenty boards; two sockets under one board for his two tenons, and two sockets under another board for his two tenons.

20 And for the second side of the tabernacle, on the north side, there shall be twenty boards: 21 And their forty sockets of silver; two sockets under one board, and two sockets under another board.

22 And for the sides of the tabernacle westward, thou shalt make six boards.

23 And two boards shalt thou make for the corners of the tabernacle in the two sides.

24 And they shall be coupled together beneath, and they shall be coupled together above the head of it unto one ring: thus shall it be for them both; they shall be for the two corners.

25 And they shall be eight boards, and their sockets of silver, sixteen sockets; two sockets under one board, and two sockets under another board.

26 And thou shalt make bars of shittim wood; five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle,

Heb. bands.-a Heb. twined.-b Ch. 25. 9, 40. & 27. 8. Acts 7. 44. Hebr. 8. 5. © Ch. 36. 35. Lev. 16. 2. 2 Chron. 3. 14. Matt. 27. 51. Heb. 9. 3.

Verse 16. Ten cubits shall be the length of a board] Each of these boards, or planks, was about five yards and two feet and a half long, and thirty-two inches broad; and as they are said to be standing up, this was the height of the tabernacle. The length being thirty cubits, twenty boards, one cubit and a half broad each, make about seventeen yards and a half, and the BREADTH was about five yards.

Verse 29. Thou shalt overlay the boards with gold] It is not said how thick the gold was, by which these boards, &c. were overlaid: it was, no doubt, done with gold plates; but these must have been very thin, else the boards, &c. must have been insupportably heavy. The gold was probably something like our gold leaf, but not brought to so great a degree of tenuity.

Verse 31. Thou shalt make a veil] paroceth, from 7 parac, to break, or rend, the inner veil of the tabernacle, or temple, 2 Chron. iii. 14. which broke, interrupted, or divided between the holy place and the most holy-The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was standing, compare Heb. ix. 8. The Septuagint constantly render it by xтIT. Does not the Hebrew name n paroceth moreover intimate the typical correspondence of this veil to the body or flesh of Christ? For this μ, or veil, was his flesh, Heb. x. 20. which being rent, affords us a new and living way into the holiest of all, i. e. into heaven itself-compare Heb. x. 19, 20. ix. 24. And accordingly, when his blessed body was rent upon the cross, this veil also (10 aтTROμM TOU vacu) toxiσin, was RENT in twain from the top to the bottom, Matt. xxvii. 51.-See Parkhurst under the word

.

The veil in the tabernacle was exceedingly costly: it was made of the same materials with the inner covering, blue, purple, scarlet, fine twined linen, embroidered with cherubim, &c. It served to divide the tabernacle into two parts-one, the outermost, called the holy place; the other, or innermost, called the Holy of Holies, or the most holy place. In this was deposited the ark of the covenant, and the other things that were laid up by way of memorial. Into this the high priest alone was permitted to enter, and that only once in the year, on the great day of atonement. It was in this inner place that Jehovah manifested himself between the cherubim. The Jews say, that this veil was four fingers breadth in thickness, in order to prevent any person from seeing through it; but of this, as Calmet observes, there was no necessity, as there was no window or place for light in the tabernacle, and consequently the most simple veil would have been sufficient to obstruct the discovery of any thing behind it, which could only be discerned by the light that came in at the door, or by that afforded

27 And five bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the side of the tabernacle, for the two sides westward.

28 And the middle bar, in the midst of the boards, shall reach from end to end.

29 And thou shalt overlay the boards with gold, and make their rings of gold for places for the bars: and thou shalt overlay the bars with gold.

30 And thou shalt rear up the tabernacle; baccording to the fashion thereof, which was showed thee in the mount.

31 And thou shalt make a veil of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen of cunning work; with cherubims shall it be made:

32 And thou shalt hang it upon four pillars of shittim wood, overlaid with gold: their hooks shall be of gold, upon the four sockets of silver.

33 And thou shalt hang up the veil under the taches, that thou mayest bring in thither within the veil, the ark of the testimony: and the veil shall divide unto you between the holy place and the most holy.

34 And thou shalt put the mercy-seat upon the ark of the testimony, in the most holy place. 35 And thou shalt set the table without the veil, and the candlestick over against the table, on the side of the tabernacle toward the south: and thou shalt put the table on the north side.

36 And thou shalt make a hanging for the door of the tent, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with needle-work.

d Ch. 25. 16. & 40. 21.-e Lev. 16. 2 Heb. 9. 2, 3-f Ch. 25. 21. & 40. 20. Hebr. 9. 5.-g Ch. 40. 22 Hebr. 9. 2-h Ch. 40. 21.-i Ch. 36. 37.

by the golden candlestick, which stood on the outside of this veil. Verse 32. Their hooks shall be of gold] om vaveyhem, which we translate their hooks, is rendered eiñas, capitals, by the Septuagint, and capita, by the Vulgate. As the word n rav, or rau, plural o varim, occurs only in this book, chap. xxvi. 32, 37. xxvii. 10, 11, 17. xxxvi. 36, 38. xxxviii. 10, 11, 12, 17, 19, 23. and is used in these places in reference to the same subject, it is very difficult to ascertain its precise meaning. Most commentators and lexicographers think, that the ideal meaning of the word is, to connect, attach, join to, hook; and that the letter rau has its name from its hook-like form; and its use as a particle in the Hebrew language, because it serves to connect the words and members of a sentence, and the sentences of a discourse, together; and that, therefore, hook, must be the obvious meaning of the word, in all the above texts. Calmet thinks this reason of no weight, because the vau of the present Hebrew alphabet is widely dissimilar from the vau of the primitive Hebrew alphabet, as may be seen on the ancient shekels: on these the characters appear as in the word JEHOVAH, chap. xxviii. 36. This form bears no resemblance to a hook; nor does the Samaritan 3 rau, which appears to have been copied from this ancient cha

racter.

Calmet, therefore, contends, 1. That if Moses does not mean the capitals of the pillars, by the am ravim of the text, he mentions them nowhere; and would be strange, that, while he describes the pillars, their sockets, bases, fillets, &c. &c. with so much exactness, as will appear on consulting the preceding places, that he should make no mention of the capitals; or that pillars, every way so correctly formed, should have been destitute of this very necessary ornament.

2. As Moses was commanded to make the hooks, om rarim, of the pillars, and their fillets of silver, chap. xxvii. 10, 11. and the hooks, vavim, of the pillars of the veil, of gold, chap. xxxvi. 36. and the one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five shekels were employed in making these hooks, ravim, overlaying their chapiters, en rasheyhem, their heads, and filleting them, chap. xxxviii. 28, it is more reasonable to suppose, that all this is spoken of the capitals of the pillars, than of any kind of hooks, especially as hooks are mentioned under the word taches or clasps in other places. On the whole, it appears much more reasonable to translate the original by capitals than by hooks.

After this verse, the Samaritan Pentateuch introduces the ten first verses of chapter xxx. and this appears to be their proper place. Those ten verses are not repeated in the xxxth chapter in the Samaritan: the chapter beginning with the 11th verse.

37 And thou shalt make for the hanging five pillars of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold, and their hooks shall be of gold: and thou shalt cast five sockets of brass for them.

CHAPTER XXVII.

The altar of burnt offerings, and its dimensions, 1, its horns, 2, pans, shovels, &c. 3, its grate, and neticork, 4, 5, its staves, b, 7. Court of the tabernacle, 9, with its pillare and hangings, 10-15. Gate of the court, its pillars, hangings, length, breadth, and height, 16-18. All the vessels used in the court of the tabernacle to be of brass, 19 The Israelites to provide pure olive oil, for the light, 20. Every thing to be ordered by Aaron and his sons, 21.

2 And thou shalt make the horns of it upon the four corners thereof: his horns shall be of the same: and thou shalt overlay it with brass. 3 And thou shalt make his pans to receive his ashes, and his shovels, and his basins, and his flesh-hooks, and his fire-pans: all the vessels thereof thou shalt make of brass.

make it.

9 And thou shalt make the court of the tabernacle: for the south side southward, there shall be hangings for the court, of fine twined linen of a hundred cubits long for one side:

10 And the twenty pillars thereof and their twenty sockets shall be of brass; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets shall be of silver.

11 And likewise for the north side, in length there shall be hangings of a hundred cubits long, and his twenty pillars and their twenty sockets of brass; the hooks of the pillars, and their

k Ch. 36. 38.-1 Ch. 38. 1. Ezek. 43. 13.-m See Numb. 16. 38.

Verse 36. A hanging for the door of the tent.] This may be called the first veil, as it occupied the door or entrance to the tabernacle: the veil that separated the holy place from the Holy of Holies, is called the second veil, Heb. ix. 3. These two veils and the inner covering of the tabernacle, were all of the same materials, and of the same workmanship.-See chap. xxvii. 16.

1. For the meaning and design of the tabernacle, see the note on chap. xxv. 40. and while the reader is struck with the curious and costly nature of this building, as described by Moses, let him consider how pure and holy that church should be, of which it was a very expressive type; and what manner of person he should be in all holy conversation and godliness, who professes to be a member of that church, for which, it is written, Christ has given himself, that he might sanctify and cleanse it-that he might present it unto himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.-See Eph. v. 25-27.

2. In the Jewish tabernacle almost every thing was placed out of the sight of the people. The Holy of Holies was inaccessible, the testimony was comparatively hidden, as were also the mercy-seat, and the divine glory. Under the Gospel, all these things are laid open-the way to the Holiest is made manifest-the veil is rent, and we have an entrance to the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh, Heb. x. 19, 20. How abundantly has God brought life and immortality to light by the Gospel! The awful distance is abolished, the ministry of reconciliation is proclaimed, the kingdom of heaven is open to all believers, and the Lord is in his holy temple.-Sinner, weary of thyself and thy transgressions, fainting under the load of thy iniquities, look to Jesus! he died for thee, and will save thee.-Believer, stand fast in the liberty wherewith God has made thee free, and be not entangled again in the yoke of bondage.

NOTES ON CHAPTER XXVII. Verse 1. Thou shalt make an altar] na mizbeach, from na zabach, to slay. Septuagint, Ourango, from buesa, to sacrifice, or from su, to kill, &c. See the note on Gen. viii. 20.

Foursquare] As this altar was five cubits long, and five broad, and the cubit is reckoned to be twenty-one inches, hence it must have been eight feet nine inches square, and about five feet three inches in height, the amount of three cubits, taken at the same ratio.

Verse 2. Thou shalt make the horns of it] The horns might have three uses: 1. For ornament; 2. To prevent carcasses, &c. from falling off; 3. To tie the victim to, previously to its being sacrificed. So David,-Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar.-Psalm cxviii. 27. Horns were much used in all ancient altars among the heathen, and some of them were entirely constructed of the horns of the beasts that had been offered in sacrifice: but such altars appear to be erected rather as trophies in honour of their gods. On the reverses of several medals, we find altars represented with horns at the corners.

12 And for the breadth of the court on the west side shall be hangings of fifty cubits: their pillars ten, and their sockets ten.

n Ch. 25. 40. & 26. 30.-o Heb. be showed.-p Ch. 38. 9.

There is a medal of Antoninus, on the reverse of which is an altar, on which a fire burns, consecrated, Divo Pio, where the horns appear on each of the corners.

There is one of Faustina, on which the altar and its horns are very distinct, the legend Pietas Augusta. All the following have altars with horns. One of Valerian, legend consecratio; one of Claudius Gothicus, same legend; one of Quintillus, same legend; one of Crispina, with the legend Diis Genitalibus; and several others. See Numismatica Antiq. a MUSELLIO, under Consecratio, in the Index.

Verse 3. Thou shalt make his pans],

sirotair, a sort of large brazen dishes, which stood under the altar, to receive the ashes that fell through the grating.

His shovels] y yaâiv. Some render this besoms: but as these were brazen instruments, it is more natural to suppose, that some kind of fire-shovels are intended, or scuttles, which were used to carry off the ashes that fell through the grating into the large pan or siroth.

His basins app mizrekotaiv, from p zarak, to sprinkle or disperse: bowls or basins to receive the blood of the sacrifices, in order that it might be sprinkled on the people, before the altar, &c.

His flesh-hooks] in mizlegotair. That this word is rightly translated flesh-hooks, is fully evident from 1 Sam. ii. 13. where the same word is used, in such a connexion, as demonstrates its meaning: And the priest's custom with the people, was, that, when any man offered sacrifice, the priest's servant came while the flesh was in the seething, with a FLESH-HOOK (21 mazleg) of three teeth (prongs) in his hand, and he struck it into the pan, &c. all that the FLESH-HOOK ( mazleg) brought up, the priest took for himself. It was, probably, a kind of trident, or fork with three prongs, and these bended to a right angle at the middle, as the ideal meaning of the Hebrew seems to imply crookedness or curvature in general.

His fire-pans ann machtotair. Bishop Patrick and others suppose, that "this was a larger sort of vessel, wherein, peobably, the sacred fire, which came down from heaven, Lev. ix. 24. was kept burning, whilst they cleansed the altar and the grate from the coals and the ashes; and while the altar was carried from one place to another, as it often was in the wilderness."

Verse 4. Thou shalt make a grate] Calmet supposes this altar to have been a sort of box, covered with brass plates, on the top of which was a grating to supply the fire with air, and permit the ashes to fall through into the siroth, or pan that was placed below. At the four corners of the grating were four rings and four chains, by which it was attached to the four horns; and at the sides were rings for the poles of shittim wood, with which it was carried. Even on this, there is a great variety of opinions.

Verse 8. Hollow with boards] It seems to have been a kind of frame-work, and to have had nothing solid in the inside, and only covered with the grating at the top. This rendered it more light and portable.

Verse 9. The court of the tabernacle] The tabernacle stood in an enclosure or court, open at the top. This court