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27,299 commentary entries
The Pulpit Commentary
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 26:2
Eight and twenty cubits. This is the exact length required for a rectangular tented roof over such a space, which should descend (as tent roofs usually do) within about seven feet of the ground. The comparison made in E…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 26:3
When the ten "breadths" had been woven, five were to be sewn together to form one portion of the awning, and the other five to form another portion, the reason for this being, probably, that if all the ten breadths had…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 26:6
The Authorised Version gives the sense fairly. The two curtains, each composed of five "breadths," were to be united by means of one hundred loops, fifty on each curtain, which were to be coupled together by fifty "tach…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 26:7
The goat's skin tent-cloth (Exodus 26:7-13). From the inner covering of the tabernacle the directions proceed to the external covering, or rather coverings, which constituted the real strength of the structure, and its…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 26:8
The length … shall be thirty cubits. A tent with a rectangular roof, over such a chamber as the mishkan, brought down, as tents usually are, within six or seven feet of the ground, would have required a covering of this…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 26:9
Thou shalt couple, etc. As with the inner awning of linen, so with the goats' hair tent-cloth. The whole when made up was to be in two pieces, for convenience of transport. (See the comment on Exodus 26:3.) The number o…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 26:10
Fifty loops in the edge of the curtain that coupleth the second. Rather, "fifty loops at the edge of the second curtain of coupling." The two portions of the goats' hair covering were to be united in exactly the same wa…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 26:11
Fifty taches of brass. Rather "of bronze." The links of the inner curtain were of gold (Exodus 26:6).
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 26:12
The remnant which remaineth, etc. Both this and the next verse presume a very close connection between the fine linen covering of the mishkan and the goats hair tent-cloth which protected it. "The remnant that remaineth…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 26:13
And a cubit. Rather, "And the cubit." The cubit by which the goats' hair tent-cloth, which was thirty cubits across (Exodus 26:8), would exceed the linen covering, which was twenty-eight cubits (Exodus 26:2), on either…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 26:14
The outer protection (Exodus 26:14). And thou shalt make a covering for the tent. Nothing is said of the size of this covering; but, as its object was clearly to protect the roof of the tent from penetration by wet, it…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 26:15
The boarding of the tabernacle (Exodus 26:15-30). Boards … of shittim wood. These boards were to be fifteen feet long by two feet three inches broad, and, if they were each of a single plank, can scarcely have been furn…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 26:17
Two tenons. Literally, "hands." Projecting rods, such as those common in our dinner tables, seem to be meant. They may have been of metal, let into the boards to a certain depth, and projecting several inches beyond the…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 26:18
Twenty boards. Each board being a cubit and a half in width (Exodus 26:16), the length of the chamber was, necessarily, thirty cubits. On the south side southward. Literally, "On the south side, to the right." The Orien…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 26:19
Forty sockets of silver. Nothing is said of the shape of these "sockets." They were certainly very massive, as each contained a silver talent (Exodus 38:27), and thus weighed from eighty to ninety pounds. It has been su…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 26:20
The second side … the north side. The north side, or left hand, was always regarded as less honourable than the south side or right hand (see Genesis 48:13-20), probably because in the northern hemisphere the sun illumi…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 26:24
They shall be coupled together beneath … unto one ring. This is very obscure, and might be explained in several ways. Perhaps it is best to suppose that the coupling was by the "bars," cf. Exodus 26:26-29, the ends of w…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 26:25
And they shall be eight boards. Counting in the two comer boards, or posts, the boards of the back would be eight. Each of them was to have two "tenons," like the boards of the sides, and every "tenon" was to have its o…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 26:26-28
Bars of shittim wood. To give greater stability to the structure, to keep the boards in their places, and to prevent there being any aperture between them, five bars were to be made for each side, and the same number fo…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 26:29
The rings were to be of solid gold; the boards and the bars of acacia wood overlaid with gold.
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 26:30
According to the fashion. Where the description was incomplete (and it could not but be incomplete in many points), Moses was to follow his recollection of the "pattern," which either in vision, or otherwise—he had seen…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 26:30
God dwelleth not in temples made with hands. An idea, to be realised, must be embodied; e.g; thoughts must be expressed in words; the vision of the artist must take form on canvas or in marble. So, too, with the Divine…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 26:31-35
The veil and the ordering of the holy places.
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 26:31
A vail. The veil was to be of the same material and workmanship as the inner covering extended over the mishkan, and like that, was to have figures of cherubim woven into its texture by a skilled weaver.