Exodus 25 commentary

God chose the people of Israel to be a peculiar people to himself, above all people, and he himself would be their King. He ordered a royal palace to be set up among them for himself, called a sanctuary, or holy place, or habitation. There he showed his presence among them. And because in the wilderness they dwelt in tents, this royal palace was ordered to be a tabernacle, that it might move with them. The people were to furnish Moses with the materials, by their own free will. The best use we can make of our worldly wealth, is to honour God with it in works of piety and charity. We should ask, not only, What must we do? but, What may we do for God? Whatever they gave, they must give it cheerfully, not grudgingly, for God loves a cheerful giver, 2Co 9:7. What is laid out in the service of God, we must reckon well bestowed; and whatsoever is done in God's service, must be done by his direction. (Ex 25:10-22)

The ark was a chest, overlaid with gold, in which the two tables of the law were to be kept. These tables are called the testimony; God in them testified his will. This law was a testimony to the Israelites, to direct them in their duty, and would be a testimony against them, if they transgressed. This ark was placed in the holy of holies; the blood of the sacrifices was sprinkled, and the incense burned, before it, by the high priest; and above it appeared the visible glory, which was the symbol of the Divine presence. This was a type of Christ in his sinless nature, which saw no corruption, in personal union with his Divine nature, atoning for our sins against it, by his death. The cherubim of gold looked one towards another, and both looked downward toward the ark. It denotes the angels' attendance on the Redeemer, their readiness to do his will, their presence in the assemblies of saints, and their desire to look into the mysteries of the gospel. It was covered with a covering of gold, called the mercy-seat. God is said to dwell, or sit between the cherubim, on the mercy-seat. There he would give his law, and hear supplicants, as a prince on his throne.

A table was to be made of wood, overlaid with gold, to stand in the outer tabernacle, to be always furnished with the shew-bread. This table, with the articles on it, and its use, seems to typify the communion which the Lord holds with his redeemed people in his ordinances, the provisions of his house, the feasts they are favoured with. Also the food for their souls, which they always find when they hunger after it; and the delight he takes in their persons and services, as presented before him in Christ.

The candlestick represents the light of God's word and Spirit, in and through Christ Jesus, afforded in this dark world to his believing people, to direct their worship and obedience, and to afford them consolations. The church is still dark, as the tabernacle was, in comparison with what it will be in heaven; but the word of God is a light shining in a dark place, 2Pe 1:19, and a dark place indeed the world would be without it. In verse 40 is an express caution to Moses. Nothing was left to his own fancy, or to that of the workmen, or the people; but the will of God must be observed in every particular. Christ's instruction to his disciples, Mt 28:20, is like this, Observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. Let us remember that we are the temples of the Holy Ghost, that we have the law of God in our hearts, that we are to live a life of communion with God, feast on his ordinances, and are the light of the world, if indeed we are followers of Christ. May the Lord help us to try ourselves by this view of religion, and to walk according thereto.

2. Speak unto the children of Israel. If any caviller should raise a question as to the time in which I have thought fit to introduce this history, “Calvine here hath a singular opinion by himself concerning the time of erecting the tabernacle, with the parts and members thereof, which begin here to be described; for he thinketh that the tabernacle was built and set up before Moses had brought the first tables; and his reasons are these: — 1. There is mention made of the tabernacle, 33-7, immediately after Moses was come down with the tables in his hand, which he broke; and therefore the tabernacle being presently after spoken of, must be made before. Answer. This was not the great tabernacle which was afterwards made for God’s service, for that tabernacle was not set without the Host, as this was, but in the midst: Lippoman. But it was Moses’s tabernacle, whither the people had access to consult with God. Jun. 2. In this chapter it is said, verse 16, ‘Thou shalt put in the ark the testimony, which I shall give thee;’ therefore he received the testament before he made the ark, wherein he was to put it. Answer. This followeth not, that the ark was therefore made first, but that the form thereof was described first how it should be made, which was in the Mount; after which form it was made after that Moses had received the tables of the testimony. 3. When Moses cometh to exhort the people to build the tabernacle, he maketh no mention at all of their apostasy and idolatry; therefore it is evident, that they were yet sound, they had not yet committed that sin, seeing they do so cheerfully consecrate their best things to the Lord.

"Answer. — l. The people had already received correction for their fault; and Moses, in sign of God’s indignation against them, had removed his tent from among them, 33-7; therefore it cannot be said that no mention is made of their falling away. 2. The people, such especially as were touched with remorse for their sin, did so much the more shew themselves cheerful in God’s service, as a sign of true repentance. 3. And Moses having entreated the Lord for His people, would not be still harping upon the same string, in upbraiding them with their fault, lest he might altogether have discouraged them.

"Wherefore, it is very clear that the tabernacle was not erected and set up before the receiving of the tables, but after; for these reasons: — 1. Because Moses is here bidden to make the tabernacle according to all which the Lord should show him in the Mount; but the form thereof was first showed him in the Mount, when he continued there forty days and nights, in the end whereof he received the tables, Deut. 9:10; therefore the tabernacle could not be made before the fashion thereof was shewed to Moses. Calvine here answereth that divers times before this Moses was in the Mount with God, when the fashion of the tabernacle might be shewed him. But it is evident, 24:18, that this was done in the forty days and nights, when Moses was entered into the cloud, and there so long continued. 2. It is expressly said that the tabernacle was reared up in the second year, and the first month, the first day, xl. 17. It was not then dedicated and set in order only, as Calvine answereth, but then first set up. And in the second year, in the second month, upon the twentieth day, they removed from Sinai, which was about a month and a half after; but if the tabernacle were built before Moses received the tables, he after the finishing thereof was twice with the Lord, each time forty days; which could not be, seeing about forty or fifty days after the tabernacle was erected, the whole camp removed, as is said. 3. Besides, by this means a great part of Exodus shall be transposed; all that followeth from chap. 35. to the end, concerning the making and setting up of the tabernacle, should be in order placed before the 32, 33, and 34, chapters; this being admitted, that the tabernacle was first erected, before Moses had the tables delivered to him. Therefore, rather the order of the story is this: first, there is the description of the tabernacle to chap. 30; then followeth the let and impediment to the building of it, the people’s trans- gression, chap. 32-33; thirdly, the execution of God’s commandment, and framing of the tabernacle, chap. 35:40; fourthly, the erection and setting of it up, chap. xl Lyranus.” — Willet’s Hexapla, in loco. although I would not pertinaciously contend with him, still I have not only a probable, but a sure reason for my opinion. For it appears to me that I clearly gather from Exodus 33, that the tabernacle was already built before Moses brought down the first tables from the Mount; for it is there said, that in token of their divorce, in order that the people might know that they were repudiated by God, Moses took the tabernacle and pitched it separately for himself without the camp; not for his own peculiar use, because it is expressly said that he did not dwell there, but that he went out of the camp as often as he desired to consult God; whilst Joshua was its keeper and guardian, (aedituus.) But there is no doubt but that this took place previous to his second ascent to bring down new tables from the Lord; it is, therefore, clear that the tabernacle was already erected. If any object that it was not set up till the end of the second year, the reply is easy, that it was placed anew in its proper position, so that being everywhere surrounded by the children of Israel, it might have all its guards, according to the twelve tribes encamped in their due order; and again, that the tables were then actually deposited in the Ark of the Covenant, and by them God represented Himself, so that without them the tabernacle was in a manner empty; finally, that the solemn dedication is there treated of, for which the due season had not arrived, until in testimony of God’s presence the covenant was deposited in the Ark, by way of pledge. In order the better to remove all ambiguity, we must briefly calculate the time. In the third month from their exodus the people reached Mount Sinai. On what day the Law was given is nowhere stated, unless we may probably conjecture that it was promulgated about the end of that month. Thus there will be eight months to be computed until the day on which the tabernacle was dedicated, and the tables deposited in the Ark of the Covenant, as Moses expressly says in the last chapter of Exodus; but, in the Book of Numbers, he relates that in the second month of that year the people removed the camp from that place, and departed to Kibroth-Hattaavah. “Sepulchra concupiscentiae.” — Lat. Now, since between the dedication of the tabernacle and their departure only one month intervened, we must admit that the two ascents into the mountain had preceded in order of time.

Now, the question is, whether he was called to receive the first tables in the beginning of the fourth month? If this be allowed, he could scarcely have prescribed the building of the sanctuary before the end of the eighth month; for it would have been absurd to give “Les tables comme instrument de la faveur paternelle de Dieu.” — Fr. the tables of God’s paternal favor between the two ascents, while the separation of the tabernacle was testifying of their divorce from Him. Thus, then, I establish the fact, that four whole months were employed in this long and difficult work. And surely it was wonderful that so short a time should suffice; had not incredible activity surpassed all men’s expectation, whilst they all emulously devoted themselves with unwearied labor to hasten the work. And it is probable, that after God had established His covenant, He immediately delivered the ordinances respecting the tabernacle and its adjuncts; lest the people should be without the external exercises of religion, which we have seen to be so very necessary. But after the completion of the work, Moses was again commanded to come nigh to God with Nadab, Abihu, and the seventy elders; and after the offering of sacrifices, he was taken up into the cloud to hold familiar communion with God, where he passed about a month and a half. Having returned, and being made aware of the rebellion of the people, the slaughter of the three thousand took place, and he commanded the people to mourn. How long he remained we know not, but it is probable that at least a month passed before he was recalled We have now more than nine months; and if we add the month and a half during which he was kept in the mount, we shall not be far from the end of the year. God then reconciled Himself to the people, and thus the legitimate dedication of the tabernacle soon followed, which took place in the second year at the beginning of the first month. The Passover having been celebrated, the sign of removal was given in the second month.

If any disagree with me, I would now have them answer me, how it is consistent that Moses, having detected the people’s transgression, should then have begun to exhort them to the building of the sanctuary, whereas in his whole address there is no mention made of idolatry? Surely, all things well considered, we must be ready to confess that the people were still loyal when they so heartily consecrated their property to God. But the whole question is sufficiently settled by what I have alleged on the testimony of Moses, viz., that before he came down with the first tables the tabernacle was already in being, unless, perhaps, it be objected that it was another tabernacle, and different from that which was afterwards set up by God’s command. But this is a very foolish cavil, for Moses had no authority to make an earthly dwelling-place for God, and to impose on it the sacred name whereby the sanctuary is always honored; and he expressly relates that God’s glory appeared in it, in order that the people might more surely know that they were separated from God for their uncleanness, of which matter we shall again speak in its proper place. Again, the word לקח, lakach, לקח, the verb (to take,) whose future, יקח, occurs Exodus 33:7. — W implies that Moses took the tabernacle out of the camp, to transfer it to another place. If any one should now object that the tabernacle was arranged according to the pattern which Moses saw in the mount, the reply is easy, that Moses was not then first in the mountain instructed in the true worship of God and heavenly mysteries, when he was kept there forty days, but already before the promulgation of the Law; nor is there any doubt but that the same things were then shewn to him which he had learned before, in order that the people might be more disposed to diligent meditation on the Law. For, from the length of time, they might acknowledge that nothing was omitted which it would be useful for them to know; since, although God might have so instructed His servant in a moment that nothing should have been wanting, still He chose gradually, and as if at His ease, to form for Himself a perfect teacher; and this concession was made to the infirmity of the people. For thus we read in Exodus 19:9,

"Behold I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee for ever."

And again, Exodus 20:21,

"And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness, where God was."

From whence it is plain that there is no absurdity in saying that he had already seen the pattern of the tabernacle wherein God would be worshipped.

But lest any should object that I rest upon conjectures only, Moses himself plainly shews that, before he received the tables, God gave him instructions respecting the making of the tabernacle; for twice in chapter 25 it is said, “Thou shalt put in the Ark the testimony which I shall give thee,” verses 16 and 21; from whence it is clear that the tables were not yet given, when from God’s command he described the whole structure; and thence we again infer that, when the tabernacle was set up, he went up into the mount to bring down the tables which were to be placed in the Ark. But, before he begins to treat of the construction of the tabernacle, he imposes a tribute upon the people, that each, according to his means, should contribute materials both for the tabernacle itself and for all its furniture. The heaving, or, תרומה, therumah, A.V., an offering; margin, heave-offering. See note on Deuteronomy 12:6, ante, p. 132. is here put simply for an offering; and is not, as in other passages, distinguished from another kind of sacrifice, which is called תנופה, thenuphah. But the Israelites are simply commanded to bestow from their abundance what may suffice for the worship of God. It is indeed certain that all we have is God’s, and that all He bountifully gives us is polluted unless we devote it to His glory. Still in His indulgence He permits us the free use of all, if only we testify that it remains under His power, and are ready to expend it as He shall command. Thus we duly offer alms, as sacrifices of, sweet-smelling savor; although the rich may not exhaust himself to poverty, but, whilst he relieves the poor, enjoys the goods which he possesses. In sum, whatever we offer to God is like the first-fruits, whereby we testify that all we have is consecrated to His glory. Now, although He required no assistance from the people for the building and adorning of His tabernacle, since it was He who, for the maintenance of them all, daily rained down manna from heaven; yet he would have every one, from the very least to the greatest, bring together, in testimony of their piety, whatever was necessary for the sacred work. But what He then would have spent on the visible sanctuary, He now requires for the building of His spiritual temple. Properly speaking, it is He alone that builds His Church; yet He uses the work of men, and will have many builders associated with Him, that the edifice of His Church may arise in some measure by the labor of men; as also He ascribes the praise of its prosperity and success to them. Meanwhile we offer nothing which He Himself has not bestowed; just as the Israelites gave nothing but what had been derived from his bounty alone. Therefore, He distributes the gifts of His Spirit in certain measures, (1 Corinthians 12:7;) that, as each has received more or less, he may employ it on the building of the Church. But this should be the best incentive to activity, that none is so poor or humble but that his offering is acceptable and pleasing, however small it may be, and almost worthless in the eyes of men. Moreover, it must be observed, that the tribute is not demanded authoritatively, but it is declared that each should freely offer what he pleased; for, from the beginning, Paul’s word was true, that “God loveth a cheerful giver,” (2 Corinthians 4:7;) and all Scripture teaches us that no obedience is pleasing to God except what is voluntary; for, although the word ידבנו, yidbenu, The third person singular masculine future of נדב, with the pronoun affix נו, it. The verb signifies to do, or give, anything with a cheerful readiness. - W is variously rendered by the translators, the sum comes to this, that the gift of each would be pleasing to God according to the cheerful alacrity of his mind. The old interpreter (i.e., the Vulgate) has it “qui offert ultroneus,” (he who offers voluntarily;) but this is rather paraphrastic than literal. The concluding sentence omitted in Fr. Others differ from each other: some understand the relative as referring to the offering, and translate it, “whose heart shall have voluntarily given it;” others, “He who shall have shewn his heart liberal, or willing.” The second rendering is the right one.

3 And this is the offering. Hence, what I have before said is more fully continued, viz., that what the poor offer of their little will not be eclipsed by the abundance of the rich, since God deigns to reckon goats’ hair among the sacred offerings not less than gold, purple, and precious stones. Again, by the varied and manifold contributions, He would shew, as in a glass, that a variety of gifts are necessary to the building of the spiritual temple, as Paul sets forth in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12. The liberality of the rich was indeed more splendid; but, as they did not scruple to mix their gold and silver, blue, purple, and precious stones, with brass, iron, and other common materials, so also, now-a-days, those who aid the edification of the Church by their more excellent gifts, admit, without contempt or dislike, into fellowship poor brethren, to whom it is not given to equal them.

8 And let them make me a sanctuary. By first setting before them an inestimable recompense, God stirs up the people to give largely; for, although liberality is praised by all as a most excellent virtue, yet no one willingly deprives himself of his own to bestow it upon others, since all think that it is so much lost to themselves, unless they have some compensation in view. Wherefore, that they may expend cheerfully, God promises that He will dwell among them, than which nothing is more desirable. But we must beware of imagining anything inconsistent with the nature of God, for He who sits above the heavens, and whose footstool is the earth, could not be enclosed in the tabernacle; but, because in His indulgence for the infirmities of an ignorant people, He desired to testify the presence of His grace and help by a visible symbol, the earthly sanctuary is called His dwelling amongst men, inasmuch as there He was not worshipped in vain. And we must bear in memory what we have lately seen, that it was not the infinite essence of God, but His name, or the record of His name, that dwelt there. This was the object of the expressions; that the Israelites ought not to be slow or lazy in setting up the tabernacle, because by these means they would obtain for themselves an inestimable advantage. Another clause follows, that the artificers should copy the pattern shewn to Moses, and not dare to invent anything, since it would be a profanation to mix up anything human with the commands of God; on which matter we shall treat more diffusely when we speak generally of the types. Now is described the form of the Ark and its covering: for the composition of the tabernacle, and its various parts, which Moses now only slightly adverts to, will be presently repeated at greater length in chapter 32. But, although the tabernacle was called God’s house, yet there was a more express image of His glory in the Ark of the Covenant; because the Law, whereby God bound the people to Himself, was there deposited. The material was shittim-wood, covered or overlaid with plates of gold. As to the species of the tree, “This was perhaps the acacia horrida, a kind of mimosa, a native of Arabia, since the Arabic word resembles the Hebrew. The thorns are twinned, and nearly equal to the leaves in length. The leaves are repeatedly winged. The spikes, of white flowers, proceed from the bosom of the leaves. The wood is of an excellent quality, whence it deserves the name given by the Greek translators, ξύλα ἄσηπτα, wood that never decays.” — Illustrated Comment., in loco. “The most important material, the wood for the tent, is just that which is found here most plentifully, while Palestine is deficient in acacia trees.” — Comp. Theophrast., Hist. P1. 4 3. Prosper Alpinus, de Plant. AEg., 100. 1., “Acaciae arbores copiosissime in montibus Sinai penes Rubrum Mare positis proveniunt.” Hieron. ad Joel, 4., “Quae ligna in locis cultis, et in Romano solo absque Arabiae solitudine non inveniuntur. Forskal. Flora AEg. Arab., p. 56.” Havernick, Introd. Pent., p. 284. not even the Hebrews are agreed among themselves, although we may conjecture that it was beautiful and costly; yet God would have gold over its whole surface, and even shining on its staves, that the dignity of the Law might be enhanced But here a question may arise, which introduces many others with it, how the sumptuous splendor both of the Ark, as well as the tabernacle and all its utensils, contributed to the worship of God? for it is certain that God would never be worshipped except agreeably to His nature; whence it follows, that His true worship was always spiritual, and therefore by no means comprised in external pomp.

But the great number and intricacy of the ceremonies were so far from awakening piety, that they were even the occasion of superstition, or era foolish and perverse confidence. Again, so many and such various rites seem to have had no other tendency than to feed curiosity. It will be therefore worth while briefly to premise something respecting this point. They are, in my judgment, at fault, who think that the eyes of the people were captivated by these magnificent sights, lest their religion, being stripped of all ornament, should become dishonored, when amongst the Gentiles their false worship was splendid even to a miracle; and thus a depraved rivalry might affect their minds, “Et fussent induits a essayer de faire plus qu’eux;” and they might be induced to try to do more than they. — Fr. if the beauty of the tabernacle did not at least equal the pomp of others, as though the God they worshipped were inferior to idols. On the same grounds they imagine that the Jews were burdened with many observances; lest, if God had only sparingly and slightly exercised them, they would in their natural curiosity, have sought in all directions after profane trifles. They tell part of the truth, but not the whole; for I admit that this was given to the ancient people, in order that, when they saw the tabernacle so brilliantly ornamented, they might be inspired with greater reverence. I also admit that, by God’s command, they were engrossed with many ceremonies, that they might not seek after strange ones; but if this had been the only object proposed in them, the whole legal service would have only availed for ostentation in its shadows and histrionic pomps. But it is most absurd to think that God so trifled with His people. We see, too, how honorably David and the Prophets speak of these exercises. Hengstenberg,. Dissertations on the Pentateuch, vol. 2, pp. 504-505, briefly, but most satisfactorily, enumerates the objects of the Ceremonial Law in reply to the deistical writers, who, like De Wette, “can find out no rational basis for it,” and can form no other notion of these pedantic regulations, this gnat-straining, as he calls it, than as the production of a later priestcraft. “The best apology Hengstenberg says of the Ceremonial Law lies in pointing out its objects, and these, therefore, we present to refute the charges brought against it: — First, It served to cherish the religious sentiment. The Israelite was reminded by it in all his relations, even the most insignificant and external, of God; the thought of God was introduced into the very midst of the popular life. Secondly, It required the recognition of sin, and thus called forth the first thing essential for the reception of redemption, a sense of the need of redemption. The people must be burdened and heavy-laden, in order that the Lord might say to them, Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy, laden, and I will give you rest. The Law was, and was intended to be, a heavy yoke, and therefore would awaken a longing after the Redeemer. Everywhere it proclaimed, Touch not, taste not, handle not! and thus was a perpetual remembrancer of sin. Thirdly, It served to separate Israel from the heathen; it erected between the two a wall of separation, by which communication was prevented. Compare Ephesians 2:14. Not yet strong enough to conquer heathenism, the people were, so to speak, shut up, to be withdrawn from its influence, to preserve them for the time in which, armed with power from on high, they might commence an offensive war against it. The preliminary limitation effected by the Ceremonial Law served as the means of the future illimitedness. Fourthly, Many things in the Ceremonial Law served, by impressions on the senses, to awaken reverence for holy things among a sensual people. The bad consequence of denying this is, that it will then be necessary to impose a symbolic meaning on institutions, in which evidently nothing of the kind is to be found. Fifthly, One principal object of the Ceremonial Law lay in its symbolic meaning. The people, enthralled in visible objects, were not yet capable of vitally appropriating supersensual truth in words, the form most suited to their nature. It was needful for the truth to condescend, to come down to their power of apprehension, to prepare itself a body from visible things, in order to free the people from the bondage of the visible. This form was common to the Israelitish religion with that of the heathen, and therein lies its best apology. Would we rather not speak at all to the dumb than make use of signs? The Ceremonial Law was not the opposite to the worship of God in spirit and in truth, but only an imperfect form of the same, a necessary preparation for it. The accommodation was only formal, one which did not alter the essence, but only presented it in large capital letters to children who could not yet read a small running-hand.” - Ryland’s Translation, Edinburgh, 1847. It is, therefore, impiety to suppose that the legal rites were like farces composed in imitation of the Gentiles. In order, then, to preserve their honor and dignity, we must remember the principle to which we have lately alluded, viz., that all of them were arranged according to the spiritual pattern which had been shewn to Moses in the mount. (Exodus 25:40.) And this both Stephen, and the Apostle in the Epistle to the Hebrews, wisely observed, when they would reprove the gross follies of the people who continued to be wrapped up in the external ceremonies, as if religion were comprised in them. (Acts 7:44; Hebrews 8:5.) Stephen and the Apostle, therefore, are our best expositors, that the tabernacle, the altar, the table, the Ark of the Covenant, were of no importance except in so far as they referred to the heavenly pattern, of which they were the shadows and images. Thence their entire utility, and even their legitimate use, depended on the truth, (which they represented.) Added from Fr For the slaughter of an ox profits nothing in itself, nay, it is but an unimportant thing; and so all the sacrifices, except that they were types, would have been thought nothing of. Whence we gather that there is the greatest difference between the ceremonies of the Law and the profane rites of the Gentiles, for they differ from each other not only inasmuch as God is the author of the one, and that the temerity of men has foolishly invented the other, but because among the Gentiles their religion was entirely comprised in these bare and empty pomps; whilst God, by these rudiments, which He gave to His people, elevated pious minds, as it were by steps, to higher things. Thus the Gentiles seemed to themselves duly to propitiate (their gods) when they offered victims; whilst the sacrifices of the Jews were acceptable to God, because they were exercises of repentance and faith. So the Law instructed the Jews in the spiritual worship of God, and in nothing else, though it were clothed in ceremonies agreeably to the requirements of the age. For, before the truth was fully made known, the childhood of the Church was to be directed by earthly elements, and thus, though there was great affinity and likeness between the Jews and Gentiles as regarded the external form of their religious service, yet its end was widely different. Moreover, when we would seek the body or substance of the ancient shadows, and the truth of the figures, we may learn them, not only from the Apostles, but also from the Prophets, who everywhere draw the attention of believers to the kingdom of Christ; yet their clearer explanation must be sought in the Gospel, where Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, shining forth, shews that their fulfillment exists in Himself alone. But, although by His coming He abolished these typical ceremonies as regards their use, yet at the same time He established the reverence justly due to them; since they have no claim to be held in esteem on any other grounds, except that their completion is found in Him; for, if they are separated from Him, it is plain that they are mere farces, Lat., “lusorias.” Fr., “frivoles et comme badinages." since neither the blood of animals, nor the sweetness of fat, nor aromatic odors, nor candles, nor anything of that sort, have any power to propitiate God. This indeed must be remembered, that the Jews did not pay attention to the legal sacrifices in vain, since the promises were annexed to them; as often, therefore, as these sentences occur, “your iniquity shall be blotted out,” — “ye shall appear before my face,” — “I will hear you from the sanctuary,” we are reminded that all the ancient figures were sure testimonies of God’s grace and of eternal salvation; and thus Christ was represented in them, since all the promises are in Him, yea, and amen. (2 Corinthians 1:20.) Yet it by no means follows from hence that there were mysteries hidden in all their details, since some, with mistaken acuteness, pass over no point, however trifling, without an allegorical exposition; as, in this passage, for instance, the dimensions of the ark afford them matter of speculation. “Rupertus thus collecteth, that as the Ark is described to be two cubits and a half in length, equal to the stature of a man, so God hath appeared on earth, and shewed himself unto the capacity of men ” — Willet, Hexapla, in loco. But it will be enough for the sound and sober-minded to know that God would have His Law deposited in a handsome vessel, in order that its majesty should be recognized. He commanded that the ark itself should be carried with staves, that the hands of the Levites might not touch it, and thus that its sanctity might be the greater

16. And thou shalt put into the ark the testimony. The title of “the testimony,” which is often given to the law, indicates that something more is contained in it than the rule of a just and holy life; viz., the compact whereby God bound Himself to His people, and His people to Himself; therefore the words “the table of the covenant,” are afterwards used instead of “the testimony.” Thus the word עדת, “A testimony, or public evidence,” from עוד, to affirm, or testify. — W gneduth, in this passage, and similar ones, is equivalent to a contract, which is commonly called a convention In this sense the Prophet in Psalm 114 calls by the name of testimonies, not only the Commandments, but whatever God hath delivered by the hand of Moses for the salvation of His people. In Psalm 14:7, the word testimony is added as if in explanation of the word law: “The law of the Lord is perfect; the testimony of the Lord is sure;” as in Isaiah 8:20, where it is said, “To the law and to the testimony,” it is not that two different things are referred to, but the utility of the law is commended, because it contains all that God would have testified to His people.

17 And thou shalt make a mercy-seat. The primary root of the verb כפר, caphar, from whence this noun is derived, כפרת C. has not derived his explanation of the verb כפר from his usual guide in Hebrew, viz., S.M.; but his remark, that it signifies to smear over with bitumen, or pitch, agrees with its generally acknowledged meaning in Genesis 6:14. It is in the Pihel conjugation, — the effect of which is frequently the same as that proper to the Hiphil, — that the verb means to expiate. The noun, as C. observes, properly signifies a covering. — W. is used for “to smear with pitch,” but in the Hiphil conjugation, it signifies either to expiate, or to purge, or to receive into favor; whence כפר, copher, is expiation, as we have seen elsewhere; and כפרת, caphoreth, a covering or lid. Yet I doubt not but that Moses alludes in this word to a metaphorical meaning, for the law requires a covering to conceal our transgressions. And it is probable that, when Paul calls Christ ἱλαστήριον, (Romans 3:25,) and John ἱλασμὸν, (1 John 2:2,) they both refer to this figure, because God was propitiated towards believers by the covering of the Law, so as to shew Himself favorable to them by hearing their vows and prayers. For as long as the law stands forth before God’s face it subjects us to His wrath and curse; and hence it is necessary that the blotting out of our guilt should be interposed, so that God may be reconciled with us. Nor is it without reason that David exclaims, after he has proclaimed the righteousness of the law, “Who can understand his errors?” (Psalm 19:12.) Whence we gather that, without a propitiation, the law does not bring us near to God, but accuses us before Him. And assuredly, when I consider all things, it seems to me a tame explanation, that Moses spoke literally of the cover, when he Addition in Fr., “quand il le magnifie tant, et." would have the Cherubim turn their faces toward it, and God promises that He will give His answers from it. By these honorable distinctions it is exalted above the Ark.

18 And thou shalt make two cherubims. I have stated in my commentary on Genesis and elsewhere, See Commentary on Genesis 3:23. Calvin Society Translation, vol. 1, p. 186. The fanciful derivation to which C. objects, he had found in S. M., who states it as popular with the Rabbis, But as untenable. — W. that there are various opinions respecting the word cherub; but that those approach most nearly to the truth who make the כ, caph, not a servile, but a radical letter, and take it generally for any image; for those who suppose the כto be a note of similitude, render it “like a boy;” which in itself is forced, and besides it is refuted by the words of Ezekiel, (Ezekiel 1:10, and Ezekiel 10:1,) who calls the forms of a calf, a lion, and an eagle by this name, as well as the human form. It is enough for me that the images were winged, which represented angels. Therefore, when Moses speaks of the angels, who were placed as guards to keep man away from approaching paradise, he calls them cherubim; not so much in reference to that time, as to keep the people in the doctrine of the Law “Que pour donner goust au peuple de la doctrine de la Loy, et l’accoustumer aux ceremonies;” as to give the people a taste for the doctrine of the Law, and to accustom them to its ceremonies — Fr. But God appointed angels, by whom He exercises His dominion, and who are the ministers of His blessings, to be a symbol of His presence; for as often as He manifested Himself to believers by angels, He in a manner extended His hand to them. On this ground, David, and other Prophets, in order to encourage themselves to confidence in prayer, often speak of God as “dwelling between the cherubims,” (Psalm 80:1; 64:1; Isaiah 37:16;) as much as to say, that He conversed familiarly with His people, since His virtue exercises itself by His angels. That they covered the lid of the ark with their extended wings, I do not imagine to have been done to hide it, but to mark the readiness of their obedience, for the extension of their wings is equivalent to their being prepared for the performance of whatever God might command. Thus they are said to turn their faces towards the mercy-seat, because they are attentive to the will of God. Moreover, because the fullness of the Godhead resides in Christ, He justly declares that, in His descent upon earth, the heavens were opened that the angels might ascend and descend. Their looking towards each other indicates that harmony in which the angels are united for performing the commands of God. It is indeed a plausible conceit, Gregorius in Gloss. Ord. “The two cherubim are the two Testaments. One of them stands on one end of the mercy-seat, and the other on the other; because what the Old Testament begins to promise in prophecy respecting the Incarnation of Christ, the New relates to be perfectly fulfilled. They are made of very pure gold, because both Testaments are written with pure and simple truth.They stretch out their wings and cover the oracles; because we (who are God’s oracles) are protected from imminent errors by the study of sacred Scripture; and whilst we earnestly look at it, we are covered by its wings from the mistakes of ignorance. They look towards one another with their faces turned to the mercy-seat, because the Testaments differ in nothing, and look mutually to each other; for what the one promises the other exhibits. And they see the mercy-seat, i.e., the Mediator between God and men, placed between them; for they would turn away their faces from each other, if the one promised what the other denied.” — See also Bede in Gloss. Ord., and Augustin Qoest. in Ex. 105. that the two cherubim were the Old and New Testaments, which look from one to the other, and surround the mercy-seat, inasmuch as Christ is their common object; but this notion vanishes before the contradiction of many passages of Scripture.

Exodus 35

Exodus 35:4-19

4. And Moses spake unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, This is the thing which the LORD commanded, saying,

4. Dixitque Moses ad universam synagogam filiorum Israel, his verbis, Hoc est verbum quod praecepit Jehova, dicendo:

5. Take ye from among you an offering unto the LORD: whosoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it, an offering of the LORD; gold, and silver, and brass,

5. Accipite a vobis oblationem Jehovae: omnis spontaneus corde suo afferet eam oblationem Jehovae, aurum, argentum, et aes:

6. And blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats’ hair,

6. Et hyacinthum, et purpuram, et vermiculum cocci, et byssum, et caprarum pilos:

7. And rams’ skins dyed red, and badgers’ skins, and shittim wood,

7. Et pelles arietum rubricatas, et pelles taxorum, et ligna sittim.

8. And oil for the light, and spices for anointing oil, and for the sweet incense,

8. Et oleum pro luminari, et aromata pro oleo unctionis, et ad suffimentum aromaticum.

9. And onyx stones, and stones to be set for the ephod, and for the breastplate.

9. Et lapides onychinos, et lapides pro ephod et pro pectorali.

10. And every wise hearted among you shall come, and make all that the LORD hath commanded;

10. Et omnes sapientes corde in vobis venient, et facient quaecunque praecepit Jehova:

11. The tabernacle, his tent, and his covering, his taches, and his boards, his bars, his pillars, and his sockets,

11. Tabernaculum, tentorium ejus, et operimentum ejus, et circulos ejus, et tabulas ejus, vestes ejus, columnas ejus et bases ejus:

12. The ark, and the staves thereof, with the mercy seat, and the vail of the covering,

12. Arcam et vectes ejus, propitiatorium, et velum tentorii.

13. The table, and his staves, and all his vessels, and the shewbread,

13. Mensam, et vectes ipsius, et omnia vasa ejus, et panem facierum:

14. The candlestick also for the light, and his furniture, and his lamps, with the oil for the light,

14. Et candelabrum luminaris et vasa ejus, et lucernas ejus, et oleum luminaris:

15. And the incense altar, and his staves, and the anointing oil, and the sweet incense, and the hanging for the door at the entering in of the tabernacle,

15. Et altare suffimenti et vectes ejus, et oleum unctionis, et suffimentum aromaticum, et aulaeum ostii pro ostio tabernaculi:

16. The altar of burnt offering, with his brasen grate, his staves, and all his vessels, the laver and his foot,

16. Altare holocausti, et cribrum ejus aeneum, et vectes ejus, et omnia vasa ejus, et concham et basin ejus:

17. The hangings of the court, his pillars, and their sockets, and the hanging for the door of the court,

17. Cortinas ipsius atrii, columnas ejus, et bases ejus, et aulaeum portae atrii,

18. The pins of the tabernacle, and the pins of the court, and their cords,

18. Paxillos tabernaculi, et paxillos atrii, et funiculos eorum,

19. The cloths of service, to do service in the holy place, the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons, to minister in the priest’s office.

19. Vestes ministerii ad ministrandum in sanctuario, et vestes sanctas Aharonis sacerdotis, et vestes filiorum ejus ad fungendum sacerdotio.

23. Thou shalt also make a table. The sentiment of a certain ancient bishop This was Acacius, bishop of Amida, who sold the treasures of the Church for the redemption of 7000 Persian slaves, who were perishing by famine in the hands of some Roman soldiers. Vide Socrates, lib. 7-121, quoted in Bingham, book 5-100; 6-6 ̔Ο Θεός ἡμῶν ὔτε δίσκων ὄυτε ποτηρίων χρὠβει· οὔτε γὰρ ἐσθίει, ὔτε πίνει, ἐπεὶ μὴ προσδεής ἐστιν, seem to be the words referred to by C is deservedly praised, who, when he sold the sacred vessels in the time of a famine, to relieve the distress of the poor, thus excused himself to the Church: “Our God, who does not eat or drink, has no need of patens and chalices;” and yet this seems little in accordance with this His command, that bread should be offered to Him. I answer, that if, under that pretext, the bishop had stripped the sacred table of its ornaments under the Law, he would have spoken unseasonably, what, under the Gospel, he spoke piously and wisely; because at the coming of Christ the shadows of the Law ceased. But God would then have the loaves, which were offered to Him, deposited among the golden dishes and censers, and spoons placed with them, not that He had need of meat and drink, but that He might prescribe the duty of temperance to His people, by deigning to have His table among them; for, when they ate of the same wheat, of which the sacred loaves were made, they were reminded by that symbol that their meat and drink was to be taken, as if they sat before God, and were His guests. Finally, they were taught that the food, by which man’s life is sustained, is in a manner sacred to God; that thus they might be contented with simple and sober food, and might not profane the things which were dedicated to His service. Although, therefore, this offering might appear to be gross and rude, yet it had a just object, i.e., that believers might acknowledge that God presided over their tables, because the loaves were presented in the temple before God in the name of all the people. The same was the intention of the first-fruits, in which the produce of the whole year was consecrated; that even in their feasts they might cherish a recollection of God, who fed them as a father does his children. They are called “the bread of faces” A.V., shew-bread. “In Hebrew called bread of faces or presence; because they were to be set before the face, or in the presence of God continually. The Hebrew doctors give also another reason, because every cake was made square, and so had as it were many faces.” — Ainsworth, in loco. by Moses, because they always appeared before God, in which sense the Greeks called them the bread προθέσεως, because they were always in His presence; for it was not permitted them to remove the precious offering, until others were substituted in their place. I now pass over many points, because what I now omit will soon have to be treated of.

Exodus 25

Exodus 25:31-40

31. And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold: of beaten work shall the candlestick be made: his shaft, and his branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, shall be of the same.

31. Facies item candelabrum ex auro puro: ductile fiet candelabrum illud: ­restile ejus, et calamus ejus scyphi ejus, sphaerulae ejus, et flores ejus ex ipso erunt.

32. And six branches shall come out of the sides of it; three branches of the candlestick out of the one side, and three branches of the candlestick out of the other side:

32. Et sex calami egredientur a lateribus ejus: tres calami candelabri ex latere ejus uno, et tres calami candelabri ex latere ejus altero.

33. Three bowls made like unto almonds, with a knop and a flower in one branch; and three bowls made like almonds in the other branch, with a knop and a flower: so in the six branches that come out of the candlestick.

33. Tres calices in speciem nucis amygdalinae deformati erunt in calamo uno, spaerula, et flos, et tres calices in speciem nucis amygdalinae deformati in calamo altero, sphaerula et flos: sic de sex calamis egredientibus e candelabro.

34. And in the candlestick shall be four bowls made like unto almonds, with their knops and their flowers.

34. Et in candelabro erunt quatuor calices in speciem nucis amygdalinae deformaft, sphaerulae ejus, et flores ejus.

35. And there shall be a knop under two branches of the same, and a knop under two branches of the same, and a knop under two branches of the same, according to the six branches that proceed out of the candlestick.

35. Eritque sphaerula sub duobus calamis ex ipso, sphaerula item sub duobus calamis ex ipso, et sphaerula sub duobus calamis ex ipso: sic de sex calamis egredientibus e candelabro.

36. Their knops and their branches shall be of the same: all of it shall be one beaten work of pure gold.

36. Sphaerulae eorum et calami eorum ex ipso erunt: totum ipsum ductile unum, ex auro puro.

37. And thou shalt make the seven lamps thereof: and they shall light the lamps thereof, that they may give light over against it.

37. Facies quoque lucernas ejus septem, quas collocabis in sublimi, ut luceant ad latus faciei ejus.

38. And the tongs thereof, and the snuffdishes thereof, shall be of pure gold.

38. Et forcipes ipsius, et receptacula ejus ex auro puro.

39. Of a talent of pure gold shall he make it, with all these vessels.

39. Talento auri puri facies illud, et omnia vasa ista.

40. And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount.

40. Vide autem ut facias juxta similitudinem suam, quae tibi ostensa est in monte.

31. And thou shalt make a candlestick. God would have seven bright lamps burning day and night in the Tabernacle: first, that the people might know that they were directed by God Himself as to how they were to worship Him aright, and that a light was set before their eyes which might disperse all the darkness of error; and, secondly, lest they should obscure the very worship of God with their gross inventions, but that, intent on the instruction of the Law, they might with a pure and enlightened mind seek after God in all the ceremonies. Let us, therefore, remark a distinction here set forth between the rule of true religion and the superstitions of the Gentiles; because the Gentiles were carried away by their foolish and blind devotions, as they call them, into circuitous and erring ways, so that nothing was straight in them; for unless we have divine teaching to enlighten us, our own reason will beget nothing but mere vanity. But it was not enough for the Israelites that the right way should be pointed out, unless their eyes were open to direct them, since men sometimes are blind in the very midst of light. And this occurred to themselves not only when they went astray into strange and adulterous worships, for though they held fast the external form of the Law, they were, nevertheless, degenerate; and religion was corrupted among them by foul superstitions, when, in obedience to their carnal reason, they conceived that religion consisted in ceremonies. For when God is not worshipped spiritually according to His nature, this is to travesty Him. Hence there was so much security in the hypocrites, that they proudly despised all the reproofs of the Prophets, nay, that they broke out into open fury whenever their empty pomps were condemned. But the candlestick, shining with its seven lights, reminded the people that, in their worship of God, they should look attentively to the light of heavenly doctrine.

But, for the understanding of this type, the vision of Zechariah will be no slight assistance to us, since the truth of this symbol is there set forth. (Zechariah 4:2.) God there promises that the power of His Spirit will alone avail, and more than avail, for the preservation of His Church, although it may be destitute of all other aid. To awaken confidence in this, He represents the same image of a candlestick which is here described, with the addition of some other circumstances, whereby He reminds us that the shining lights were no vain show like stage plays, but that in the candlestick was represented what believers would really experience to take place. But, that the comparison may be made clearer, we must say a little respecting this passage. The material of the candlestick is pure gold, whereby the excellency of the thing signified is denoted. But, when we have spoken somewhat of its form, the application of Zechariah’s prophecy will be more manifest. Some parts of it were merely for ornament, that its dignity might be increased by its very appearance, such as the flowers and the balls or knops; others for use, as the bowls or receptacles, to prevent the sacred oil from falling on the ground. The lamps were placed at the top, that the Israelites might know that men are surrounded with darkness on earth, if God did not enlighten His Church from on high, and that by day and by night. Thus Isaiah, describing the kingdom of Christ, in which the reality of this sign was at length exhibited, says, — “Behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.” And again,

"Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thy everlasting light.” (Isaiah 60:2-20.)

Now, since God is called the Father of lights, the grace of illumination resides in the Spirit; and since a variety of gifts are distributed by the Spirit, there were seven lamps which visibly represented what Paul says, —

"The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: but all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.” (1 Corinthians 12:7-11.)

Some, however, have gratuitously invented a mystery in the number seven, whence the common notion The seven gifts of the Holy Ghost are represented in Roman Catholic Catechisms to be, — 1. Wisdom; 2. Understanding; 3. Counsel; 4. Fortitude; 5. Knowledge; 6. Godliness; 7. The fear of the Lord: founded, of course, on Isaiah 11:2. Augustin says, Sermo 8, (Edit. Ben., tom. 5, p. 46,) speaking of the Holy Spirit, “Ipse requiescit super humilem et quietum, tanquam in Sabbato suo. Ad hoc septenarius numerus etiam Sancto Spiritui deputatur, hoc Scripturae nostrae satis indicant. Viderint meliora meliores, et majora majores; et de isto septenario numero subtilius aliquid et divinius aliquid dicant et explicent: ego tamen, quod in presenti sat est, illud video, illud vos ad videndum commemoro, septenariam istam rationem inveniri proprie Sancto Spiritui deputatam; quia; septimo die sonat sanctificatio,” etc. among the Papists about the sevenfold grace of the Spirit, which is refuted both by the above-cited passage of St. Paul and the eleventh chapter of Isaiah, where a greater number of gifts are enumerated. I suppose rather that perfection is denoted by the seven lamps according to the ordinary and acknowledged use (of the figure); as if God thus declared that nothing would be wanting for the full enlightenment of believers, who should seek it from its one and only source; secondly, that the Spirit presides over all religious rites when He shines forth to the Church in His gifts. Now, the Prophet, (Zechariah 4:2,) desiring to teach that what had been shewn forth in this visible symbol would be fulfilled in the restoration of the Church, adds to the lamps seven pipes and two olive-trees, from whence oil would continually flow, so that there was no fear of want or failure. Thus he signifies that God is possessed of a manifold abundance of blessings for the enrichment of the Church; and so that the virtue which flows down from heaven is sufficient for its preservation, according to what is added in connection,

"Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” (Zechariah 4:6.)

For although God uses the ministry of men and earthly means at His discretion for the protection and maintenance of the Church, yet He would have, as is just, all the praise ascribed to Himself; whilst He would also have believers to be contented under His guardianship, and not to be discouraged although they should find no ground of confidence in the world.

40 And look that thou make them. He again inculcates, what we have already seen, that Moses should take care that all things were exactly modeled according to the original or pattern seen in the mount. But it is certain that it is not any mere vision which is here in question, but that the external ornaments of the sanctuary have reference to their spiritual object, as is plain from the explanation of Stephen and the Apostle. Wherefore we need not wonder that Zechariah should say that God would make manifest, and that by certain proof, under the reign of Christ, that it was no empty spectacle which God had set before His people under the Law.

Deuteronomy 27

Deuteronomy 27:5-7

5. And there shalt thou build an altar unto the LORD thy God, an altar of stones: thou shalt not lift up any iron tool upon them.

5. AEdificabis in monte Ebal altare ex lapidibus Jehovae Deo tuo: non levabis super eos ferrum.

6. Thou shalt build the altar of the LORD thy God of whole stones: and thou shalt offer burnt offerings thereon unto the LORD thy God:

6. E lapidibus integris aedificabis altare Jehovae Dei tui: et offeres super illud holocausta Jehovae Deo tuo:

7. And thou shalt offer peace offerings, and shalt eat there, and rejoice before the LORD thy God.

7. Et offeres sacrificia prosperiratum, comedesque illic, ac laetaberis coram Jehova Deo tuo.

Leviticus 24

Leviticus 24:1-4

1. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

1. Loquutus est autem Jehova ad Mosen, dicendo:

2. Command the children of Israel, that they bring unto thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamps to burn continually.

2. Praecipe filiis Israel ut afferant tibi oleum olivae purum, contusum pro luminari, ad accendendas lucernas semper.

3 Without the vail of the testimony, in the tabernacle of the congregation, shall Aaron order it from the evening unto the morning before the LORD continually: it shall be a statute for ever in your generations.

3. Extra velum testimonii in tabernaculo conventionis disponet eas Aharon a vespera usque ad mane, coram Jehova semper: statutum per-perpetuum erit in generationibus vestris.

4. He shall order the lamps upon the pure candlestick before the LORD continually.

4. Super candelabrum mundum disponet lucernas coram Jehova semper.

CHAPTER 25

Ex 25:1-40. Concerning an Offering.

1. the Lord spake unto Moses, &c.--The business that chiefly occupied Moses on the mount, whatever other disclosures were made to him there, was in receiving directions about the tabernacle, and they are here recorded as given to him.

2. bring me an offering of every man that giveth it willingly, &c.--Having declared allegiance to God as their sovereign, they were expected to contribute to His state, as other subjects to their kings; and the "offering" required of them was not to be imposed as a tax, but to come from their own loyal and liberal feelings.

3. this is the offering which ye shall take of them--the articles of which the offerings should consist.

brass--rather copper, brass being a composite metal.

4. goats' hair--or leather of goats' skin.

5. badgers' skins--The badger was an unclean animal, and is not a native of the East--rather some kind of fish, of the leather of which sandals are made in the East. [See on Ex 39:34 and Eze 16:10.]

shittim wood--or Shittah (Is 41:19), the acacia, a shrub which grows plentifully in the deserts of Arabia, yielding a light, strong, and beautiful wood, in long planks.

7. ephod--a square cloak, hanging down from the shoulders, and worn by priests.

8. a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them--In one sense the tabernacle was to be a palace, the royal residence of the King of Israel, in which He was to dwell among His people, receive their petitions, and issue His responses. But it was also to be a place of worship, in which God was to record His name and to enshrine the mystic symbols of His presence.

9. According to all that I show thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle--The proposed erection could be, in the circumstances of the Israelites, not of a fixed and stable but of a temporary and movable description, capable of being carried about with them in their various sojournings. It was made after "the pattern" shown to Moses, by which is now generally understood, not that it was an unheard-of novelty, or an entirely original structure, for it is ascertained to have borne resemblance in form and arrangements to the style of an Egyptian temple, but that it was so altered, modified, and purified from all idolatrous associations, as to be appropriated to right objects, and suggestive of ideas connected with the true God and His worship.

10. an ark--a coffer or chest, overlaid with gold, the dimensions of which, taking the cubit at eighteen inches, are computed to be three feet nine inches in length, two feet three inches in breadth.

11. a crown--a rim or cornice.

12. rings--staples for the poles, with which it was to be carried from place to place.

15. staves shall be in the rings of the ark--that is, always remain in the rings, whether the ark be at rest or in motion.

16. the testimony--that is, the two tables of stone, containing the ten commandments, and called "the testimony," because by it God did testify His sovereign authority over Israel as His people, His selection of them as the guardians of His will and worship, and His displeasure in the event of their transgressing His laws; while on their part, by receiving and depositing this law in its appointed place, they testified their acknowledgment of God's right to rule over them, and their submission to the authority of His law. The superb and elaborate style of the ark that contained "the testimony" was emblematic of the great treasure it held; in other words, the incomparable value and excellence of the Word of God, while its being placed in this chest further showed the great care which God has ever taken for preserving it.

17. thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold--to serve as a lid, covering it exactly. It was "the propitiatory cover," as the term may be rendered, denoting that Christ, our great propitiation [1Jo 2:2; 4:10], has fully answered all the demands of the law, covers our transgressions, and comes between us and the curse of a violated law.

18. two cherubim--The real meaning of these figures, as well as the shape or form of them, is not known with certainty--probably similar to what was afterwards introduced into the temple, and described in Eze 10:8-22. They stretched out their wings, and their faces were turned towards the mercy seat [Ex 25:20], probably in a bowing attitude. The prevailing opinion now is, that those splendid figures were symbolical not of angelic but of earthly and human beings--the members of the Church of God interested in the dispensation of grace, the redeemed in every age--and that these hieroglyphic forms symbolized the qualities of the true people of God--courage, patience, intelligence, and activity.

22. there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat--The Shekinah, or symbol of the Divine Presence, rested on the mercy seat, and was indicated by a cloud, from the midst of which responses were audibly given when God was consulted on behalf of His people. Hence God is described as "dwelling" or "sitting" between the cherubim.

23. table of shittim wood--of the same material and decorations as the ark [see on Ex 25:5], and like it, too, furnished with rings for the poles on which it was carried [Ex 25:26]. The staves, however, were taken out of it when stationary, in order not to encumber the priests while engaged in their services at the table. It was half a cubit less than the ark in length and breadth, but of the same height. [See on Ex 25:10.]

24. crown--the moulding or ornamental rim, which is thought to have been raised above the level of the table, to prevent anything from falling off.

29. dishes--broad platters.

spoons--cups or concave vessels, used for holding incense.

covers--both for bread and incense.

bowls--cups; for though no mention is made of wine, libations were undoubtedly made to God, according to Josephus and the rabbins, once a week, when the bread was changed.

to cover withal--rather, "to pour out withal."

30. showbread--literally, presence bread, so called because it was constantly exhibited before the Lord, or because the bread of His presence, like the angel of His presence, pointed symbolically to Christ. It consisted of twelve unleavened loaves, said traditionally to have been laid in piles of six each. This bread was designed to be a symbol of the full and never-failing provision which is made in the Church for the spiritual sustenance and refreshment of God's people.

31. candlestick--literally, "a lamp bearer." It was so constructed as to be capable of being taken to pieces for facility in removal. The shaft or stock rested on a pedestal. It had seven branches, shaped like reeds or canes--three on each side, with one in the center--and worked out into knobs, flowers, and bowls, placed alternately [Ex 25:32-36]. The figure represented on the arch of Titus gives the best idea of this candlestick.

33. knops--old spelling for "knobs"--bosses.

37. they shall light the lamps ... that they may give light--The light was derived from pure olive oil, and probably kept continually burning (compare Ex 30:7; Le 24:2).

38. tongs--snuffers.

39. a talent of pure gold--in weight equivalent to 125 lbs. troy.

40. look that thou make them after their pattern--This caution, which is repeated with no small frequency in other parts of the narrative, is an evidence of the deep interest taken by the Divine King in the erection of His palace or sanctuary; and it is impossible to account for the circumstance of God's condescending to such minute details, except on the assumption that this tabernacle was to be of a typical character, and eminently subservient to the religious instruction and benefit of mankind, by shadowing forth in its leading features the grand truths of the Christian Church.

That they bring me an offering - The offering here mentioned is the תרומה terumah, a kind of free-will offering, consisting of any thing that was necessary for the occasion. It signifies properly any thing that was lifted up, the heave-offering, because in presenting it to God it was lifted up to be laid on his altar; but see Clarke on Exo 29:27 (note). God requires that they should build him a tent, suited in some sort to his dignity and eminence, because he was to act as their king, and to dwell among them; and they were to consider themselves as his subjects, and in this character to bring him presents, which was considered to be the duty of every subject appearing before his prince. See Exo 23:15.

This is the offering - There were three kinds of metals:

1. Gold, זהב zahab, which may properly signify wrought gold; what was bright and resplendent, as the word implies. In Job 28:15, Job 28:16, Job 28:17, Job 28:19, gold is mentioned five times, and four of the words are different in the original.

1. סגור Segor, from סגר sagar, to shut up; gold in the mine, or shut up in its ore.

2. כתם Kethem, from כתם catham, to sign, seal, or stamp; gold made current by being coined; standard or sterling gold, exhibiting the stamp expressive of its value.

3. זהב Zahab, wrought gold, pure, highly polished gold; probably what was used for overlaying or gilding.

4. פז Paz, denoting solidity, compactness, and strength; probably gold formed into different kinds of plate, as it is joined in Exo 25:17 of the above chapter with כלי keley, vessels. The zahab, or pure gold, is here mentioned, because it was in a state that rendered it capable of being variously manufactured for the service of the sanctuary.

2. Silver, כסף keseph, from casaph, to be pale, wan, or white; so called from its well-known color.

3. Brass, נחשת nechosheth, copper; unless we suppose that the factitious metal commonly called brass is intended: this is formed by a combination of the oxide or ore of zinc, called lapis calaminaris, with copper. Brass seems to have been very anciently in use, as we find it mentioned Gen 4:22; and the preparation of copper, to transform it into this factitious metal, seems to be very pointedly referred to Job 28:2 : Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass is molten out of the stone; אבן יצוק נחושה eben yatsuk nechushah, translated by the Vulgate, Lapis, solutus calore, in aes vertitur, "The stone, liquefied by heat, is turned into brass." Is it going too far to say that the stone here may refer to the lapis calaminaris, which was used to turn the copper into brass? Because brass was capable of so fine a polish as to become exceedingly bright, and keep its lustre a considerable time, hence it was used for all weapons of war and defensive armor among ancient nations; and copper seems to have been in no repute, but for its use in making brass.

Blue - תכלת techeleth, generally supposed to mean an azure or sky color; rendered by the Septuagint ὑακινθον, and by the Vulgate hyacinthum, a sky-blue or deep violet.

Purple - ארגמן argaman, a very precious color, extracted from the purpura or murex, a species of shell-fish, from which it is supposed the famous Tyrian purple came, so costly, and so much celebrated in antiquity. See this largely described, and the manner of dyeing it, in Pliny, Hist. Nat., lib. ix., c. 60-65, edit. Bipont.

Scarlet - תולעת tolaath, signifies a worm, of which this colouring matter was made; and, joined with שני shani, which signifies to repeat or double, implies that to strike this color the wool or cloth was twice dipped: hence the Vulgate renders the original coccum bis tinctum, "scarlet twice dyed;" and to this Horace refers, Odar., lib. ii., od. 16, v. 35: - Te Bis Afro Murice

Tinctae Vestiunt Lanae - "Thy robes the twice dyed purple stains."

It is the same color which the Arabs call al kermez, whence the French cramoisi, and the English crimson. On this subject much may be seen in Bochart, Calmet, and Scheuchzer.

Fine linen - שש shesh; whether this means linen, cotton, or silk, is not agreed on among interpreters. Because שש shesh signifies six, the rabbins suppose that it always signifies the fine linen of Egypt, in which six folds constituted one thread; and that when a single fold was meant, בד bad is the term used. See Clarke's note on Gen 41:42.

Goats' hair - עזים izzim, goats, but used here elliptically for goats' hair. In different parts of Asia Minor, Syria, Cilicia, and Phrygia, the goats have long, fine, and beautiful hair, in some cases almost as fine as silk, which they shear at proper times, and manufacture into garments. From Virgil, Georg. iii., v. 305-311, we learn that goats' hair manufactured into cloth was nearly of equal value with that formed from wool.

Hae quoque non cura nobis leviore tuendae

Nec minor usus erit: quamvis Milesia magno

Vellera mutentur, Tyrios incocta rubores.

Nec minus interea barbas incanaque menta

Cinyphii tondent hirci, setasque comantes,

Usum in castrorum, et miseris velamina nautis. "For hairy goats of equal profit are

With woolly sheep, and ask an equal care. 'Tis true the fleece when drunk with Tyrian juice

Is dearly sold, but not for needful use:

Meanwhile the pastor shears their hoary beards

And eases of their hair the loaden herds.

Their camelots, warm in tents, the soldier hold,

And shield the shivering mariner from the cold."

Dryden.

Rams' skins dyed red - ערת אילם מאדמים oroth eylim meoddamim, literally, the skins of red rams. It is a fact attested by many respectable travelers, that in the Levant sheep are often to be met with that have red or violet-coloured fleeces. And almost all ancient writers speak of the same thing. Homer describes the rams of Polyphemus as having a violet-coloured fleece. Αρσενες οΐες ησαν εΰτρεφεες, δασυμαλλοι, Καλοι τε, μεγαλοι τε, ιοδνεφες ειρος εχοντες.

Odyss., lib. ix., ver. 425. "Strong were the rams, with native purple fair,

Well fed, and largest of the fleecy care."

Pope.

Pliny, Aristotle, and others mention the same. And from facts of this kind it is very probable that the fable of the golden fleece had its origin. In the Zetland Isles I have seen sheep with variously coloured fleeces, some white, some black, some black and white, some of a very fine chocolate color. Beholding those animals brought to my recollection those words of Virgil: - Ipse sed in pratis Aries jam suave rubenti

Murice, jam croceo mutabit vellera luto.

Eclog. iv., ver. 43. "No wool shall in dissembled colors shine;

But the luxurious father of the fold,

With native purple or unborrow'd gold,

Beneath his pompous fleece shall proudly sweat,

And under Tyrian robes the lamb shall bleat."

Dryden.

Badgers' skins - ערת תחשים oroth techashim. Few terms have afforded greater perplexity to critics and commentators than this. Bochart has exhausted the subject, and seems to have proved that no kind of animal is here intended, but a color. None of the ancient versions acknowledge an animal of any kind except the Chaldee, which seems to think the badger is intended, and from it we have borrowed our translation of the word. The Septuagint and Vulgate have skins dyed a violet color; the Syriac, azure; the Arabic, black; the Coptic, violet; the modern Persic, ram-skins, etc. The color contended for by Bochart is the hysginus, which is a very deep blue. So Pliny, Coccoque tinctum Tyrio tingere, ut fieret hysginum. "They dip crimson in purple to make the color called hysginus." - Hist. Nat., lib. ix., c. 65, edit. Bipont.

Shittim wood - By some supposed to be the finest species of the cedar; by others, the acacia Nilotica, a species of thorn, solid, light, and very beautiful. This acacia is known to have been plentiful in Egypt, and it abounds in Arabia Deserta, the very place in which Moses was when he built the tabernacle; and hence it is reasonable to suppose that he built it of that wood, which was every way proper for his purpose.

Oil for the light - This they must have brought with them from Egypt, for they could not get any in the wilderness where there were no olives; but it is likely that this and some other directions refer more to what was to be done when in their fixed and settled residence, than while wandering in the wilderness.

Spices - To make a confection for sweet incense, abounded in different parts of these countries.

Onyx stones - We have already met with the stone called שהם shoham, Gen 2:12, and acknowledged the difficulty of ascertaining what is meant by it. Some think the onyx, some the sardine, and some the emerald, is meant. We cannot say precisely what it was; possibly it might have been that fine pale pebble, called the Egyptian pebble, several specimens of which now lie before me, which were brought from the coast of the Red Sea, and other parts in Egypt, by a particular friend of mine, on purpose to add to my collection of minerals. Stones to be set in the ephod - אבני מלאים abney milluim, stones of filling up. Stones so cut as to be proper to be set in the gold work of the breastplate.

The אפד ephod - It is very difficult to tell what this was, or in what form it was made. It was a garment of some kind peculiar to the priests, and ever considered essential to all the parts of Divine worship, for without it no person attempted to inquire of God. As the word itself comes from the root אפד aphad, he tied or bound close, Calmet supposes that it was a kind of girdle, which, brought from behind the neck and over the shoulders, and so hanging down before, was put cross upon the stomach, and then carried round the waist, and thus made a girdle to the tunic. Where the ephod crossed on the breast there was a square ornament called חשן choshen, the breastplate, in which twelve precious stones were set, each bearing one of the names of the twelve sons of Jacob engraven on it. There were two sorts of ephods, one of plain linen for the priests, the other very much embroidered for the high priest. As there was nothing singular in this common sort, no particular description is given; but that of the high priest is described very much in detail Exo 28:6-8. It was distinguished from the common ephod by being composed of gold, blue, purple, scarlet, fine twisted linen, and cunning work, i.e., superbly ornamented and embroidered. This ephod was fastened on the shoulders with two precious stones, on which the twelve names of the twelve tribes of Israel were engraved, six names on each stone. These two stones, thus engraved, were different from those on the breastplate, with which they have been confounded. From Calmet's description the ephod seems to have been a series of belts, fastened to a collar, which were intended to keep the garments of the priest closely attached to his body: but there is some reason to believe that it was a sort of garment like that worn by our heralds; it covered the back, breast, and belly, and was open at the sides. A piece of the same kind of stuff with itself united it on the shoulders, where the two stones, already mentioned, were placed, and it was probably without sleeves. See Clarke on Exo 28:2 (note), etc.

Let them make me a sanctuary - מקדש mikdash, a holy place, such as God might dwell in; this was that part of the tabernacle that was called the most holy place, into which the high priest entered only once a year, on the great day of atonement.

That I may dwell among them - "This," says Mr. Ainsworth, "was the main end of all; and to this all the particulars are to be referred, and by this they are to be opened. For this sanctuary, as Solomon's temple afterwards, was the place of prayer, and of the public service of God, Lev 17:4-6; Mat 21:13; and it signified the Church which is the habitation of God through the Spirit, 2Cor 6:16; Eph 2:19-22; Rev 21:2, Rev 21:3; and was a visible sign of God's presence and protection, Lev 26:11, Lev 26:12; Eze 37:27, Eze 37:28; 1Kgs 6:12, 1Kgs 6:13; and of his leading them to his heavenly glory. For as the high priest entered into the tabernacle, and through the veil into the most holy place where God dwelt; so Christ entered into the holy of holies, and we also enter through the veil, that is to say his flesh. See the use made of this by the apostle, Hebrews 9 and 10. Thus the sanctuary is to be applied as a type,

1. To Christ's person, Heb 8:2; Heb 9:11, Heb 9:12; Joh 2:19-21.

2. To every Christian, 1Cor 6:19.

3. To the Church; both particular, Heb 3:6; 1Tim 3:15; and universal, Heb 10:21 : and it was because of the very extensive signification of this building, that the different things concerning this sanctuary are particularly set down by Moses, and so variously applied by the prophets and by the apostles." - See Ainsworth.

As the dwelling in this tabernacle was the highest proof of God's grace and mercy towards the Israelites, so it typified Christ's dwelling by faith in the hearts of believers, and thus giving them the highest and surest proof of their reconciliation to God, and of his love and favor to them; see Eph 1:22; Eph 3:17.

After the pattern of the tabernacle - It has been supposed that there had been a tabernacle before that erected by Moses, though it probably did not now exist; but the tabernacle which Moses is ordered to make was to be formed exactly on the model of this ancient one, the pattern of which God showed him in the mount, Exo 25:40. The word משכן mishcan signifies literally the dwelling or habitation; and this was so called because it was the dwelling place of God; and the only place on the earth in which he made himself manifest. See Clarke's note on Exo 25:40, and on Exo 33:7-10.

They shall make an ark - ארון aron signifies an ark, chest, coffer, or coffin. It is used particularly to designate that chest or coffer in which the testimony or two tables of the covenant was laid up, on the top of which was the propitiatory or mercy-seat, (see on Exo 25:17), and at the end of which were the cherubim of gold, (Exo 25:18-20), between whom the visible sign of the presence of the supreme God appeared as seated upon his throne. The ark was the most excellent of all the holy things which belonged to the Mosaic economy, and for its sake the tabernacle and the temple were built, Exo 26:33; Exo 40:18, Exo 40:21. It was considered as conferring a sanctity wherever it was fixed, 2 Chronicles 8;11; 2Sam 6:12.

Two cubits and a half shall be the length, etc. - About four feet five inches in length, taking the cubit as twenty-one inches, and two feet six inches in breadth and in depth. As this ark was chiefly intended to deposit the two tables of stone in, which had been written by the finger of God, we may very reasonably conjecture that the length of those tables was not less than four feet and their breadth not less than two. As to their thickness we can say nothing, as the depth of the ark was intended for other matters besides the two tables, such as Aaron's rod, the pot of manna, etc., etc., though probably these were laid up beside, not in, the ark.

A crown of gold round about - A border, or, as the Septuagint have it, κυματια χρυσα στεπτα κυκλω, waves of gold wreathed round about.

The staves - shall not be taken from it - Because it should ever be considered as in readiness to be removed, God not having told them at what hour he should command them to strike their tents. If the staves were never to be taken out, how can it be said, as in Num 4:6, that when the camp should set forward, they should put in the staves thereof, which intimates that when they encamped, they took out the staves, which appears to be contrary to what is here said? To reconcile these two places, it has been supposed, with great show of probability, that besides the staves which passed through the rings of the ark, and by which it was carried, there were two other staves or poles in the form of a bier or handbarrow, on which the ark was laid in order to be transported in their journeyings, when it and its own staves, still in their rings, had been wrapped up in the covering of what is called badgers' skins and blue cloth. The staves of the ark itself, which might be considered as its handles simply to lift it by, were never taken out of their rings; but the staves or poles which served as a bier were taken from under it when they encamped.

The testimony - The two tables of stone which were not yet given; these tables were called עדת eduth, from עד forward, onward, to bear witness to or of a person or thing. Not only the tables of stone, but all the contents of the ark, Aaron's rod, the pot of manna, the holy anointing oil, etc., bore testimony to the Messiah in his prophetic, sacerdotal, and regal offices.

A mercy-seat - כפרת capporeth, from כפר caphar, to cover or overspread; because by an act of pardon sins are represented as being covered, so that they no longer appear in the eye of Divine justice to displease, irritate, and call for punishment; and the person of the offender is covered or protected from the stroke of the broken law. In the Greek version of the Septuagint the word ιλαστηριον, hilasterion, is used, which signifies a propitiatory, and is the name used by the apostle, Heb 9:5. This mercy-seat or propitiatory was made of pure gold; it was properly the lid or covering of that vessel so well known by the name of the ark and ark of the covenant. On and before this, the high priest was to sprinkle the blood of the expiatory sacrifices on the great day of atonement: and it was in this place that God promised to meet the people, (see Exo 25:22); for there he dwelt, and there was the symbol of the Divine presence. At each end of this propitiatory was a cherub, between whom this glory was manifested; hence in Scripture it is so often said that he dwelleth between the cherubim. As the word ιλαστηριον, propitiatory or mercy-seat, is applied to Christ, Rom 3:25, whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation (ιλαστηριον) through faith in his blood - for the remission of sins that are past; hence we learn that Christ was the true mercy-seat, the thing signified by the capporeth, to the ancient believers. And we learn farther that it was by his blood that an atonement was to be made for the sins of the world. And as God showed himself between the cherubim over this propitiatory or mercy-seat, so it is said, God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself; 2Cor 5:19, etc. See on Leviticus 7 (note).

Thou shalt make two cherubims - What these were we cannot distinctly say. It is generally supposed that a cherub was a creature with four heads and one body: and the animals, of which these emblematical forms consisted, were the noblest of their kinds; the lion among the wild beasts, the bull among the tame ones, the eagle among the birds, and man at the head of all; so that they might be, says Dr. Priestley, the representatives of all nature. Concerning their forms and design there is much difference of opinion among divines. It is probable that the term often means a figure of any kind, such as was ordinarily sculptured on stone, engraved on metal, carved on wood, or embroidered on cloth. See on Exo 35:8 (note). It may be only necessary to add, that cherub is the singular number; cherubim, not cherubims, the plural. See what has been said on this subject in the note on Gen 3:24 (note).

And there I will meet with thee - That is, over the mercy-seat, between the cherubim. In this place God chose to give the most especial manifestations of himself; here the Divine glory was to be seen; and here Moses was to come in order to consult Jehovah, relative to the management of the people.

Ainsworth has remarked that the rabbins say, "The heart of man may be likened to God's sanctuary; for as, in the sanctuary, the shechinah or Divine glory dwelt, because there were the ark, the tables, and the cherubim; so, in the heart of man, it is meet that a place be made for the Divine Majesty to dwell in, and that it be the holy of holies." This is a doctrine most implicitly taught by the apostles; and the absolute necessity of having the heart made a habitation of God through the Spirit, is strongly and frequently insisted on through the whole of the New Testament. See the note on Exo 25:23.

Thou shalt also make a table of shittim wood - The same wood, the acacia, of which the arkstaves, etc., were made. On the subject of the ark, table of shew-bread, etc., Dr. Cudworth, in his very learned and excellent treatise on the Lord's Supper, has the following remarks: - "When God had brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, resolving to manifest himself in a peculiar manner present among them, he thought good to dwell amongst them in a visible and external manner; and therefore, while they were in the wilderness, and sojourned in tents, he would have a tent or tabernacle built to sojourn with them also. This mystery of the tabernacle was fully understood by the learned Nachmanides, who, in few words, but pregnant, expresseth himself to this purpose: 'The mystery of the tabernacle was this, that it was to be a place for the shechinah, or habitation of Divinity, to be fixed in;' and this, no doubt, as a special type of God's future dwelling in Christ's human nature, which was the True Shechinah: but when the Jews were come into their land, and had there built them houses, God intended to have a fixed dwelling-house also; and therefore his movable tabernacle was to be turned into a standing temple. Now the tabernacle or temple, being thus as a house for God to dwell in visibly, to make up the notion of dwelling or habitation complete there must be all things suitable to a house belonging to it; hence, in the holy place, there must be a table, and a candlestick, because this was the ordinary furniture of a room, as the fore-commended Nachmanides observes. The table must have its dishes, and spoons, and bowls, and covers belonging to it, though they were never used; and always be furnished with bread upon it. The candlestick must have its lamps continually burning. Hence also there must be a continual fire kept in this house of God upon the altar, as the focus of it; to which notion I conceive the Prophet Isaiah doth allude, Isa 31:9 : Whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem; and besides all this, to carry the notion still farther, there must be some constant meat and provision brought into this house; which was done in the sacrifices that were partly consumed by fire upon God's own altar, and partly eaten by the priests, who were God's family, and therefore to be maintained by him. That which was consumed upon God's altar was accounted God's mess, as appeareth from Mal 1:12, where the altar is called God's table, and the sacrifice upon it, God's meat: Ye say, The table of the Lord is polluted; and the fruit thereof, even His Meat, is contemptible. And often, in the law, the sacrifice is called God's לחם lechem, i.e., his bread or food. Wherefore it is farther observable, that besides the flesh of the beast offered up in sacrifice, there was a minchah, i.e., a meat-offering, or rather bread-offering, made of flour and oil; and a libamen or drink-offering, which was always joined with the daily sacrifice, as the bread and drink which was to go along with God's meat. It was also strictly commanded that there should be salt in every sacrifice and oblation, because all meat is unsavoury without salt, as Nachmanides hath here also well observed; 'because it was not honorable that God's meat should be unsavoury, without salt.' Lastly, all these things were to be consumed on the altar only by the holy fire which came down from heaven, because they were God's portion, and therefore to be eaten or consumed by himself in an extraordinary manner." See Clarke on Exo 25:22 (note).

The dishes thereof - קערתיו kearothaiv, probably the deep bowls in which they kneaded the mass out of which they made the shew-bread.

And spoons thereof - כפתיו cappothaiu, probably censers, on which they put up the incense; as seems pretty evident from Num 7:14, Num 7:20, Num 7:26, Num 7:32, Num 7:38, Num 7:44, Num 7:50, Num 7:56, Num 7:62, Num 7:68, Num 7:74, Num 7:80, Num 7:86, where the same word is used, and the instrument, whatever it was, is always represented as being filled with incense.

Covers thereof - קשותיו kesothaiv, supposed to be a large cup or tankard, in which pure wine was kept on the table along with the shewbread for libations, which were poured out before the Lord every Sabbath, when the old bread was removed, and the new bread laid on the table.

Bowls thereof - מנקיתיו menakkiyothaiv, from נקה nakah, to clear away, remove, empty, etc.; supposed by Calmet to mean, either the sieves by which the Levites cleansed the wheat they made into bread, (for it is asserted that the grain, out of which the shew-bread was made, was sowed, reaped, ground, sifted, kneaded, baked, etc., by the Levites themselves), or the ovens in which the bread was baked. Others suppose they were vessels which they dipped into the kesoth, to take out the wine for libations.

Shew-bread - לחם פנים lechem panim literally, bread of faces; so called, either because they were placed before the presence or face of God in the sanctuary, or because they were made square, as the Jews will have it. It is probable that they were in the form of cubes or hexaedrons, each side presenting the same appearance; and hence the Jews might suppose they were called the bread or loaves of faces: but the Hebrew text seems to intimate that they were called the bread of faces, פנים panim, because, as the Lord says, they were set לפני lephanai, before my Face. These loaves or cakes were twelve, representing, as is generally supposed, the twelve tribes of Israel. They were in two rows of six each. On the top of each row there was a golden dish with frankincense, which was burned before the Lord, as a memorial, at the end of the week, when the old loaves were removed and replaced by new ones, the priests taking the former for their domestic use.

It is more difficult to ascertain the use of these, or what they represented, than almost any other emblem in the whole Jewish economy. Many have conjectured their meaning, and I feel no disposition to increase their number by any addition of my own. The note on Exo 25:23, from Dr. Cudworth, appears to me more rational than any thing else I have met with. The tabernacle was God's house, and in it he had his table, his bread, his wine, candlestick, etc., to show them that he had taken up his dwelling among them. See Clarke's note on Exo 25:23.

A candlestick of pure gold - This candlestick or chandelier is generally described as having one shaft or stock, with six branches proceeding from it, adorned at equal distances with six flowers like lilies, with as many bowls and knops placed alternately. On each of the branches there was a lamp, and one on the top of the shaft which occupied the center; thus there were seven lamps in all, Exo 25:37. These seven lamps were lighted every evening and extinguished every morning.

We are not so certain of the precise form of any instrument or utensil of the tabernacle or temple, as we are of this, the golden table, and the two silver trumpets.

Titus, after the overthrow of Jerusalem, a.d. 70, had the golden candlestick and the golden table of the shew-bread, the silver trumpets, and the book of the law, taken out of the temple and carried in triumph to Rome; and Vespasian lodged them in the temple which he had consecrated to the goddess of Peace. Some plants also of the balm of Jericho are said to have been carried in the procession. At the foot of Mount Palatine there are the ruins of an arch, on which the triumph of Titus for his conquest of the Jews is represented, and on which the several monuments which were carried in the procession are sculptured, and particularly the golden candlestick, the table of the shew-bread and the two silver trumpets. A correct Model of this arch, taken on the spot, now stands before me; and the spoils of the temple, the candlestick, the golden table, and the two trumpets, are represented on the panel on the left hand, in the inside of the arch, in basso-relievo. The candlestick is not so ornamented as it appears in many prints; at the same time it looks much better than it does in the engraving of this arch given by Montfaucon, Antiq. Expliq., vol. iv., pl. 32. It is likely that on the real arch this candlestick is less in size than the original, as it scarcely measures three feet in height. See the Diarium Italicum, p. 129. To see these sacred articles given up by that God who ordered them to be made according to a pattern exhibited by himself, gracing the triumph of a heathen emperor, and at last consecrated to an idol, affords melancholy reflections to a pious mind. But these things had accomplished the end for which they were instituted, and were now of no farther use. The glorious personage typified by all this ancient apparatus, had about seventy years before this made his appearance. The true light was come, and the Holy Spirit poured out from on high; and therefore the golden candlestick, by which they were typified, was given up. The ever-during bread had been sent from heaven; and therefore the golden table, which bore its representative, the shew-bread, was now no longer needful. The joyful sound of the everlasting Gospel was then published in the world; and therefore the silver trumpets that typified this were carried into captivity, and their sound was no more to be heard. Strange providence but unutterable mercy of God! The Jews lost both the sign and the thing signified; and that very people, who destroyed the holy city, carried away the spoils of the temple, and dedicated them to the objects of their idolatry, were the first in the universe to receive the preaching of the Gospel, the light of salvation, and the bread of life! There is a sort of coincidence or association here, which is worthy of the most serious observation. The Jews had these significant emblems to lead them to, and prepare them for, the things signified. They trusted in the former, and rejected the latter! God therefore deprived them of both, and gave up their temple to the spoilers, their land to desolation, and themselves to captivity and to the sword. The heathens then carried away the emblems of 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; Mat 21:43. Behold the Goodness and Severity of God!

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, Exo 38:26, 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 was 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 fullness; they had accomplished their design, and were of no farther use, either in the kingdom of providence, or the kingdom of grace. See Clarke's note on Exo 25:31, and see Clarke's note on Exo 38:24.

And look that thou make, etc. - This verse should be understood as an order to Moses after the tabernacle, etc., 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 afterwards treat, see that thou make every thing according to the pattern which thou didst see in the mount." The Septuagint have it, κατα τον τυτον τον δεδειγμενον σοι· 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 the second epistle, 2Tim 1:13 : Ὑποτυπωσιν εχε ὑγιαινοντων λογων, ὡν παρ' εμου ηκουσας. "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 cornerstone, Eph 2:20-22 : 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 modeled; and apostles, and subordinate builders, are to have and hold fast that Form of sound words, and construct this heavenly 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 area or porch;

2. The ναος or temple, similar to the nave of our churches;

3. The adytum or holy place, called also penetrale and sacrarium; and,

4. The οπισθοδομος 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 afterwards built. They had even their portable temples, to imitate the tabernacle; and the shrines for Diana, mentioned Act 19:24, 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 Tacitus, 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 ארץ arets, earth, and אם 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 2Sam 6:6, 2Sam 6:7; 1Chr 13:9, 1Chr 13:10), who perceived when the goddess entered into her secret place, penetrale, and with profound veneration attended her vehicle, which was drawn by cows; see 1Sam 6:7-10. 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, De Aur. Asin., lib. ii., describing a solemn idolatrous procession, 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, etc., 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."

Pausanius 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 holy of holies, so the heathens had in the inmost part of their temples an adytum or penetrale, to which none had access but the priests. And it is remarkable that, among the Mexicans, Vitzliputzli, their supreme god, was represented under a human shape, sitting on a throne, supported by an azure globe which they called heaven; four poles or sticks came out from two sides of this globe, at the end of which serpents' heads were carved, the whole making a litter which the priests carried on their shoulders whenever the idol was shown in public - Religious Ceremonies, vol. iii., p. 146.

Calmet remarks that the ancients used to dedicate candlesticks in the temples of their gods, bearing a great number of lamps.

Pliny, Hist. Nat., lib. xxxiv., c. 3, mentions one made in the form of a tree, with lamps in the likeness of apples, which Alexander the Great consecrated in the temple of Apollo.

And Athenaeus, lib. xv., c. 19, 20, mentions one that supported three hundred and sixty-five lamps, which Dionysius the younger, king of Syracuse, dedicated in the Prytaneum at Athens. As the Egyptians, according to the testimony of Clemens Alexandrinus, Strom., lib. i., were the first who used lamps in their temples, they probably borrowed the use from the golden candlestick in the tabernacle and temple.

From the solemn and very particular charge, Look that thou make them after their pattern, which was showed thee in the mount, it appears plainly that God showed Moses a model of the tabernacle and all its furniture; and to receive instructions relative to this was one part of his employment while on the mount forty days with God. As God designed that this building, and all that belonged to it, should be patterns or representations of good things to come, it was indispensably necessary that Moses should receive a model and specification of the whole, according to which he might direct the different artificers in their constructing the work.

1. We may observe that the whole tabernacle and its furniture resembled a dwelling-house and its furniture.

2. That this tabernacle was the house of God, not merely for the performance of his worship, but for his residence.

3. That God had promised to dwell among this people, and this was the habitation which he appointed for his glory.

4. That the tabernacle, as well as the temple, was a type of the incarnation of Jesus Christ. See Joh 1:14, and Joh 2:19, Joh 2:21.

5. That as the glory of God was manifested between the cherubim, above the mercy-seat, in this tabernacle, so God was in Christ, and in him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

6. As in the tabernacle were found bread, light, etc., probably all these were emblematical of the ample provision made in Christ for the direction, support, and salvation of the soul of man. Of these, and many other things in the law and the prophets, we shall know more when mortality is swallowed up of life.

Doubtless when Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and abode there so long, he saw and heard glorious things, but they were things which were not lawful or possible to utter; and therefore, in the records he kept of the transactions there, he saith nothing to satisfy curiosity, but writes that only which he was to speak to the children of Israel. Probably there never was any house or temple built for sacred uses, before this tabernacle was erected by Moses. In this God kept his court, as Israel's king, and it was intended for a sign or token of his presence, that while they had that in the midst of them they might never again ask, Is the Lord among us or not? And because in the wilderness they dwelt in tents, even this royal palace was ordered to be a tabernacle too, that it might move with them. And these holy places made with hands were the figures of the true, Heb 9:24. The gospel - church is the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man, Heb 8:2. The body of Christ, in and by which he made atonement, was the greater and more perfect tabernacle, Heb 9:11. The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, as in a tabernacle.

Speak unto the children of Israel that they bring me an offering - This offering was to be given willingly, and with the heart. It was not prescribed to them what or how much they must give, but it was left to their generosity, that they might shew their good - will to the house of God, and the offices thereof.

Blue, and purple, and scarlet - Materials of those colours.

Shittim - wood - A kind of wood growing in Egypt and the deserts of Arabia, very durable and precious.

A sanctuary - A place of public and solemn worship; that I may dwell among them. Not by my essence, which is everywhere; but by my grace and glorious operations.

According to all that I shew thee - God shewed him an exact plan of it in little, which he must conform to in all points. And God did not only shew him the model, but gave him also particular directions how to frame the tabernacle, according to that model, in all the parts of it. When Moses was to describe the creation of the world, tho' it be such a stately and curious fabrick, yet he gave a very short and general account of it; but when he comes to describe the tabernacle, he doth it with the greatest niceness and accuracy imaginable: for God's church and instituted religion is more precious to him than all the rest of the world. And the scriptures were written not to describe to us the works of nature, (a general view of which is sufficient to lead us to the knowledge of the Creator,) but to acquaint us with the methods of grace, and those things which are purely matters of revelation.

The ark was a chest or coffer, in which the two tables of the law, written with the finger of God, were to be deposited. If the Jewish cubit was, as some learned men compute three inches longer than our half - yard, (twenty one inches in all) this chest or cabinet was about fifty - two inches long, thirty - one broad and thirty one deep; it was overlaid within and without with thin plates of gold; it had a crown, or cornish of gold round it; rings and staves to carry it with; and in it he must put the testimony. The tables of the law are called the testimony, because God did in them testify his will; his giving them that law was in token of his favour to them, and their acceptance of it was in token of their subjection to him. This law was a testimony to them to direct them in their duty, and would be a testimony against them if they transgressed. The ark is called the ark of the testimony, Exo 30:6, and the tabernacle, the tabernacle of the testimony, Num 10:11. The tables of the law were carefully preserved in the ark, to teach us to make much of the word of God, and to hide it in our inmost thoughts, as the ark was placed in the holy of holies. It intimates likewise the care which divine providence ever did, and ever will take to preserve the records of divine revelation in the church, so that even in the latter days there shall be seen in his temple the ark of his testament. See Rev 11:19.

The mercy - seat was the covering of the ark, made exactly to fit the dimensions of it. This propitiatory covering, as it might well be translated, was a type of Christ the great propitiation, whose satisfaction covers our transgressions, and comes between us and the curse we deserve.

The cherubim (Cherubim is the plural of Cherub, not Cherubims) were fixed to the mercy - seat, and of a piece with it, and spread their wings over it. It is supposed these were designed to represent the holy angels, (who always attend the Shechinah, or divine majesty,) not by any effigies of an angel, but some emblem of the angelical nature, probably one or more of those four faces spoken of Eze 1:10. Whatever the faces were, they looked one towards another, and both downwards towards the ark, while their wings were stretched out so as to touch one another. It notes their attendance upon the Redeemer, their readiness to do his will, their presence in the assemblies of saints, Psa 68:17 1Cor 11:10, and their desire to look into the mysteries of the gospel, which they diligently contemplate, 1Pet 1:12. God is said to dwell or sit between the cherubim, on the mercy - seat, Psa 80:1, and from thence he here promiseth for the future to meet with Moses, and to commune with him. Thus he manifests himself, willing to keep up communion with us, by the mediation of Christ.

This table was to stand not in the holy of holies, (nothing was in that but the ark with its appurtenances) but in the outer part of the tabernacle, called the sanctuary or holy place. This table was to be always furnished with the shew - bread, or bread of faces, twelve loaves, one for each tribe, set in two rows, six in a row. As the ark signified God's being present with them, so the twelve loaves signified their being presented to God. This bread was designed to be, a thankful acknowledgment of God's goodness to them in giving them their daily bread, a token of their communion with God; this bread on God's table being made of the same corn as the bread on their own tables. And a type of the spiritual provision which is made in the church, by the gospel of Christ, for all that are made priests to our God.

This candlestick had many branches drawn from the main shaft, which had not only bowls to put the oil and the kindled wick in for necessity, but knops made in the form of a pomegranate and flowers for ornament. The tabernacle had no windows, all its light was candle - light, which notes the comparative darkness of that dispensation, while the sun of righteousness was not as yet risen, nor had the day - star from on high visited his church. Yet God left not himself without witness, nor them without instruction; the commandment was a lamp, and the law a light, and the prophets were branches from that lamp, which gave light in their several ages. The church is still dark, as the tabernacle was, in comparison with what it will be in heaven: but the word of God is the candlestick, a light burning in a dark place.

1 AND the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

Having delivered the Moral and Judicial Laws, he now comes to the Ceremonial Law, wherein he sets down all things very minutely and particularly, whereas in the other Laws he was content to lay down general rules, and leaveth many other things to be by analogy deduced from them. The reason of the difference seems to be this, That the light of reason implanted in all men gives him greater help in the discovery of Moral and Judicial things, then in Ceremonial matters, or in the external way and manner of Gods Worship; which is a thing depending wholly upon Gods institution, and not left to mans invention, which is a very incompetent Judge of those things, as appears from hence, because the wittiest men destitute of Gods revelation have been guilty of most foolery in their devices of Gods Worship.

4 And blue , and purple, and scarlet, and fine linnen , and goats hair .

Or, Skie-coloured, But here you must not understand the meer colours, which could not be offered, but some materials proper for the work and of the colours here mentioned, to wit, Wool, or Threds, or some such like things, as appears, from Heb. 9. 19. and from the testimony of the Jews.

Which was of great esteem in antient times, and used by Priests and great Officers of state. See Gen. 41. 42. Rev. 19. 8, 14.

Heb. Goats. But that their hair is understood is apparent from the nature of the thing, and from the use of the word in that sense, in other places.

Marginal references: Or, silk.

5 And rams skins died red, and badgers skins, and Shittim-wood ,

A kind of Wood growing in Egypt and the Deserts of Arabia, very durable and pretious. See Exod. 35. 24. Numb. 33. 49. Esa. 41. 19. Ioel 3. 18.

6 Oyl for the light , Spices for anointing oyl , and for sweet incense ,

For the Lamps or Candlesticks, ver. [illegible: 1 word].

Wherewith the Priests, and the Tabernacle, and the [illegible: 1 word] thereof, were to be anointed.

Heb. Incense of Spices or Sweet-odors: So called to distinguish it from the incense of the fat of Sacrifices, which was burnt upon the Altar.

Marginal references: chap 27. 20.; chap. 30. 23▪; chap. 30. 3[illegible: 1+ letters] ▪

7 Onyx-stones , and stones to be set in the Ephod, and in the breast-plate .

Or, Sardonyx-stones. Note, that the signification of the Hebrew Names of the several stones are not agreed upon by the Jews at this day, and much more may we safely be ignorant of them, the religious use of them being now abolished.

Stones of fulness, or filling, or perfecting stones, so called either because they did perfect and adorn the Ephod, or because they filled up the ouches or the hollow places, which were left vacant for this purpose.

What the Ephod and Breast-plate were. See Exod. 28.

Marginal references: chap. 28. 4.; chap. 28. 15.

8 And let them make me a sanctuary , that I may dwell amongst them .

A place of publick and solemn Worship.

Not by my essence, which is every where, but by my grace and glorious operations.

Marginal references: chap. 29. 45. 1 King. 6. 13. 2 Cor. 6. 16. Heb. 3. 6. Rev. 21. 3.

10 And they shall make an ark , of Shittimwood: two cubits and an half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and an half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof.

Or, Little chest or coffer, for the uses after mentioned.

Understand it of the common cubit, which is generally conceived to contain a foot and half of our measure. See Gen. 6. 15.

Marginal references: chap. 37. 1.

11 And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, within and without shalt thou overlay it, and shalt make upon it a crown of gold round about.

Or, A border, raised up above the rest of the Ark as a Crown is above that which it is applyed to, onely a crown is round, and this was square. This was both for ornament, and for the fastning of the covering of the Ark to it.

12 And thou shalt cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in the four corners thereof; and two rings shall be in the one side of it, and two rings in the other side of it.

In the middle of each corner for conveniency of carriage. See 1 King. 7. 30.

16 And thou shalt put into the ark, the Testimony , which I shall give thee.

To wit, The two Tables of stone, wherein the Decalogue was written called, the Testimony here, and Exod. 30. 6. Levit. 16. 33. and more fully the Tables of the Testimony, Exod. 31. 18. Numb. 1. [illegible: 1+ letters]0. because they were witnesses of that Covenant made between God and his people, whence they are called the Tables of the Covenant, Deut. 9. 9. and the Ark, the Ark of the Covenant, Numb. 10. 33. This being as a publick Record both of Gods Mercy promised to them, and of the duty and conditions required of them. See Exod. 16. 34.

Marginal references: Deut. 10. 2▪ 1 King. 8. 9.

17 And thou shalt make a mercy-seat of pure gold two cubits and an half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof.

Or, Propitiatory: Which seems from the sameness of dimensions, to be nothing else but the covering of the Ark, upon which God is said to sit, whence the Ark is called Gods footstool. This covering is a manifest Type of Christ, who is therefore called the propitiation, or propitiatory, Rom. 3. 25. 1 Iohn 2. 2. and 4. 10. because he interposeth himself between God our Judge, and the Law by which we all stand condemned and accursed, Gal. 3. 10, 13. that God may not deal rigorously with us according to that Law, but mercifully for his sake who hath fulfilled the Law and therefore boldly presents himself to his Father on our behalf.

18 And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold: of beaten work shalt thou make them in the two ends of the mercy-seat.

Figures of humane shape, in which alone the Angels used to appear: But they had wings to signifie their expedition in Gods work and messages. And between these Angels God is said to sit and dwell. So this place was a representation of Heaven, where God sitteth and dwelleth among the Cherubims and other glorious Angels.

Not made of several parcels joyned together, as images commonly are, nor yet melted and cast in a frame of mould, but beaten by the hammer out of one continued piece of Gold, possibly to note the exact unity or indivisibility and the simplicity of the Angelical Nature.

19 And make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end: even of the mercy-seat shall ye make the cherubims on the two ends thereof.

(i. e.) Of one and the same piece of massie Gold out of which the Cherubims were made.

Marginal references: Or, of the matter of the mercy-seat.

20 And the cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy-seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another: toward the mercy-seat shall the faces of the cherubims be.

Towards God, who is supposed to sit there, whose face the Angels in Heaven always behold, and upon whom their eyes are fixed to observe and receive his commands; and towards Christ, the true propitiatory, which mystery they desire to look into, 1 Pet. 1. 12. not envying mankind their near and happy relation to him, but taking pleasure in the contemplation of it.

Marginal references: 1 King. 8. 7. 1 Chro. 28. 18. Heb. 9. 5.

21 And thou shalt put the mercy-seat above upon the ark, and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee.

Or, After thou shalt have put in the Ark: For the Ark was not to be opened after the covering was put upon it. The Hebrew particle Vau oft signifies after that, as Ier. 43. 13. and 51. 60.

22 And there I will meet with thee , and I will commune with thee, from above the mercy-seat from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the Testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.

There I will be in a special and gracious manner present with thee.

Which spreading forth their wings formed a kind of seat, which the Divine Majesty was pleased to possess.

Marginal references: chap. 29. 42. and 30. 36. Lev. 16. 2. Num. 7. 89.

24 And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, and make thereto a Crown of gold round about.

A square-border at the top of it, as ver. 11. partly for Ornament, and principally to keep what was put upon it from falling off.

25 And thou shalt make unto it a border of an hand-breadth round about, and thou shalt make a golden crown to the border thereof round about.

Which encompassed and kept together the feet of the Table, and seems to have been towards the bottom of it.

Not the same mentioned before, ver. 24. but another for further Ornament to the Table.

27 Over against the border shall the rings be for places of the staves to bear the table.

As much below the top, as the border was above the bottom, of the feet of the Table, which was a convenient place for the carriage. Others, near the border, in that part of the feet which is next to it.

29 And thou shalt make the dishes thereof, and spoons thereof, and covers thereof, and bowls thereof, to cover withal : of pure gold shalt thou make them.

In which the bread and Frankincense upon it were put, Levit. 24. 7. Of this sort there were twelve one for every loaf.

In which incense was put, as appears from Numb. 7. 14. and by which incense was either put into the dishes, or taken out of them, as occasion required.

So the Hebrew word is used Exod. 37. 16. Numb. 4. 7. Herewith either the Bread or Incense or both.

To cover the same things. So this and the former were two several sorts of covers, the one deeper than the other, one to cover the bread, another, the incense. Or, Bowls thereof, to pour out withall, to wit, liquid things, as Wine and Oyl, when they were offered. See Gen. 35. 14. Or these last words may relate not onely to the bowls, but the other things, here mentioned, and may be thus rendred, wherewith it, to wit, the Table, shall be covered, as indeed it was in a manner quite covered with these vessels.

Marginal references: Or, to pour out withal.

30 And thou shalt set upon the table shewbread before me alway.

Heb. Bread of faces, or of the presence, so called because it was constantly placed in Gods presence. This bread was divided into twelve loaves, one for every Tribe, and they were in their name presented to God in the nature of an offering, as the Frankincense shews, as a publick acknowledgment, that they received all their bread or food both corporal and spiritual from Gods hand, and were to use it as in Gods presence.

Marginal references: Lev. 24. 5.

31 And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold: of beaten work shall the candlestick be made: his shaft , and his branches, his bowls, his knops , and his flowers shall be of the same .

Either by thy self, or by some other person whom thou shalt cause to make it.

The trunk or main body of it.

Or, Apples, made in form of a Pemegranate.

To wit, beaten out of the same piece by the hammer. Compare ver. 36.

Marginal references: chap. 37. 17. 1 King. 7. 49. Zech. 4. 2. Rev. 1. 12. and 4. 5.

32 And six branches shall come out of the sides of it : three branches of the candlestick out of the one side, and three branches of the candlestick out of the other side.

In every one of which was a Lamp, and there was a seventh Lamp in the chief stem of it, as appears from ver. 37. And all these together represent the seven Spirits of God, Revel. 1. 4. and 4. 5. and 5. 6. Or the spirit of God, the great enlightner of the Church, with his sevenfold or various gifts and operations.

34 And in the candlestick shall be four bowls , made like unto almonds, with their knops and their flowers.

(i. e.) In the shaft or trunk of the Candlestick, which is here distinguished from its branches.

Whereas there were but three in each of the branches.

35 And there shall be a knop under two branches of the same, and a knop under two branches of the same, and a knop under two branches of the same, according to the six branches that proceed out of the candlestick.

And, to compleat the number of four mentioned in the foregoing verse, we must understand, that there was another knop and bowl and flower in the upper part of the shaft, above all the branches, as the rules of proportion and common use in making such things will easily evince.

37 And thou shalt make the seven lamps thereof: and they shall light the lamps thereof, that they may give light over against it .

Whom I shall appoint for that work.

(i. e.) Either 1. The table of Shew-bread. Or rather 2. The Candlestick, as it is expressed, Numb. 8. 2. where by the Candlestick you are to understand, as here verse 33. 34. the stem or main body of it, and the sense is, that the lamps shall be so placed, that they and their light may look towards that stem: unless you will suppose that the seven lamps were distinct and separated from the candlestick and fastned to the sides of the Tabernacle, in several places, and all giving light to or over against the great candlestick which was in the midst, as the candlestick did over against them, which is also now usual among us.

Marginal references: chap. 27. 20. and 3[illegible: 1+ letters]. 8. Lev. 24. 3, 4.; Or, cause to ascend.; Heb. the face of it.

39 Of a talent of pure gold shall he make it, with all these vessels.

Which contains three thousand shekels, Exod. 33. 25. or 125 pound.

Exo 25:1-3 (cf. Exo 35:1-9). The Israelites were to bring to the Lord a heave-offering (תּרוּמה from רוּם, a gift lifted, or heaved by a man from his own property to present to the Lord; see at Lev 2:9), “on the part of every one whom his heart drove,” i.e., whose heart was willing (cf. לבּו נדיב Exo 35:5, Exo 35:22): viz., gold, silver, brass, etc.

Exo 25:4 תּכלת, ὑάκινθος, purple of a dark blue shade, approaching black rather than bright blue. ארגּמן, πορφύρα (Chald. ארגּון, 2 Chron, Exo 2:6; Dan 5:7, Dan 5:16; - Sanskrit, râgaman or râgavan, colore rubro praeditus), true purple of a dark red colour. שׁני תּולעת, literally the crimson prepared from the dead bodies and nests of the glow-worm,Glanzwurm: “the Linnean name is coccus ilicis. It frequents the boughs of a species of ilex; on these it lays its eggs in groups, which become covered with a kind of down.” Smith's Dictionary, Art.  Colours. - Tr. then the scarlet-red purple, or crimson. שׁשׁ, βύσσος, from שׁוּשׁ to be white, a fine white cotton fabric, not linen, muslin, or net. עזים goats, here goats’ hair (τρίχες αἰγείαι, lxx).

Exo 25:5 מאדּמים אלים ערת rams’ skins reddened, i.e., dyed red. תּחשׁ is either the seal, phoca, or else, as this is not known to exist in the Arabian Gulf, the φῶκος = φώκαινα of the ancients, as Knobel supposes, or κῆτος θαλάσσιον ὅμοιον δελφῖνι, the sea-cow (Manati, Halicora), which is found in the Red Sea, and has a skin that is admirably adapted for sandals. Hesychius supposes it to have been the latter, which is probably the same as the large fish Tûn or Atûm, that is caught in the Red Sea, and belongs to the same species as the Halicora (Robinson, Pal. i. p. 170); as its skin is also used by the Bedouin Arabs for making sandals (Burckhardt, Syr. p. 861). In the Manati the upper skin differs from the under; the former being larger, thicker, and coarser than the latter, which is only two lines in thickness and very tough, so that the skin would be well adapted either for the thick covering of tents or for the finer kinds of ornamental sandals (Eze 16:10). שׁטּים עצי acacia-wood. שׁטּה for שׁנטה, the true acacia (acacia vera), which grows in Egypt and on the Arabian peninsula into a tree of the size of a nut-tree, or even larger;See Abdallatif's Merkwürdigkeiten Aegyptens, and Rosenmüller, Althk. iv. i. pp. 278-9. This genuine acacia, Sont, must not be confounded, according to Robinson (Pal. 2, 350), with the Acacia gumnifera (Talh). Seetzen also makes a distinction between the Thollhh, the Szont of the Egyptians, and the Szeiâl, and between an acacia which produces gum and one which does not; but he also observes that the same tree is called both Thollhh and Szeiâl in different places. He then goes on to say that he did not find a single tree large enough to furnish planks of ten cubits in length and one and a half in breadth for the construction of the ark (he means, of the tabernacle), and he therefore conjectures that the Israelites may have gone to Egypt for the materials with which to build the tabernacle. But he has overlooked the fact, that it is not stated in the text of the Bible that the boards of the tabernacle, which were a cubit and a half in breadth, were cut from one plank of the breadth named; and also that the trees in the valleys of the peninsula of Sinai are being more and more sacrificed to the charcoal trade of the Bedouin Arabs (see p. 366), and therefore that no conclusion can be drawn from the present condition of the trees as to what they were in the far distant antiquity. the only tree in Arabia deserta from which planks could be cut, and the wood of which is very light and yet very durable.

Exo 25:6 Oil for the candlestick (see at Exo 27:20). בּשׂמים perfumes, spices for the anointing oil (see at Exo 30:22.), and for the incense (הסּמּים, lit., the scents, because the materials of which it was composed were not all of them fragrant; see at Exo 30:34.).

Exo 25:7

Lastly, precious stones, שׁהם אבני probably beryls (see at Gen 2:12), for the ephod (Exo 28:9), and מלּאים אבני, lit., stones of filling, i.e., jewels that are set (see Exo 28:16.). On ephod (אפד), see at Exo 28:6; and on חשׁן, at Exo 28:15. The precious stones were presented by the princes of the congregation (Exo 35:27).

Exo 25:8-9

With these freewill-offerings they were to make the Lord a sanctuary, that He might dwell in the midst of them (see at Exo 25:22). “According to all that I let thee see (show thee), the pattern of the dwelling and the pattern of all its furniture, so shall ye make it.” The participle מראה does not refer to the past; and there is nothing to indicate that it does, either in Exo 25:40, where “in the mount” occurs, or in the use of the preterite in Exo 26:30; Exo 27:8. It does not follow from the expression, “which is showed thee in the mount,” that Moses had already left the mountain and returned to the camp; and the use of the preterite in the passages last named may be simply explained, either on the supposition that the sight of the pattern or model of the whole building and its component parts preceded the description of the different things required for the completion of the building, or that the instructions to make the different parts in such and such a way, pointed to a time when the sight of the model really belonged to the past. On the other hand, the model for the building could not well be shown to Moses, before he had been told that the gifts to be made by the people were to be devoted to the building of a sanctuary. תּבנית, from בּנה to build, lit., a building, then a figure of anything, a copy of representation of different things, Deu 4:17.; a drawing or sketch, 2Ki 16:10 : it never means the original, not even in Psa 144:12, as Delitzsch supposes (see his Com. on Heb 8:5). In such passages as 1Ch 28:11-12, 1Ch 28:19, where it may be rendered plan, it does not signify an original, but simply means a model or drawing, founded upon an idea, or taken from some existing object, according to which a building was to be constructed. Still less can the object connected with תבנית in the genitive be understood as referring to the original, from which the תבנית was taken; so that we cannot follow the Rabbins in their interpretation of this passage, as affirming that the heavenly originals of the tabernacle and its furniture had been shown to Moses in a vision upon the mountain. What was shown to him was simply a picture or model of the earthly tabernacle and its furniture, which were to be made by him. Both Act 7:44 and Heb 8:5 are perfectly reconcilable with this interpretation of our verse, which is the only one that can be grammatically sustained. The words of Stephen, that Moses was to make the tabernacle κατὰ τὸν τύπον ὅν ἑωράκει, “according to the fashion that he had seen,” are so indefinite, that the text of Exodus must be adduced to explain them. And when the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews cites the words, “See that thou make all things κατὰ τὸν τύπον τὸν δειχθέντα σοι ἐν τῷ ὄρει” (according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount), from Exo 25:40 of this chapter, as a proof the Levitical priests only served the type and shadow of heavenly things (τῶν ἐπουρανίων); it is true, his words may be understood as showing that he regarded the earthly tabernacle with all its arrangements as only the counterpart and copy of a heavenly original. But this interpretation is neither necessary nor well founded. For although the author, by following the Sept., in which בּתניתם is rendered κατὰ τὸν τύπον, the suffix being dropped, leaves it just a possible thing to understand the τύπος shown to Moses as denoting a heavenly tabernacle (or temple); yet he has shown very clearly that this was not his own view, when he explains the “patterns of things in the heavens” (ὑποδείγματα τῶν ἐν οὐρανοῖς) and “the true” things (τὰ ἀληθινά) of both the tabernacle and its furniture as denoting the “heaven” (οὐρανός) into which Christ had entered, and not any temple in heaven. If the ἐπουράνια are heaven itself, the τύπος showed to Moses cannot have been a temple in heaven, but either heaven itself, or, more probably still, as there could be no necessity for this to be shown to Moses in a pictorial representation, a picture of heavenly things or divine realities, which was shown to Moses that he might copy and embody it in the earthly tabernacle.The conclusion drawn by Delitzsch (Hebräerbrief, p. 337), that because the author does not refer to anything between the ἐπουράνια and their ἀντίτυπα (Exo 9:24), the τύπος can only have consisted of the ἐπουράνια themselves, is a mistake. All that the premises preclude, is the intervention of any objective reality, or third material object, but not the introduction of a pictorial representation, through which Moses was shown how to copy the heavenly realities and embody them in an earthly form. The earthly tent would no more be a copy of the copy of a heavenly original in this case, than a palace built according to a model is a copy of that model. Moreover, Delitzsch himself thinks it is “not conceivable that, when Moses was favoured with a view of the heavenly world, it was left to him to embody what he saw in a material form, to bring it within the limits of space.” He therefore assumes, both for the reason assigned, and because “no mortal has ever looked directly at heavenly things,” that “inasmuch as what was seen could not be directly reflected in the mirror of his mind, not to mention the retina of his eye, it was set before him in a visible form, and according to the operation of God who showed it, in a manner adapted to serve as a model of the earthly sanctuary to be erected.” Thus he admits that it is true that Moses did not see the heavenly world itself, but only a copy of it that was shown to him by God.

If we understand the verse before us in this sense, it merely expresses what is already implied in the fact itself. If God showed Moses a picture or model of the tabernacle, and instructed him to make everything exactly according to this pattern, we must assume that in the tabernacle and its furniture heavenly realities were to be expressed in earthly forms; or, to put it more clearly, that the thoughts of God concerning salvation and His kingdom, which the earthly building was to embody and display, were visibly set forth in the pattern shown. The symbolical and typical significance of the whole building necessarily follows from this, though without our being obliged to imitate the Rabbins, and seek in the tabernacle the counterpart or copy of a heavenly temple. What these divine thoughts were that were embodied in the tabernacle, can only be gathered from the arrangement and purpose of the whole building and its separate parts; and upon this point the description furnishes so much information, that when read in the light of the whole of the covenant revelation, it gives to all the leading points precisely the clearness that we require.

Exo 25:10-15

The Ark of the Covenant (cf. Exo 37:1-9). - They were to make an ark (ארון) of acacia-wood, two cubits and a half long, one and a half broad, and one and a half high, and to plate it with pure gold both within and without. Round about it they were to construct a golden זר, i.e., probably a golden rim, encircling it like an ornamental wreath. They were also to cast four golden rings and fasten them to the four feet (פּעמת walking feet, feet bent as if for walking) of the ark, two on either side; and to cut four poles of acacia-wood and plate them with gold, and put them through the rings for carrying the ark. The poles were to remain in the rings, without moving from them, i.e., without being drawn out, that the bearers might not touch the ark itself (Num 4:15).

Exo 25:16

Into this ark Moses was to put “the testimony” (העדת; cf. Exo 40:20). This is the name given to the two tables of stone, upon which the ten words spoken by God to the whole nation were written, and which Moses was to receive from God (Exo 24:12). Because these ten words were the declaration of God upon the basis of which the covenant was concluded (Exo 34:27-28; Deu 4:13; Deu 10:1-2), these tables were called the tables of testimony (ch. Exo 31:18; Exo 34:29), or tables of the covenant (Deu 9:9; Deu 11:15).

Exo 25:17-18

In addition to this, Moses was to make a capporeth (ἱλαστήριον ἐπίθεμα, lxx; propitiatorium, Vulg.), an atoning covering. The meaning operculum, lid (Ges.), cannot be sustained, notwithstanding the fact that the capporeth was placed upon the ark (Exo 25:21) and covered the tables laid within it; for the verb כפר has not the literal signification of covering or covering up either in Kal or Piel. In Kal it only occurs in Gen 6:14, where it means to pitch or tar; in Piel it is only used in the figurative sense of covering up sin or guilt, i.e., of making atonement. 1Ch 28:11 is decisive on this point, where the holy of holies, in which the capporeth was, is called הכּפּרת בּית, which cannot possibly mean the covering-house, but must signify the house of atonement. The force of this passage is not weakened by the remark made by Delitzsch and others, to the effect that it was only in the later usage of the language that the idea of covering gave place to that of the covering up or expiation of sin; for neither in the earlier nor earliest usage of the language can the supposed primary meaning of the word be anywhere discovered. Knobel's remark has still less force, viz., that the ark must have had a lid, and it must have been called a lid. For if from the very commencement this lid had a more important purpose than that of a simple covering, it might also have received its name from this special purpose, even though this was not fully explained to the Israelites till a later period in the giving of the law (Lev 16:15-16). It must, however, have been obvious to every one, that it was to be something more than the mere lid of the ark, from the simple fact that it was not to be made, like the ark, of wood plated with gold, but to be made of pure gold, and to have two golden cherubs upon the top. The cherubim were to be made of gold מקשׁה (from קשׁה to turn), i.e., literally, turned work (cf. Isa 3:24), here, according to Onkelos, נגיד opus ductile, work beaten with the hammer and rounded, so that the figures were not solid but hollow (see Bähr, i. p. 380).

Exo 25:19 “Out of the capporeth shall ye make the cherubs at its two ends,” i.e., so as to form one whole with the capporeth itself, and be inseparable from it.

Exo 25:20-22

“And let the cherubs be stretching out wings on high, screening (סככים, συσκιάζοντες) with their wings above the capporeth, and their faces (turned) one to the other; towards the capporeth let the faces of the cherubs be.” That is to say, the cherubs were to spread out their wings in such a manner as to form a screen over the capporeth, with their faces turned towards one another, but inclining or stooping towards the capporeth. The reason for this is given in Exo 25:22. There - viz., above the capporeth that was placed upon the ark containing the testimony - Jehovah would present Himself to Moses (נועד, from יעד to appoint, to present one’s self to a person at an appointed place, to meet with him), and talk with him “from above the capporeth, out from between the two cherubs upon the ark of testimony, all that I shall command thee for the sons of Israel” (cf. Exo 29:42). Through this divine promise and the fulfilment of it (Exo 40:35; Lev 1:1; Num 1:1; Num 16:19), the ark of the covenant together with the capporeth became the throne of Jehovah in the midst of His chosen people, the footstool of the God of Israel (1Ch 28:2, cf. Psa 132:7; Psa 99:5; Lam 2:1). The ark, with the tables of the covenant as the self-attestation of God, formed the foundation of this throne, to show that the kingdom of grace which was established in Israel through the medium of the covenant, was founded in justice and righteousness (Psa 89:15; Psa 97:2). The gold plate upon the ark formed the footstool of the throne for Him, who caused His name, i.e., the real presence of His being, to dwell in a cloud between the two cherubim above their outspread wings; and there He not only made known His will to His people in laws and commandments, but revealed Himself as the jealous God who visited sin and showed mercy (Exo 20:5-6; Exo 34:6-7), - the latter more especially on the great day of atonement, when, through the medium of the blood of the sin-offering sprinkled upon and in front of the capporeth, He granted reconciliation to His people for all their transgressions in all their sin (Lev 16:14.). Thus the footstool of God became a throne of grace (Heb 4:16, cf. Exo 9:5), which received its name capporeth or ἱλαστήριον from the fact that the highest and most perfect act of atonement under the Old Testament was performed upon it. Jehovah, who betrothed His people to Himself in grace and mercy for an everlasting covenant (Hos 2:2), was enthroned upon it, above the wings of the two cherubim, which stood on either side of His throne; and hence He is represented as “dwelling (between) the cherubim” הכּרבים ישׁב   (1Sa 4:4; 2Sa 6:2; Psa 80:2, etc.). The cherubs were not combinations of animal forms, taken from man, the lion, the ox, and the eagle, as many have inferred from Ezek 1 and 10, for even the composite beings which Ezekiel saw with four faces had a human figure (Eze 1:5); but they are to be regarded as figures made in a human form, and not in a kneeling posture, but, according to the analogy of 2Ch 3:13, standing upright. Consequently, as the union of four faces in one cherub is peculiar to Ezekiel, and the cherubs of the ark of the covenant, like those of Solomon’s temple, had but one face each, not only did the human type form the general basis of these figures, but in every respect, with the exception of the wings, they were made in the likeness of men. And this is the only form which would answer the purpose for which they were intended, viz., to represent the cherubim, or heavenly spirits, who were stationed to prevent the return of the first man to the garden of Eden after his expulsion thence, and keep the way to the tree of life. Standing upon the capporeth of the ark of the covenant, the typical foundation of the throne of Jehovah, which Ezekiel saw in the vision as רקיע דּמוּת רקי “the likeness of a firmament” (Eze 1:22, Eze 1:25), with their wings outspread and faces lowered, they represented the spirits of heaven, who surround Jehovah, the heavenly King, when seated upon His throne, as His most exalted servants and the witnesses of His sovereign and saving glory; so that Jehovah enthroned above the wings of the cherubim was set forth as the God of Hosts who is exalted above all the angels, surrounded by the assembly or council of the holy ones (Psa 89:6-9), who bow their faces towards the capporeth, studying the secrets of the divine counsels of love (1Pe 1:12), and worshipping Him that liveth for ever and ever (Rev 4:10).

Exo 25:23-28

The Table of Shew-Bread (cf. Exo 37:10-16). - The table for the shew-bread (Exo 25:30) was to be made of acacia-wood, two cubits long, one broad, and one and a half high, and to be plated with pure gold, having a golden wreath round, and a “finish (מסגּרת) of a hand-breadth round about,” i.e., a border of a hand-breadth in depth surrounding and enclosing the four sides, upon which the top of the table was laid, and into the four corners of which the feet of the table were inserted. A golden wreath was to be placed round this rim. As there is no article attached to זר־זהב in Exo 25:25 (cf. Exo 37:12), so as to connect it with the זר in Exo 25:24, we must conclude that there were two such ornamental wreaths, one round the slab of the table, the other round the rim which was under the slab. At the four corners of the four feet, near the point at which they joined the rim, four rings were to be fastened for בּתּים, i.e., to hold the poles with which the table was carried, as in the case of the ark.

Exo 25:29

Vessels of pure gold were also to be made, to stand upon the table (cf. Exo 37:16). קערת, τὰ τευβλία (lxx), large deep plates, in which the shew-bread was not only brought to the table, but placed upon it. These plates cannot have been small, for the silver קערת, presented by Nahshon the tribe prince, weighed 130 shekels (Num 7:13). כּפּת, from כּף a hollow hand, small scoops, according to Num 7:14, only ten shekels in weight, used to put out the incense belonging to the shew-bread upon the table (cf. Lev 24:7 and Num 7:14): lxx θυΐ́σκη, i.e., according to the Etymol. Magn., σκάφη ἡ τὰ θύματα δεχομένη. There were also two vessels “to pour out,” sc., the drink-offering, or libation of wine: viz., קשׂות, σπονδεῖα (lxx), sacrificial spoons to make the libation of wine with, and מנקּיּת, κύαθοι (lxx), goblets into which the wine was poured, and in which it was placed upon the table. (See Exo 37:16 and Num 4:7, where the goblets are mentioned before the sacrificial spoons.)

Exo 25:30

Bread of the face (פּנים לחם), the mode of preparing and placing which is described in Lev 24:5., was to lie continually before (לפני) Jehovah. These loaves were called “bread of the face” (shew-bread), because they were to lie before the face of Jehovah as a meat-offering presented by the children of Israel (Lev 24:8), not as food for Jehovah, but as a symbol of the spiritual food which Israel was to prepare (Joh 6:27, cf. Joh 4:32, Joh 4:34), a figurative representation of the calling it had received from God; so that bread and wine, which stood upon the table by the side of the loaves, as the fruit of the labour bestowed by Israel upon the soil of its inheritance, were a symbol of its spiritual labour in the kingdom of God, the spiritual vineyard of its Lord.

Exo 25:31-40 (cf. Exo 37:17-24). The Candlestick was to be made of pure gold, “beaten work.” מקשׁה: see Exo 25:18. For the form תּיעשׂה instead of תּעשׂה (which is probably the work of a copyist, who thought the reading should be תּעשׂה in the Niphal, as the י is wanting in many MSS), see Gesenius, Lehrgeb. p. 52, and Ewald, §83b. “Of it shall be (i.e., there shall issue from it so as to form one complete whole) its ירך” (lit., the loins, the upper part of the thigh, which is attached to the body, and from which the feet proceed, - in this case the base or pedestal, upon which the candelabrum stood); its קנה, or reed, i.e., the hollow stem of the candelabrum rising up from the pedestal; - “its גּבעים,” cups, resembling the calix of a flower; - כּפתּרים, knobs, in a spherical shape (cf. Amo 9:1; Zep 2:14); - “and פּרחים,” flowers, ornaments in the form of buds just bursting.

The Tabernacle and Its Furniture. (b. c. 1491.)

1 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 2 Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering. 3 And this is the offering which ye shall take of them; gold, and silver, and brass, 4 And blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats' hair, 5 And rams' skins dyed red, and badgers' skins, and shittim wood, 6 Oil for the light, spices for anointing oil, and for sweet incense, 7 Onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod, and in the breastplate. 8 And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. 9 According to all that I show thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.

We may suppose that when Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and abode there so long, where the holy angels attended the shechinah, or divine Majesty, he saw and heard very glorious things relating to the upper world, but they were things which it was not lawful nor possible to utter; and therefore, in the records he kept of the transactions there, he says nothing to satisfy the curiosity of those who would intrude into the things which they have not seen, but writes that only which he was to speak to the children of Israel. For the scripture is designed to direct us in our duty, not to fill our heads with speculations, nor to please our fancies.

In these verses God tells Moses his intention in general, that the children of Israel should build him a sanctuary, for he designed to dwell among them (v. 8); and some think that, though there were altars and groves used for religious worship before this, yet there never was any house, or temple, built for sacred uses in any nation before this tabernacle was erected by Moses, and that all the temples which were afterwards so much celebrated among the heathen took rise from this and pattern by it. God had chosen the people of Israel to be a peculiar people to himself (above all people), among whom divine revelation, and a religion according to it, should be lodged and established: he himself would be their King. As their King, he had already given them laws for the government of themselves, and their dealings one with another, with some general rules for religious worship, according to the light of reason and the law of nature, in the ten commandments and the following comments upon them. But this was not thought sufficient to distinguish them from other nations, or to answer to the extent of that covenant which God would make with them to be their God; and therefore,

I. He orders a royal palace to be set up among them for himself, here called a sanctuary, or holy place, or habitation, of which it is said (Jer. xvii. 12), A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. This sanctuary is to be considered,

1. As ceremonial, consonant to the other institutions of that dispensation, which consisted in carnal ordinances (Heb. ix. 10); hence it is called a worldly sanctuary, Heb. ix. 1. God in it kept his court, as Israel's King. (1.) There he manifested his presence among them, and it was intended for a sign or token of his presence, that, while they had that in the midst of them, they might never again ask, Is the Lord among us or not? And, because in the wilderness they dwelt in tents, even this royal palace was ordered to be a tabernacle too, that it might move with them, and might be an instance of the condescension of the divine favour. (2.) There he ordered his subjects to attend him with their homage and tribute. Thither they must come to consult his oracles, thither they must bring their sacrifices, and there all Israel must meet, to pay their joint respects to the God of Israel.

2. As typical; the holy places made with hands were the figures of the true, Heb. ix. 24. The gospel church is the true tabernacle, which the Lord hath pitched, and not man, Heb. viii. 2. The body of Christ, in and by which he made atonement, was the greater and more perfect tabernacle, Heb. ix. 11. The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, as in a tabernacle.

II. When Moses was to erect this palace, it was requisite that he should first be instructed where he must have the materials, and where he must have the model; for he could neither contrive it by his own ingenuity nor build it at his own charge; he is therefore directed here concerning both.

1. The people must furnish him with the materials, not by a tax imposed upon them, but by a voluntary contribution. This is the first thing concerning which orders are here given.

(1.) Speak unto the children of Israel that they bring me an offering; and there was all the reason in the world that they should, for (v. 1), [1.] It was God himself that had not only enlarged them, but enriched them with the spoils of the Egyptians. He had instructed them to borrow, and he had inclined the Egyptians to lend, so that from him they had their wealth, and therefore it was fit they should devote it to him and use it for him, and thus make a grateful acknowledgement of the favours they had received. Note, First, The best use we can make of our worldly wealth is to honour God with it in works of piety and charity. Secondly, When we have been blessed with some remarkable success in our affairs, and have had, as we say, a good turn, it may be justly expected that we should do something more than ordinary for the glory of God, consecrating our gain, in some reasonable proportion of it, to the Lord of the whole earth, Mic. iv. 13. [2.] The sanctuary that was to be built was intended for their benefit and comfort, and therefore they must be at the expense of it. They had been unworthy of the privilege if they had grudged at the charge. They might well afford to offer liberally for the honour of God, while they lived at free quarters, having food for themselves and their families rained upon them daily from heaven. We also must own that we have our all from God's bounty, and therefore ought to use all for his glory. Since we live upon him, we must live to him.

(2.) This offering must be given willingly, and with the heart, that is, [1.] It was not prescribed to them what or how much they must give, but it was left to their generosity, that they might show their good-will to the house of God and the offices thereof, and might do it with a holy emulation, the zeal of a few provoking many, 2 Cor. ix. 2. We should ask, not only, "What must we do?" but, "What may we do for God?" [2.] Whatever they gave, they must give it cheerfully, not grudgingly and with reluctance, for God loves a cheerful giver, 2 Cor. ix. 7. What is laid out in the service of God we must reckon well bestowed.

(3.) The particulars are here mentioned which they must offer (v. 3-7), all of them things that there would be occasion for in the tabernacle, or the service of it. Some observe that here was gold, silver, and brass, provided, but no iron; that is the military metal, and this was to be a house of peace. Every thing that was provided was very rich and fine, and the best of the sort; for God, who is the best, should have the best.

2. God himself would furnish him with the model: According to all that I show thee, v. 9. God showed him an exact plan of it, in miniature, which he must conform to in all points. Thus Ezekiel saw in vision the form of the house and the fashion thereof, Ezek. xliii. 11. Note, Whatsoever is done in God's service must be done by his direction, and not otherwise. Yet God did not only show him the model, but gave him also particular directions how to frame the tabernacle according to that model, in all the parts of it, which he goes over distinctly in this and the following chapters. When Moses, in the beginning of Genesis, was to describe the creation of the world, though it is such a stately and curious fabric and made up of such a variety and vast number of particulars, yet he gave a very short and general account of it, and nothing compared with what the wisdom of this world would have desired and expected from one that wrote by divine revelation; but, when he comes to describe the tabernacle, he does it with the greatest niceness and accuracy imaginable. He that gave us no account of the lines and circles of the globe, the diameter of the earth, or the height and magnitude of the stars, has told us particularly the measure of every board and curtain of the tabernacle; for God's church and instituted religion are more precious to him and more considerable than all the rest of the world. And the scriptures were written, not to describe to us the works of nature, a general view of which is sufficient to lead us to the knowledge and service of the Creator, but to acquaint us with the methods of grace, and those things which are purely matters of divine revelation. The blessedness of the future state is more fully represented under the notion of a new Jerusalem than under the notion of new heavens and a new earth.

10 And they shall make an ark of shittim wood: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof. 11 And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, within and without shalt thou overlay it, and shalt make upon it a crown of gold round about. 12 And thou shalt cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in the four corners thereof; and two rings shall be in the one side of it, and two rings in the other side of it. 13 And thou shalt make staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold. 14 And thou shalt put the staves into the rings by the sides of the ark, that the ark may be borne with them. 15 The staves shall be in the rings of the ark: they shall not be taken from it. 16 And thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee. 17 And thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof. 18 And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat. 19 And make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end: even of the mercy seat shall ye make the cherubims on the two ends thereof. 20 And the cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubims be. 21 And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee. 22 And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.

The first thing which is here ordered to be made is the ark with its appurtenances, the furniture of the most holy place, and the special token of God's presence, for which the tabernacle was erected to be the receptacle.

I. The ark itself was a chest, or coffer, in which the two tables of the law, written with the finger of God, were to be honourably deposited, and carefully kept. The dimensions of it are exactly ordered; if the Jewish cubit was, as some learned men compute, three inches longer than our half-yard (twenty-one inches in all), this chest or cabinet was about fifty-two inches long, thirty-one broad, and thirty-one deep. It was overlaid within and without with thin plates of gold. It had a crown, or cornice, of gold, round it, with rings and staves to carry it with; and in it he must put the testimony, v. 10-16. The tables of the law are called the testimony because God did in them testify his will: his giving them that law was in token of his favour to them; and their acceptance of it was in token of their subjection and obedience to him. This law was a testimony to them, to direct them in their duty, and would be a testimony against them if they transgressed. The ark is called the ark of the testimony (ch. xxx. 6), and the tabernacle the tabernacle of the testimony (Num. x. 11) or witness, Acts vii. 44. The gospel of Christ is also called a testimony or witness, Matt. xxiv. 14. It is observable, 1. That the tables of the law were carefully preserved in the ark for the purpose, to teach us to make much of the word of God, and to hide it in our hearts, in our innermost thoughts, as the ark was placed in the holy of holies. It intimates likewise the care which divine Providence ever did, and ever will, take to preserve the records of divine revelation in the church, so that even in the latter days there shall be seen in his temple the ark of his testament. See Rev. xi. 19. 2. That this ark was the chief token of God's presence, which teaches us that the first and great evidence and assurance of God's favour is the putting of his law in the heart. God dwells where that rules, Heb. viii. 10. 3. That provision was made for the carrying of this ark about with them in all their removals, which intimates to us that, wherever we go, we should take our religion along with us, always bearing about with us the love of the Lord Jesus, and his law.

II. The mercy-seat was the covering of the ark or chest, made of solid gold, exactly to fit the dimensions of the ark, v. 17, 21. This propitiatory covering, as it might well be translated, was a type of Christ, the great propitiation, whose satisfaction fully answers the demands of the law, covers our transgressions, and comes between us and the curse we deserve. Thus he is the end of the law for righteousness.

III. The cherubim of gold were fixed to the mercy-seat, and of a piece with it, and spread their wings over it, v. 18. It is supposed that these cherubim were designed to represent the holy angels, who always attended the shechinah, or divine Majesty, particularly at the giving of the law; not by any effigies of an angel, but some emblem of the angelical nature, probably some one of those four faces spoken of, Ezek. i. 10. Whatever the faces were, they looked one towards another, and both downward towards the ark, while their wings were stretched out so as to touch one another. The apostle calls them cherubim of glory shadowing the mercy-seat, Heb. ix. 5. It denotes their attendance upon the Redeemer, to whom they were ministering spirits, their readiness to do his will, their special presence in the assemblies of saints (Ps. lxviii. 17; 1 Cor. xi. 10), and their desire to look into the mysteries of the gospel which they diligently contemplate, 1 Pet. i. 12. God is said to dwell, or sit, between the cherubim, on the mercy-seat (Ps. lxxx. 1), and thence he here promises, for the future, to meet with Moses, and to commune with him, v. 22. There he would give law, and there he would give audience, as a prince on his throne; and thus he manifests himself willing to be reconciled to us, and keep up communion with us, in and by the mediation of Christ. In allusion to this mercy-seat, we are said to come boldly to the throne of grace (Heb. iv. 16); for we are not under the law, which is covered, but under grace, which is displayed; its wings are stretched out, and we are invited to come under the shadow of them, Ruth ii. 12.

23 Thou shalt also make a table of shittim wood: two cubits shall be the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof. 24 And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, and make thereto a crown of gold round about. 25 And thou shalt make unto it a border of an hand breadth round about, and thou shalt make a golden crown to the border thereof round about. 26 And thou shalt make for it four rings of gold, and put the rings in the four corners that are on the four feet thereof. 27 Over against the border shall the rings be for places of the staves to bear the table. 28 And thou shalt make the staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold, that the table may be borne with them. 29 And thou shalt make the dishes thereof, and spoons thereof, and covers thereof, and bowls thereof, to cover withal: of pure gold shalt thou make them. 30 And thou shalt set upon the table showbread before me alway.

Here is, 1. A table ordered to be made of wood overlaid with gold, which was to stand, not in the holy of holies (nothing was in that but the ark with its appurtenances), but in the outer part of the tabernacle, called the sanctuary, or holy place, Heb. ix. 2, 23, &c. There must also be the usual furniture of the sideboard, dishes and spoons, &c., and all of gold, v. 29. 2. This table was to be always spread, and furnished with the show-bread (v. 30), or bread of faces, twelve loaves, one for each tribe, set in two rows, six in a row; see the law concerning them, Lev. xxiv. 5, &c. The tabernacle being God's house, in which he was pleased to say that he would dwell among them, he would show that he kept a good house. In the royal palace it was fit that there should be a royal table. Some make the twelve loaves to represent the twelve tribes, set before God as his people and the corn of his floor, as they are called, Isa. xxi. 10. As the ark signified God's being present with them, so the twelve loaves signified their being presented to God. This bread was designed to be, (1.) A thankful acknowledgement of God's goodness to them, in giving them their daily bread, manna in the wilderness, where he prepared a table for them, and, in Canaan, the corn of the land. Hereby they owned their dependence upon Providence, not only for the corn in the field, which they gave thanks for in offering the sheaf of first-fruits, but for the bread in their houses, that, when it was brought home, God did not blow upon it, Hag. i. 9. Christ has taught us to pray every day for the bread of the day. (2.) A token of their communion with God. This bread on God's table being made of the same corn with the bread on their own tables, God and Israel did, as it were, eat together, as a pledge of friendship and fellowship; he supped with them, and they with him. (3.) A type of the spiritual provision which is made in the church, by the gospel of Christ, for all that are made priests to our God. In our Father's house there is bread enough and to spare, a loaf for every tribe. All that attend in God's house shall be abundantly satisfied with the goodness of it, Ps. xxxvi. 8. Divine consolations are the continual feast of holy souls, notwithstanding there are those to whom the table of the Lord, and the meat thereof (because it is plain bread), are contemptible, Mal. i. 12. Christ has a table in his kingdom, at which all his saints shall for every eat and drink with him, Luke xxii. 30.

31 And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold: of beaten work shall the candlestick be made: his shaft, and his branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, shall be of the same. 32 And six branches shall come out of the sides of it; three branches of the candlestick out of the one side, and three branches of the candlestick out of the other side: 33 Three bowls made like unto almonds, with a knop and a flower in one branch; and three bowls made like almonds in the other branch, with a knop and a flower: so in the six branches that come out of the candlestick. 34 And in the candlestick shall be four bowls made like unto almonds, with their knops and their flowers. 35 And there shall be a knop under two branches of the same, and a knop under two branches of the same, and a knop under two branches of the same, according to the six branches that proceed out of the candlestick. 36 Their knops and their branches shall be of the same: all it shall be one beaten work of pure gold. 37 And thou shalt make the seven lamps thereof: and they shall light the lamps thereof, that they may give light over against it. 38 And the tongs thereof, and the snuffdishes thereof, shall be of pure gold. 39 Of a talent of pure gold shall he make it, with all these vessels. 40 And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was showed thee in the mount.

I. The next thing ordered to be made for the furnishing of God's palace was a rich stately candlestick, all of pure gold, not hollow, but solid. The particular directions here given concerning it show, 1. That it was very magnificent, and a great ornament to the place; it had many branches drawn from the main shaft, which had not only their bowls (to put the oil and the kindled wick in) for necessity, but knops and flowers for ornament. 2. That it was very convenient, and admirably contrived both to scatter the light and to keep the tabernacle clean from smoke and snuffs. 3. That it was very significant. The tabernacle had no windows by which to let in the light of the day, all its light was candle-light, which intimates the comparative darkness of that dispensation, while the Sun or righteousness had not as yet risen, nor had the day-star from on high yet visited his church. Yet God left not himself without witness, nor them without instruction; the commandment was a lamp, and the law a light, and the prophets were branches from that lamp, which gave light in their several ages to the Old-Testament church. The church is still dark, as the tabernacle was, in comparison with what it will be in heaven; but the word of God is the candlestick, a light shining in a dark place (2 Pet. i. 19), and a dark place indeed the world would be without it. The Spirit of God, in his various gifts and graces, is compared to the seven lamps which burn before the throne, Rev. iv. 5. The churches are golden candlesticks, the lights of the world, holding forth the word of life as the candlestick does the light, Phil. ii. 15, 16. Ministers are to light the lamps, and snuff them (v. 37), by opening the scriptures. The treasure of this light is now put into earthen vessels, 2 Cor. iv. 6, 7. The branches of the candlestick spread every way, to denote the diffusing of the light of the gospel into all parts by the Christian ministry, Matt. v. 14, 15. There is a diversity of gifts, but the same Spirit gives to each to profit withal.

II. There is in the midst of these instructions an express caution given to Moses, to take heed of varying from his model: Make them after the pattern shown thee, v. 40. Nothing was left to his own invention, or the fancy of the workmen, or the people's humour; but the will of God must be religiously observed in every particular. Thus, 1. All God's providences are exactly according to his counsels, and the copy never varies from the original. Infinite Wisdom never changes its measures; whatever is purposed shall undoubtedly be performed. 2. All his ordinances must be administered according to his institutions. Christ's instruction to his disciples (Matt. xxviii. 20) is similar to this: Observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.

CHAP. XXV.

[non-Latin text not transcribed]

AND Iehovah spake unto Moses, saying, Speake unto the sons of Israel, & let them take for me an offering: of every man whose heart shall make him willing, ye shall take my offring. And this is the offering which ye shall take of them; gold, and silver, and brasse. And blew, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linnen, and goats haire. And Ram skins died red, and Tachash skins, and Shittim wood. Oile for the light, spices for anointing oile, and for incense of sweet spices. Beryl stones, & filling stones, for the Ephod, and for the Brest plate. And let thē make for me a Sanctuary, and I will dwell amongst them. According to all that I will shew thee, the patterne of the Tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall yee make them. And they shall make an Arke of Shittim wood: two cubits and an halfe shall be the length therof, and a cubit and a halfe the bredth thereof, & a cubit and an halfe the height thereof. And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold; within and without shalt thou-overlay it: and thou shalt make upon it a crown of gold round about. And thou shalt cast for it four rings of gold, and shalt put them in the foure corners thereof; and two rings shal be in the one side of it, and two rings in the second side. And thou shalt make bars of Shittim wood, and shalt overlay them with gold. And thou shalt put, the bars into the rings, by the sides of the Ark, to bear the Ark with them. In the rings of the Arke shall the bars be: they shall not be removed from it. And thou shalt put into the Arke the Testimonie which I shall give [illegible: 1 word] thee. And thou shalt make a Coveringmercy-seat of pure gold: two cubits and an halfe shal be the length therof, and a cubit & an halfe the bredth thereof. And thou shalt make two Cherubims of gold: of beaten worke shalt thou make them, at the two ends of the Covering-mercy-seat. And make thou one Cherub on the one end, and o[illegible: 2 letters] Cherub on the other end: of the Coveringmercy-seat shal ye make the Cherubims, o[illegible: 1 letter] the two ends thereof. And the Chrubi[illegible: 1 letter]e shall stretch forth the wings on high, covering with their wings over the Coveringmercy-seat; and their faces shall be one to another: towards the Covering-mercy-seat shall the faces of the Cherubims bee. And thou shalt put the Covering-mercy-seat u[illegible: 1 letter] on the Arke above, & in the Arke thou sha[illegible: 2 letters] put the Testimonie which I shall give unto thee. And I will meet with thee there, and I will speake with thee, from above the Covering-mercy-seat, from betweene the two Cherubims, which are upon the Arke of the Testimony, all things which I will comm[illegible: 1 span] thee, unto the sons of Israel. And thou sha[illegible: 1 span] make a Table of Shittim wood: two cub[illegible: 1 span] shall bee the length thereof, and a cubit the bredth thereof, and a cubit and an halfe the height thereof. And thou shalt overlay[illegible: 1 span] with pure gold, and shalt make thereo[illegible: 1 span] crowne of gold round about. And thou sha[illegible: 1 span] make unto it a border of an hand bred[illegible: 1 span] round about, and thou shalt make a crowne of gold to the border thereof round abov[illegible: 1 letter] ▪ And thou shalt make for it foure rings of gold, and shalt put the rings in the four corners which are on the foure feet thereof. Over-against the border shall the rings be, [illegible: 1 word] places for the bars to beare the table. And thou shalt make the barres of Shittim wood, and shalt overlay them with gold; and the table shall be borne with them. And th[illegible: 1 span] shalt make the dishes thereof, and the cu[illegible: 1 span] thereof, and the covers therof, & the bow[illegible: 1 span] thereof, which shall be to cover withall: [illegible: 1 word] pure gold shalt thou make them. And th[illegible: 1 span] shalt set upon the Table Shewbread bef[illegible: 1 span] me continually. And thou shalt make a C[illegible: 2 letters] dlesticke of pure gold: of beaten worke [illegible: 1 word] the Candlesticke be made; his shaft and [illegible: 1 word] branch, his bowles, his knops, and [illegible: 1 word] flowers shall bee of the same▪ And [illegible: 1 word] branches comming out of the sides of [illegible: 1 word] three branches of the Candlesticke out [illegible: 1 word] the one side of it, and three branches of [illegible: 1 word] Candlesticke out of the second side of [illegible: 1 word] Three bowles made like almonds, in [illegible: 1 word] branch, a knop and a flower; and th[illegible: 1 span] bowles made like almonds, in the other b[illegible: 1 span]h, a knop and a flower: so in the sixe branches that come out of the Candlestick. And in the Candlestick shall be foure bowles made like almonds, his knops & his flowers. And there shall be a knop under two branches of the same, and a knop under two branches of the same, and a knop under two branches of the same, to the six branches, that come out of the Candlestick. Their knops & their branches shall be of the same: all of it shall be one beaten worke of pure gold. And thou shalt make the seven lamps thereof: and hee shal cause the lamps therof to ascend up, and shal cause to give light over against the face of it. And the [illegible: 1 letter]ongs thereof, and the snuffe-dishes thereof, shall be of pure gold. Of a talent of pure gold shall hee make it, with all these vessels. And see that thou make them according to their patterne, which thou wast shewed in the mount.

Annotations. [non-Latin text not transcribed] Here beginneth the 19. Section or Lecture of the Law. See Gen. 6. 9. TAke for me] or, take unto me, that is, take & give (or bring) unto me. See the notes on Gen. 15. 9. The Gr. translateth, and say thou, take ye unto me first fruits. offring] or, heave offring: an oblation, which was taken up and separated, out of a mans goods; and usually (in the sacrifices) was heaved or lifted up, when it was presented unto the Lord, Exod. 29. 27. but generally the word is used for all things separated and given unto God, even land it selfe, Ezek. 48. 8. 9. 10. 20. The Chaldee translateth it, a separation: so doth the Gr▪ in many places, but here the Greeke is, first-fruits. make him willing] or, moove him to willingnesse and liberalitie. The Gr. interpreteth it, of all to whom it shall seeme good in their heart. That which is here spoken of the heart, is also said of the spirit▪ Exod. 35. 21. And a like willing offring, was by David and the princes for the matter of the Temple, 1 Chro. 29. [illegible: 1 word]. 5. 9. 14. &c. And so all the ministration of Gods people▪ ought to be of [illegible: 1 word] ready and willing minde; Ezra 2. [illegible: 1 word] ▪ and 3. 5. Neh. [illegible: 1 word] 1. 2. 2 Cor. 8▪ 11. 12. Ver. 3. and brasse] These three, are the richest, purest, and most glorious metals, they come out of the bowels of the earth, Iob 28. 1. 2. Deut. 8. 9. The scripture useth them to signifie persons, kingdomes, and other things, that are most precious, pure durable▪ I am▪ 4. 2. D[illegible: 1 letter]n▪ 2▪ 32. 38. 39. Rev. 1. 20▪ [illegible: 1 span] and 19, 10. Prov. 8. 19. Ezek. 40. 3. Zach [illegible: 1 span] and 6. 1. And God promising to erect the glorious Church of the Gospell, saith; For brass I will bring gold and for iron silver; and for wood brass, [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] 60. 17▪ The Iewes, as R. Menachem upon his place, observe, how no Iron was in the stuffe [illegible: 1 span] and doe compare 1 King. 6. 7. where no toole of iron was heard in the house (of Solomon) while it was in building: Iron is often used to signifie warres and hard affliction, Iudg. 4. 3. Dan. 2. 40. and 7 7. 1 King. 8. 51. Psal 107. 10. Howbeit for Solomons temple, iron also was prepared, 1 Chron. 29. 2. 7. 2 Chron. 2. 7. V. 4. Blew] or hyacinth, as the Gr. translateth. Although the blew, purple, & scarlet here, are colours only, and Moses expresseth not the stuffe coloured: yet Paul affirming that scarlet wooll was used in sprinkling of the blood, Hebr. 9. 19. seemeth to teach that the scarlet spoken of in the Law, was wooll dyed: and the like we may say of the other colours. Thus also the Hebrew Doctors explaine them. The blew spoken of in any place was wooll dyed like the body of the heavens; (that is, skie colour) The purple was wooll died red; and the scarlet was wooll died in scarlet; saith Maimony, in treat. of the Implements of the sanctuary, c. 8. s. 13. The blow was a thing used and worne of Princes and great personages; & the nations clad the images of their gods with it, [illegible: 1 letter]er. 10. 9. Esth. 1. 6. Ezek. 23 6. and 27. 7. 24. The same was also in Solomons tēple, 2 Ch. 2. 7. 14. purple] so we call it of the Gr. porphura: the name of a shelfish called the purple; it is like an o[illegible: 2 letters]ter, and hath in it a liquor, which is used to make the purple die of great esteeme, as Plinie sheweth in his nat. hist. b. 9. ch. 36. The Hebr. is Argaman, (and as Ezta wri[illegible: 1 letter]eth it after the Chal. manner, Argevan, 2 Ch. 2. 7. 14.) from whence it seemeth the Gr. have borrowed Amorgis, the name of an herbe or reed, which is used to die purple. This also is a Princely colour, and used both for civill and religious honor, Dan. 5. 7. 29. Esth. 8. 15. Ier. 10. 9. Luk. 16. 19. Rev. 18. 12▪ scarlet] or scarlet twise died, as the Heb. tolagnathshani, importeth. That which was answerable to this in Solomons▪Temple, is called by another name Carmil, that is, crimson, 2 Chro. 2▪ 7. 14 and 3. 14. but the Greek there and here translateth alike, coccinon, scarlet. This also is a glorious colour, Ier. 4. 30. Lam. 4. 5. Purple and scarlet are put somtime one for another; as, they clothed him with purple, Ma[illegible: 1 letter]. 15. 17▪ they put on him a scarlet robe, Mat. 27. 28▪ for which another saith, they put on him a purple r[illegible: 1 letter]be, Ioh. 19. 2. These three dyed colours, represented blood of all sorts, and so figured unto the Church, how both themselves and their actions should be washed & dyed in the blood of Christ, into whose death they are baptized, Rev. 1. 5. and 7. 14. Rom. 6. 3. Christ also himselfe, warring against his enemies, appeared in garments died red, and glorious, Esay 63. 1. 2. &c. Rev. 19. 13. So the Gr. & Latines have applyed the purple colour to blood, & bloody death; as porphureos thanatos, purple death, in Homer, Il. 5. and he vomited his purple soule, that is, his life blood; Uirgil. Aen. 9. and the like fine linnen] or silken woolls A thing wch grew in Egypt, called Shesh, Ezek. 27. 7. of which princely clothing was made, Gen. 41. 42. The Greeke and Chaldee translate it Byss: and so the [illegible: 1 letter]tu[illegible: 1 letter]fe used in Solomons Temple is called buts, that is, Byss, 2 Chro. 2. 14. and 3. 14. Likewise the Hebrew Doctors say, What place s[illegible: 1 letter]ev[illegible: 1 letter]r in the Law speaketh of Shesh▪ or of Bad, (a kinde of linnen mentioned in Exod. 28. 42. [illegible: 2 words] flax, and it is byss. Maimony treat. of the Implements of the Sanctuary, c. 8. s. 13. Others put a difference betweene that Byss which Solomon used, and this Shesh, which they thinke was a silken cotten, which Plinie (in his [illegible: 1 letter]at hist. b. 19. ch. 1.) sheweth to grow in Egypt, on a shrub called Xylon or Gossipian: whereof soft and white l[illegible: 1 span]en stuffe was made, whereof the Priests of Egypt delighted to weare. And this linnen Xyl[illegible: 1 span]n, they thinke to be the stuffe that was died blew, purple and scarlet. Byss is also a silken linnen, white, pure, and bright, and hath the name originally of whitenesse, and signified the graces and justifications of the Saints, Rev. 19. 8. 14. Ezek. 16. 10. haire] whereof a covering was made for the Tabernacle, Exod. 26. 7. 13. The word haire is added also in Greeke: necessarily understood in the Hebrew: see Gen. 42. 33. Vers. 5. Tachash skinnes] This the Greeke interpreters translate, blew (or violet colour) skinnes. The Tachash was a beast of whose skin fine shooes were made, Ezek. 16. 10. and save there, no mention is made in Scripture of this beast, but in this historie of the Tabernacle, whose upper covering was made of the skins of the Tachash, Exod. 26. 14. Of the Hebrew name seeme to bee derived the Germane Tachs, and Latine Taxo, which wee English the badger, but the Iewes hold it to be a clean beast, which our badger by Moses Law is not, neither are badgers skins used for shooes as the Tachas. Shittim] or, wood of the Shittah tree, mentioned in Esa. 41. 19. which is thought to be a kind of Cedar tree. It is nor found in scripture, save in this historie of the Tabernacle, and that prophesie of Esay, where it is shewed to be of speciall use & account. The Greeke usually translateth it Aspeta, that is, wood which never rotteth. The wood in Solomons Temple was of Cedar. 1 King. 6. 9. 10. Of it the Heb. Doctors write thus; Solomon the Prophet said, How fair is the house of the sanctuarie of the Lord, wch is builde by my hands of Cedar wood: but fairer shal be the house of the sanctuary, which shall be builded in the dayes of the King Christ; the beames whereof shall be of the Cedars that are in the garden of Eden [in Paradise.] Thargum in Can. 1. 17. Ver. 6. light] or, lig[illegible: 1 span]; that is, the Candle stocke, [illegible: 1 word]. 27. 20, incense of sweet spices] that is, [illegible: 1 word]: or, sweet spices for incense. The Greek translateth, for the composition of incense. Vers. 7. [illegible: 1 word]] so also the Chaldee translates it: see the notes on Ex. 28. 9. 20. filling stones] Heb. [illegible: 1 word] of [illegible: 1 word] th[illegible: 1 span], stones to be [illegible: 1 letter]ei in, and wherewith the [illegible: 1 word] places in the gold upon the Bphod were filled up [illegible: 1 letter]ee Exod, 28. 27. 20. Vers. 8. [illegible: 1 word] them make] The Greeke changeth the person, And tho[illegible: 1 letter] shalt make me a sanctuary, and I well be [illegible: 2 words] y[illegible: 2 letters]. This was the maine end of all, and to this, all [illegible: 1 word] particulars are to be re[illegible: 1 span]ed and by it opened For this sanctuary (as Solomons Temple afterward) was a place of prayer and pub [illegible: 1 span] [illegible: 1 span]ice of God, M[illegible: 1 letter]t. [illegible: 2 words] Lev. 17. 3. 6. and [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 span]ed the Church, [illegible: 1 word] habitation of [illegible: 1 word] the Spirit, 2 Cor. 6. [illegible: 1 word]. Ep[illegible: 1 span]s. [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word] ▪-[illegible: 1 word]. Re[illegible: 1 span] [illegible: 2 words]. and was a visible signe of Gods presence with, and protection of his people, Lev. 26. 11. 12. Ezek. 37. 26. 27. 1 King. 6. 12. 13. and of leading them into heavenly glory; for as the high Priest entred into the Tabernacle and through the veile into the most holy place, where God dwelt: so Christ (& we by him) entred through the veile of his flesh into very heaven, as the Apostle openeth it, in Heb. 9. and 10. cha. And so this sanctuary is to be applyed as a type, first unto Christs person, Heb. 8. 2. and 9. 11. 12. Ioh. 2. 19. 21. then to every Christian man, 1 Cor. 6. 19. and Church, both particular, Heb. 3. 6. 1 Tim. 3. 15. and universall, Heb. 10. 21. And by reason of this divers & large signification, so many sundry things about this sanctuary are set downe by Moses, and sundry wayes applied by the Prophets and Apostles. This sanctuary though made of the most glorious things on earth, is yet called but a worldly sanctuary, & was a similitude of the true, not made with hāds: Heb. 9. 1. 24. dwell] This was the greatest signe of Gods grace to wards his people; whiles Christ having reconciled them to his father, dwelleth in their hearts by faith, Ephes. 3. 17. and they are the habitation of God by the spirit, Ephes. 1. 22. Therfore this favour is often mentioned, Exod. 29. 45. 46. Lev. 26. 12. Numb. 35. 34. Zach. 2. 10. and 8. 3. 2 Cor. 6. 16. Rev. 21. 2. 3. Vers. 9. Tabernacle] or, Habitacle, Dwelling place: for of Gods dwelling aforesaid, it hath the name. Therefore the patterne hereof, fignifieth properly the frame or disposition of a building, like which an edifice is made. And as the patterne of this house and of all the implements, was given by God to Moses: even so had Solomon a patterne of the house which he builded, and of all things belonging thereunto, 1 Chron. 28. 11. 12. 18. 19. See more in v. 40. Verse 10. they shall] the Greeke translateth, [illegible: 1 word] shalt make; even as in the verse following, and after, God saith to him, thou shalt: because the over-sight of all the worke, lay upon Moses. In Verse 39. it is said, he shall make, where the Greeke againe saith, thou shalt. an Arke] or Coffer, in Hebrew Aron, which differeth in name (as in use) from the Arke, that Noe made, Gen. 6. 14. The Apostles in Greeke call them both by one name, Hebrewes 9. 4. and 11. 7. and here the Greeke version addeth, the Arke of the Testimony. This was made to lay up the Tables of the Covenant of God therein, verse 16. and for God to [illegible: 1 word] betweene the Cherubims upon the covering mercy feat that was thereon: vers. 22. So it was visible signe of Gods gracious presence with his people in Christ: therefore is it the first and ch[illegible: 2 letters] fest of all the holy things, and for it principally was the Tabernacle made Exod. 26. 33. and 40. 18. 21. and it sanctified the Tent and house wherein it rested; as Solomon said the places [illegible: 1 word] holy where into the Arke of the Lord hath come, 2 Chron. 8. 11. Yet was it but the furniture of a worldly Sanctuary, Hebrewes 9. 1. are under the Gospell to be done away, and forgetten, that men shall say to m[illegible: 1 span], the Arke of the Covenant of the Lord, Ier. 3. 16. albert mystically it is mentioned in the Church of the new Testament, as is also the Tabernacle, Rev. 11. 19. and 21. 3. Among the Gentiles there was an imitation of these things, when they caried the mysteries of their gods in coffers; L. Apul. de Asin. our. l. 11. & Alb. Tibull. Et levis occultis conscia Cista sacris. Shittins] or, Cedar wood: in the Greek, wood incorruptible. a cubit] that is, a foot and an halfe, or six handbredths, see Gen. 6. 15. Vers. 11. a crowne] or, border: which was both for ornament, and for the close fastning of the cover of the Arke, which was as large as the arke it selfe, vers. 17. The Greeke interpreteth golden writhen waves round about. So in ver. 24. Vers. 12. shalt put] Hebr. shalt give. Vers. 13. barres] or staves, to cary it with: verse 14. the Greeke calleth them bearers. Vers. 14. to beare the Arke,] this none might doe but the Levites, and upon their shoulders: Numb. 7. 9. 2 Chron. 35. 3. When David faulted herein, and set the Arke upon a wagon; the Lord shewed his wrath in killing Vzza: see 1 Chr. 13. 7. 10. 11. and 15. 12. 15. Vers. 15. not be removed] this caution was, left the Levites should thinke themselves discharged at any time from bearing Gods Ark; therfore even in Solomons Temple, the barres were left in their places, but with their ends out, to bee seene, 1 Kings 8. 8. The Hebrew cannons say, when they beare the Arke upon their shoulders, they beare it with their faces one towards another, and their after parts outward, and their faces inward. And they are warned, that they pull not the barres out of the ring[illegible: 1 letter], &c. Maimony, treat. of the Instruments of the Sanctuary, ch. 2. Sect. 13. Vers. 16. the Testimonie] in Greeke, the Testimonies, that is, the two tables of stone, whereon the Law or ten commandements were written, which were a testimony of the Covenant betweene God and the people, and should testifie against them if they kept it not; as Moses sheweth for the booke of the Law, Deut. 31. 26. Hereupon those tables are called the tables of the Testimony, Exod. 31. 18. and the arke into which they were put, the Arke of the Testimony, Exod. 25. 22. neither was there any thing in the Ark but they, 1 Kin. 8. 9. and the Tabemacle wherein the Arke was placed, is called the Tabernacle of the Testimony, Exod. 38. 21. Act. 7. 14. So elsewhere, the booke of the Law is called the Testimony, 2 King. 11. 12. and the Gospell of Christ hath the same name, 1 Cor. 2. 1. 2 Tim. 1. 8. Likewise because on those Tables, the words of the Covenant were written, Exod. 34. 28. therefore they were called, the tables of the Covenant, Deut. 9. 9. 11. 1[illegible: 1 letter], and the Arke that they were put into, the Ark[illegible: 1 span] [illegible: 1 word] Covenant, Num. 10. 33. Heb. 9. 4. Ver[illegible: 1 letter]. [illegible: 1 word] a covering mercie-seat] named in Hebrew [illegible: 1 word], which hath the signification of covering [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 span]stering over, Gen. 6. 14. and is commonly [illegible: 1 word] the mercifull covering, and propitiation of [illegible: 1 span]nes, Psal. 65. [illegible: 1 letter]4. Whereupon this is translated in Greeke, and with the allowance of the holy Ghost, hilusterion, Hebr. 9. 5. that is, a [illegible: 1 word], or mercy [illegible: 1 word]. And the Greeke version [illegible: 1 word] addeth hilasterion [illegible: 1 letter]pithema, that is, a propitiatorie covering: and it is by the Apostle applyed to Christ, called Gods hilasterion, or propitiatorie, through faith in his blood, to declare (Gods) justice, for the remession of sinnes that are past, Rom. 3. 25. he is the propitiation for our sinns, 1 Iohn 2 2. So this mercie-seat on which God did sit betweene the wings of the Cherubims, was a figure of Christ, by whom our transgressions of the Law are forgiven and covered. Vers. 18. Cherubims] or Cherubs. See Gen. 3. 24. We keepe the Hebr. name, following the Apostle, who also keepeth the same name in Gr. Heb. 9. 5. where he calleth them Cherubims of glorie. The name Cherub, is neer unto Rechub, a charet, used to ride upon: and God is said to ride upon the Cherub, Psal. 18. 11. and to sit upon the Cherubims. Psa. 80. 2. and the Cherubims in Solomons Temple are called a charet, 1 Chron. 28. 18. The use of these was to cover or overshadow the mercy-seat, wth their wings, Ex. 25. 20. as they were made of it, v. 19. and from this seat God used to speak unto Moses, v. 22. Num. 7. 89. These being of the similitudes of heavenly things, Heb. 9. 23. may diversly be applied: unto Christ, whose mediation was signified by this mercy-seat; and to the Ministers of God, both the Angels in heaven, Gods fiery charets, 2 Kin. 6. 17. Psal. 68. 18. whose service he useth for his honor, & to attend upon Christ, and upon his Church, into whose mysteries they desire to looke, Heb. 1. 6. 14. 1 Pet. 1. 12. and his Ministers also on earth. For Kings are called by the names of Cherubs, Ezek. 28. 14. and the foure living creatures with eyes & wings, Rev. 4. 6. 8. (wch by comparison with Eze[illegible: 1 span]. 1. 5. 6. 10. and 10. 1. 14. 20. were Cherubims,) are of them that are redeemed unto God by the blood of Christ, Rev. 5. 8. 9. 10. & so distinguished from heavenly Angels, Rev. 5. 11. These with heavenly affections looking into the law and Christ the mercy-seat, are such as on whom he also rideth by the preaching of the Gospel, Ps. 45. 5. Act. 9. 15. But the chiefe significatiō of the Cherubs here, respecteth Christ himselfe, the Mercy-seat, of which they were made on the two ends thereof, v. 19. And to this glorious seat where Gods presence with his Church was manifested, the throne of God is answerable, in the Christian Church, in the presence of which throne his people are, and serve him day and night in his Temple, Rev. 7. 15. 17. and 4. 2. 4. 5. 6. and 8. 3. and 16. 17. and 21. 3. 5. and 22. 1. compared with Ier. 3. 17. Psal. 80. 2. of beaten worke] that is, of whole peeces beaten out with the hammer. The like is said of the Candlesticke, vers. 31. 36. and of the Trumpets, Numb. 10. 2. The Gr. translateth it, turned worke. Vers. 20. shall stretch] Hebrew, shall be stretching (or spreading) covering or shadowing; as the Greeke, which the Apostlefolloweth, doth translate, Hebrewes 9. 5. This word is used for protection and defence from evil[illegible: 1 letter], Psal. 91. 4. & 140. 8. Exod. 33. 22. and the King of Tyrusis is called an anointed Cherub, that covered (or protected.) Ezek. 28. 14. This here being (as is foreshewed) a figure of Christ: the protecting Cherubs, may signifie his kingdome, ps. 99. 1. the mercy seat which they covered, his priesthood, Rom. 3. 25. and the voice which spake from the fame, his prophesie, Numb. 7. 89. Heb. 1. 1. 2. Iudg. 20. [illegible: 1 letter]7. one to another] Hebr. man to his brother. Ver. 22. will meet] or will convene, at set times, and to appoint and order things for the Church; as the words following do explaine. Hereupon the Tabernacle wherein this Arke was, had the name, the Tabernacle of Meeting (or of the Congregation) where I will meet with thee, Exod. 30. 36. The Chaldee translateth, I will appoint my word to thee there: the Greeke, I will be knowne to thee from thence. So this was the sign of Gods presence with, and direction of his Church, as before is noted on ver. 18. The Hebrew Doctors say, that the heart of man is answerable to the Most holy place of the Sanctuarie, wherein was the Arke, and the Covering-mercy-seat, and the Cherubims: whereby wee are taught, that as in the Sanctuary Gods Majestie (Shecinah) dwelled because there was the Arke, and the Tables, & the Cherubims; so the heart of man, it is meet that a place be made there for the divine Majestie to dwell in; and that it bee the Holy of Holies. R. Elias, in Sepher reshith chocmah, treat. of Holinesse, chap 7. fol. 219. Vers. 25. a border] or closure, that is, a border to fasten the feet of the table together. Vers. 27. places] Hebrew, houses. Vers. 29. dishes] or chargers, wherein the bread was set on the table. Of such there is also mentioned in Num. 7. 13. 84. made of silver for other use. cups] or dishes; for incense to be put in, as appeareth by numb. 7. 14. and incense was with the shewbread, as is manifest by Lev. 24. 7. They have their name in Hebrew Cappoth of being hollow, like the hollow of the hand, or as a spoone: whereupon some translate them speones. The Hebr. say, there were two of these cups, in each whereof was an handfull of incense: and they had verges at the bottome, that they might rest upon the table; and they were set beside the two rewes of bread. Maimony in Misneh, treat of the Daily sacrifices, cha. 5. sect. 2. covers therof, and bowles therof] or (as the Hebr. Doctors understand it) props thereof, and pipes thereof. In the first sense, we may take these to bee for covering the bread in the dishes, and the incense in the cups: & so it accordeth with the words following, to cover withall. And that not the latter of these two, were to cover with, but the former also appeareth by Numb. 4. 7. And in relating this, Moses changeth the order of these words, saying, in Ex. 37. 16. the bowles thereof, & the covers thereof. In the latter sense, these served for the bread only; which the Hebrewes explaine thus; Kesothaiu (which we English the covers thereof) were (Seniphi[illegible: 1 letter]) props; Menakkijothaiu (which we English the bowles thereof,) were (Kanim) reeds, There were foure props of gold, that stayed up (the bread) two for the one rew, and one for the other rew: and 28. reeds (of gold) which were as halfe a [illegible: 1 word] reed (or pipe:) fourteene for one rew, and fourteen for the other. They set one cake [illegible: 1 span]betable, & after put upon it three reedes (or halfe [illegible: 1 word]:) & upō the reeds another cake, & after that again [illegible: 1 word] reeds: & upon the [illegible: 1 word] third cake, and after that the [illegible: 1 word], upon them the fourth cake, and them three reeds: upon them the fift cake, and then two reeds, and upon those two reedes the sixt cake. Thalmud Bab. in Menacoth, Chap. 11. and Rambam (or Maimony) is his exposition on the same. The like R. Solomon Iarchi on Exod. 25. noteth; save that he differeth in the names, saying of the first, Kesothaiu, that they were like halfe reeds, hollow made of gold, upon which the bread was set, and they divided one cake from another that aire might gather betweene them, that they might not mould (or putrifie.) Menakkijothaiu, which the Chaldee calleth the measures thereof (hee saith) were props like stakes of gold, standing on the ground, and they reached higher than the table, so high as the rewes of bread, and were forked (or notched) with five forkes one above another; and the ends of the reeds which were betweene every cake stayed upon those forkes, that the weight of the upper cakes might not be too heavie for the neather, and breake them. The reason hereof was, for that the table (as Moses sheweth in verse 23. was but one cubit (that is, sixe handbreadths) broad, and two cubics long. and every of the twelve cakes, (as the Hebrewes write) was tenne hand-breadths long, and five broad; and they set the length of the cakes on the breadth of the table. Thalmud in Menacoth, Chapter 11. So the ends of the cakes hanging over, were stayed up by those props. The Greeke, for Covers translateth Spondeia, that is, vessells to poure out with: and bowles they cal Kuathoi, cups, Of these there is mention also in Numb. 4. 7. 1 Chro. 28. 17. and Ier. 52. 16. to cover withall] or with which they shall cover; to wit, the table, and furnish it: or, the cakes and the incense. The originall word signifieth also to poure out; and so the Greeke translateth, with which thou shalt poure out, (Speiseis) as before the Greeke called the Covers Spondeia, pouring vessells: but of such I know no use at this table. pure gold] whereupon the table is also called the pure table, Levit. 24. 6. Verse 30. Shew-bread] in Hebrew called bread of faces, or of presence; because they were to bee set before the face, or in the presence of God continually. The Hebrew Doctors give also another reason, because every cake was made square, and so had as it were many faces. The length of every cake (they say) was ten hard-breaths, and the breadth five hand-breaths, and the height seven fingers. Mamony treat. of the Daily sacrifices; C. 5. S. 9. The holy Ghost in Gr. calleth it bread of proposition, Mar. 1. 26. & in a contrary order, the proposition of bread (or of cakes) Heb. 9. 2. that is, with us, Shew-bread; which did shew & present themselves to the Lord upon the table in stead of Israel. For there were made every weeke twelve cakes, according to the number of the 12. tribes of Israel; to make every cake was take two tenth deales of an Epha, or bushd of fine flowre; these, with pure incense were see every Sabbath new upon the table, in two rewes, six [illegible: 1 word] a rew; and the old bread was then taken away and eaten by the priests: see Lev. 24. 5. 9. with the annotations there. As the Ark signified the presence of God in his Church, so this table with the twelve cakes, signified the multitude of the faithfull presented unto God in his Church, as upon a pure table, continually serving him: made by faith and holinesse, as fine cakes; and by the mediation of Christ as by incense, made a sweet odour unto God, Acts 26. 7. 1 Cor. 5. 7. 2. Cor. 5. 15. It may also signifie the spirituall repast which the Church hath from and before God, who feedeth them with Christ the bread of life, whose offering, of himselfe, was a sweet odour to God for his Church, before whom the Lord furnisheth a table, Ioh. 6. 32. 33. 35. Ephes. 5. 2. Psal. 23. 5. Vers. 31. Candlesticke] or Light-vessell: called the candlesticke of light, Exod. 35. 14. pure gold] whereupon it is called the pure candlesticke, Levit. 24. 4. Exod. 31. 8. beaton-worke] of one whole peece beaten with the hammer, and this was of a talent of gold, vers. 36. 39. branch] that is, branches, as the Greeke translateth; and the next verse manifesteth. bowles] or cups, as Gen. 44. 2. so named of the forme or fashion. flowers] in Greeke lilies. So R. Menachem on this place saith, that the flowers were lilies: and noteth from ancient Rabbines, 42. particulars in the Candlesticke, 22. bowles, 11. knops, and 9. flowers; which number he would have observed as mysticall. As the Arke signified Gods presence, and the Table with shewbread, the Church standing before him: so this Candlesticke signified his Law, in the light whereof his people doe serve him, Psal. 119. 105. Pro. 6. 23. 2 Pet. 1. 19. And the sundry branches, bowles, knops, and flowers, shew the varietie of things, and of delivering them in the Scripture; some easie, some hard to be understood, 2 Pet. 3. 16. some histories, some prophesies, some parables; &c. Vers. 33. made like almonds] the Chaldee translateth, figured; and the Greeke, figured with almond-nuts: and this some referre to those also which follow, the knop, and the flower, as if they had that forme. The Almond tree hath the name in Hebrew, of hastie bringing forth blossomes and fruit: and God likeneth the hastie performance of his word unto It, Ier. 1. 11. 12. So Aarons rod miraculously bare almonds, Num. 17. 8. Vers. 37. seven lamps] or, the lamps thereof seven: which figured the seven spirits (that is, the manifold graces of the Spirit) of God, as is written, there were seven lamps of fire, burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God, Revel. 4. 5. be] that is, the priest, as is expressed, Exod. 27. 21. Lev. 24. 3. See the notes there. to ascend] that is, as the Chaldee translateth, to burne: for that the flame ascends upward. So in Exod. 27. 20. But the Greeke version here understands it, of setting the lamps upon the top of the branches of the candlesticke[illegible: 1 letter] [illegible: 1 word] over against the face] that is, right forward; or straight before it: as the like phrase signifie[illegible: 1 span] Ezek. 1. 9. 12. See also Numb. 8. 2. Verse. 39. a talene] this is the greatest weight which [illegible: 1 word] use: it contained three thousand she [illegible: 1 letter]els; of which were two sorts, common and holy; as is shewed on Gen. 20. 16. This talent, as all other weights about the Sanctuary, being sacred, was an hundred and twenty pound weight: or three thousand holy shekels. See the notes on Exodus 38. 24. 26. Vers. 40. that thou make] or, and make, to wit, all these things mentioned in this Chapter, and those which follow: as the Apostle expoundeth it, see that thou make all things according, &c. Heb. 8. 5. And of tentimes, things set downe in this manner, are expounded universally; as 2 Chron 6. 30. thou onely knowest the heart of the sonnes of men, that is, of all the sonnes of men, 1 King. 8. 39. So, the word shall be established, Deuter. 19. 15. that is, every word, 2 Cor. 13. 1. and till I put thine enemies, Psal. 110. 1. that is, all of them, 1 Cor. 15. 25. as wee for give our debtors, Matth. 6. 12. that is, every one indebted to us, Luk. 11. 4. and many the like. patterne] in Greeke type: hereupon the Apostle noteth, that the priests of Israel, served unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, Hebr. 8. 5. So all this glorious furniture of the Tabernacle, was not for worldly pompe, but for spirituall mysterie of heavenly graces, which should be injoyed by Christ; whereof see Revel. 4. and 21. chapters. Neither might Moses alter the matter, forme, or fashion, of any particular, from the patterne shewed him; but was strictly bound unto it, and so did observe it, Exodus 39. 42. 43.