Matthew Poole and continuators on Exodus 26:26

26 And thou shalt make bars of shittim-wood: five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle.

By bars you may understand either 1. Several rows or orders of bars, one bar beginning at the end of the other, and each containing 4 cubits in length, and all together 20 cubits, which was the length of the Tabernacle: or 2. single bars, which seems truer, 1. because the word signifies bars, not rows of [illegible: 1 word]: And why should we go from the proper signification of the word without cause. 2. if bars be put for rows of bars, there must be 5 rows of bars on a side, there being so many bars said to be on a side. But the abettors of that opinion allow only 4 rows of bars on a side, and it is apparent the middle bar, which is one of the five, is but one single bar, ver. 28. and therefore it may be presumed the rest were so too. 3. the name of the middle bar implyes, that of the other 4 bars two were above it and two below it. Obj. But if they were each single bars, reaching the whole length of the building, why is it said peculiarly of the middle bar, that it should reach from end to end or from extremity to extremity, ver. 28. Ans. This may be peculiarly said of this, either because the other four might want something of the just length of the building, or because the middle bar might stand out beyond the two ends of it, for conveniency of carriage of the building.