Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge, by R.A. Torrey, [ca. 1880], at sacred-texts.com
Exodus Chapter 26
Overview
Exo 26:1, The ten curtains of the tabernacle; Exo 26:7, The eleven curtains of goats' hair, and the covering of rams' and badgers' skins; Exo 26:15, The boards of the tabernacle, with their sockets and bars; Exo 26:31, The vail for the ark; Exo 26:36, The hanging for the door.
the tabernacle with ten curtains: The word mishcan, from shachan, to dwell, means simply a dwelling-place, or habitation. "When God had brought the children of Israel out of Egypt," says the very learned Dr. Cudworth, "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. - Now, the tabernacle being thus 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 these were the ordinary furniture of a room. 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, etc." Exo 25:8, Exo 36:8-19, Exo 40:2, Exo 40:17-19; Ch1 17:1, Ch1 21:29; Joh 1:14, Joh 2:21; Heb 8:2; Heb 9:9, Heb 9:23, Heb 9:24; Rev 21:3
fine twined linen: Exo 26:36, Exo 25:4, Exo 35:6, Exo 35:35; Rev 19:8
cherubims: Exo 25:18
cunning work: Heb. the work of a cunning workman, or embroiderer
curtain: Exo 26:7, Exo 26:8; Num 4:25; Sa2 7:2; Ch1 17:1
coupled together: Exo 26:9, Exo 36:10; Joh 17:21; Co1 12:4, 12-27; Eph 2:21, Eph 2:22, Eph 4:3-6, Eph 4:16; Col 2:2, Col 2:19
loops of blue: Exo 26:5, Exo 26:10, Exo 26:11, Exo 36:11, Exo 36:12, Exo 36:17
taches of gold: Exo 26:11, Exo 26:33, Exo 35:11, Exo 36:13, Exo 36:18, Exo 39:33
one tabernacle: Eph 1:22, Eph 1:23, Eph 4:16; Pe1 2:4, Pe1 2:5
curtains: Exo 35:26, Exo 36:14-18; Num 4:25; Psa 45:13; Pe1 3:4, Pe1 5:5
goats' hair: 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 is shorn at proper times, and manufactured into garments. Exo 25:4, Exo 35:6, Exo 35:23; Num 31:20
eleven: Exo 26:1, Exo 26:9, Exo 26:12
length of one curtain: Exo 26:2, Exo 26:13
five curtains by themselves: Exo 26:3
fifty loops: Exo 26:4-6
tent: or, covering, Exo 26:3, Exo 26:6
shall hang over: Exo 26:9
of that which remaineth: Heb. in the remainder or surplusage
a covering: Exo 36:19; Num 4:5; Psa 27:5, Psa 121:4, Psa 121:5; Isa 4:6, Isa 25:4
rams' skins dyed red: Oroth ailim meoddamim, literally, the skins of red rams. It is a fact, attested by many respectable travellers, that in the Levant, sheep are often met with having red or violet coloured fleeces. Almost all ancient writers speak of the same thing. Exo 25:5, Exo 35:7, Exo 35:23, Exo 39:34; Num 4:10; Eze 16:10
badgers' skins: Oroth techashim, which nearly all the ancient versions have taken to be the name of a colour, though they differ very much with regard to the particular colour intended: the LXX, Vulgate, and Coptic, have skins dyed of a violet colour; the Syriac, azure; and the Arabic, black; and Bochart contends for the hysginus, a very deep blue. It may, however, denote an animal; for Dr. Geddes remarks, had the sacred writer meant to express only a variety of colour, he would hardly have repeated oroth, skins, after meoddamim, red, in Exo 25:5.
boards: Exo 26:18, Exo 26:22-29, Exo 36:20-33, Exo 40:17, Exo 40:18; Num 4:31, Num 4:32; Eph 2:20, Eph 2:21
of shittim: Exo 25:5
tenons: Heb. hands, Exo 26:19, Exo 36:22, Exo 36:24
forty sockets of silver: Exo 26:25, Exo 26:37, Exo 27:10, Exo 27:12-18, Exo 36:24-26, Exo 38:27, Exo 38:30, Exo 38:31, Exo 40:18; Num 3:36; Num 4:31, Num 4:32; Sol 5:15
two sockets under one board: Exo 26:19
corners: [Strong's H4742], Exo 36:28
be coupled: Heb. twined
and they shall be coupled together above: Exo 36:29, Exo 36:30; Psa 133:1-3; Co1 1:10, Co1 3:16; Pe1 2:5
bars of shittim wood: Exo 36:31-38; Num 3:36, Num 4:31; Rom 15:1; Co1 9:19, Co1 9:20; Gal 6:1, Gal 6:2; Eph 4:16; Col 2:19
reach: lit, flee, Ch1 12:15; Neh 13:28; Job 41:28; Pro 19:26
overlay the boards with gold: Exo 25:11, Exo 25:12
rear up the tabernacle: Exo 40:2, Exo 40:17, Exo 40:18; Num 10:21; Jos 18:1; Heb 8:2
according to the fashion: Exo 25:9, Exo 25:40, Exo 27:8; Act 7:44; Heb 8:5, Heb 9:23
a veil of: Exo 36:35, Exo 40:3, Exo 40:21; Lev 16:2, Lev 16:15; Ch2 3:14; Mat 27:51; Mar 15:38; Luk 23:45; Eph 2:14; Heb 9:3-8, Heb 10:20, Heb 10:21
blue: Exo 25:4, Exo 35:6, Exo 35:25, Exo 35:35, Exo 36:8
purple: Argaman, a very precious colour, extracted from the purpura, or murex, a species of shell-fish; and supposed to be the same with the costly and much celebrated Tyrian purple.
scarlet: Tolaâth; properly the worm whence the scarlet colour was produced; which grew in a coccus, or excrescence, of a shrub of the ilex kind, like the cochineal worm in the Opuntia of America; which is arranged under the same genus as the Arabic Kermez, which also denotes this colour.
cunning work: Exo 26:1, Exo 28:15, Exo 38:23; Ch2 2:7-13; Psa 137:5; Sol 7:1
cherubims shall it be made: Exo 25:18
pillars of shittim: Exo 26:37, Exo 36:38; Est 1:6
their hooks shall be of gold: The Hebrew waveyhem, which we translate their hooks, is rendered by the LXX κεφαλιδες, and by the Vulgate, capiata, capitals. Hence Calmet contends:
1. That if Moses does not mean the capitals of the pillars by this word, he mentions them nowhere else; and it would seem strange, that while he describes them with so much exactness, that he should not mention the capitals; or that pillars every way so correctly formed, should have been destitute of this necessary ornament.
2. As Moses was commanded to make the wavim of the pillars, and their fillets, of silver (Exo 27:10, Exo 27:11), and the wavim of the pillars of the vail of gold (Exo 36:36), and that 1,775 shekels were employed in making them, overlaying their chapiters, rasheyhem, their heads, and filleting them (Exo 38:28), it is more reasonable to suppose that all this is spoken of the capitals of pillars, than of any kind of hooks, especially as hooks are mentioned under the word taches or clasps. But as the root wavah seems to signify to connect (for yww, in Arabic, is to marry a wife), and as the letter ww, wav, if it has not its name from its hook-like form, is yet used as a connective particle, it would rather appear to denote hooks, which connected the curtains or vails to the pillars. The LXX also render it αγκυλαι, "handles", and κρικοι, "rings" or "clasps".
the taches: Exo 27:10, Exo 36:36
within the veil: Gen 9:4, Gen 9:5
the ark of the testimony: Exo 25:16, Exo 40:21
the holy place: Lev 16:2; Kg1 8:6, Kg1 8:10; Ch2 5:7-10; Heb 9:2, Heb 9:3
put the mercy seat: Exo 25:21, Exo 40:20; Heb 9:5
the table: Exo 40:22; Heb 9:2, Heb 9:8, Heb 9:9
the candlestick: Exo 25:31-37, Exo 40:24
hanging: This may be termed the first vail, as it occupied the door or entrance to the tabernacle; the vail that separated the Holy of Holies is called the second vail, Heb 9:3. Mr. Morier (Second Journey Through Persia, p. 251), describing the tent of a chief of the Eelauts, says, "It was composed of a wooden frame of circular laths, which were fixed on the ground, and then covered over with large felts, that were fastened down by a cord, ornamented by tassels of various colours. A curtain, curiously worked by the women, with coarse needle-work of various colours, was suspended over the door. In the king of Persia's tents, magnificent perdahs, or hangings of needle-work, are suspended, as well as on the doors of the great mosques in Turkey; and these circumstances combined, will, perhaps, illustrate Exo 26:36." Exo 36:37, Exo 40:28; Joh 10:9, Joh 14:6
the tent: Exo 35:11, Exo 39:33, Exo 40:29; Num 3:25, Num 9:15; Sa2 7:6; Psa 78:60
of blue: Exo 26:31
overlay them with gold: Exo 36:38