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Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Exodus 26:15-30

Very particular directions are here given about the boards of the tabernacle, which were to bear up the curtains, as the stakes of a tent which had need to be strong, Isa. 54:2. These boards had tenons which fell into the mortises that were made for them in silver bases. God took care to have every thing strong, as well as fine, in his tabernacle. Curtains without boards would have been shaken by every wind; but it is a good thing to have the heart established with grace, which is as the... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Exodus 26:15

And thou shalt make the boards for the tabernacle ,.... Which were the pillars and supports, and properly the walls of it, which gave it its firmness and security, or otherwise the curtains would have been blown about by every wind: they were to be made of shittim wood standing up ; just as they grew, as a Jewish writer observes F16 Bartenora in Misn. Succa, c. 3. sect. 14. ; these planks or boards were not to be laid along the lengthways of them, but to be set upright; and may... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Exodus 26:16

Ten cubits shall be the length of a board ,.... Or five yards, according to the common cubit: and a cubit and a half shall be the breadth of one board ; or three quarters of a yard; and from hence we may learn what were the height and the length of the tabernacle; according to the common computation of a cubit, it was but five yards high and fifteen long, since there were but twenty boards on each side, Exodus 26:18 , but if three inches are added to each cubit, it will make its... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Exodus 26:17

Two tenons shall there be on one board ,.... Every board was to be so cut and shaped at the lower end of it, as to have, as it were, "two hands" F18 שתי ידות "duae manus", Montanus. , as in the original, to enter into, lay hold on, and fasten in mortises: set in order one against another ; at a proper distance from each other, as the rounds of a ladder: thus shalt thou make for all the boards of the tabernacle ; everyone was to have two tenons. read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Exodus 26:18

And thou shalt make the boards for the tabernacle ,.... As in the manner before described, so in number as follows: twenty boards on the south side southward ; which being a cubit and a half broad, made the length of the tabernacle fifteen yards according to the common account; but if these were cubits of twenty one inches, then its length was much greater. read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Exodus 26:19

And thou shall make forty sockets of silver under the twenty boards ,.... Or bases F19 אדני "bases", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Tigurine version, Piscator, Drusius. , and which were properly the foundation of the tabernacle, on which it was settled and established; these sockets were the mortises for the two tenons of each board or plank to be placed in, and were as broad as the plank, and, joining each other, made one entire basis for the whole structure; each socket contained a... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Exodus 26:20

And for the second side of the tabernacle the north side ,.... The direction of the tabernacle was east and west; at the east end was the entrance into the holy place, and at the west end the holy of holies; and the two sides were north and south; and as on the south side, so on the north there shall be twenty boards : just the same number as the laws of building required. read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Exodus 26:21

And their forty sockets of silver ,.... answerable to the twenty boards, for their two tenons to be placed in as in mortises: two sockets under one board, and two sockets under another board; and so under all the boards on the north side as on the south. read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Exodus 26:22

And for the sides of the tabernacle ,.... Or the ends of it, the east and west, and the account begins with the west: westward thou shalt make six boards ; so that the breadth of the tabernacle was but nine cubits, or four yards and a half, according to a common cubit; but two boards more placed at the two corners of the sides, next observed, added to the breadth of it. read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Exodus 26:23

And two boards shalt thou make for the corners of the tabernacle in the two sides. For the northwest and southwest corners, in the north and south sides; concerning which Dr. Lightfoot thus writes F20 Ut supra. (Works, vol 1. p. 719.) : and the west end had six planks entire, besides a plank at either corner, joining end and sides together; these corner planks were of the same breadth that all the others were, and, thus set, the middle of the breadth of the one plank was laid close to... read more

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