Exodus 26:8 - Exposition

The length … shall be thirty cubits . A tent with a rectangular roof, over such a chamber as the mishkan , brought down, as tents usually are, within six or seven feet of the ground, would have required a covering of this length. If the slope of the roof had been greater, the covering must have been longer. The breadth … four cubits. This gives for the entire covering, when made up, a width of forty-four cubits, or sixty-six feet. As the entire length of the mishkan was only thirty cubits, or forty-five feet, it is evident that the tent projected considerably beyond the tabernacle, either at both ends, or, at any rate, at one end. Probably the projection was at one end only—viz; in front; where it constituted a porch, eighteen or twenty feet deep. The temple, which was modelled after the tabernacle, had a porch fifteen feet deep.