From thirty — This age was prescribed, as the age of full strength of body, and therefore most proper for their laborious work of carrying the parts and vessels of the tabernacle, and of maturity of judgment, which is necessary for the right management of holy services. Whence even John and Christ e... [ Continue Reading ]
They shall take down — For upon this necessary occasion the inferior priests are allowed to come into the holy of holies, which otherwise was peculiar to the high — priest. The covering veil — The second veil, wherewith the ark was covered while the tabernacle stood, Exodus 40:3. Cover the ark — Bec... [ Continue Reading ]
Badgers — skins — Whereby the ark was secured from the injuries of the weather.... [ Continue Reading ]
The dishes — Upon which the shew — bread was put. Continual bread — So called because it was continually to be there, even in the wilderness; where though they had only manna for themselves, yet they reserved corn for the weekly making of these loaves, which they might with no great difficulty procu... [ Continue Reading ]
The golden altar — All covered with plates of gold.... [ Continue Reading ]
The instruments of ministry — The sacred garments used by the priests in their holy ministrations. Cover them — All these coverings were designed, For safety, that these holy things might not be filled by rain, or tarnished by the sun. For decency, most of them had a cloth of blue, or purple, or sca... [ Continue Reading ]
The altar — Hence we may conclude, that they did offer sacrifices at other times, though not so constantly and diligently, as they did in Canaan. Moreover the taking away of the ashes only doth sufficiently imply that the fire was preserved, which as it came down from heaven, Leviticus 9:24. So it w... [ Continue Reading ]
Bear it — Upon their shoulders. Afterward the priests themselves, being multiplied, carried these things, though the Levites also were not excluded. They shall not touch — Before they are covered.... [ Continue Reading ]
Eleazar — He himself is to carry these things, and not to commit them to the sons of Kohath. The oversight — The care that all the things above mentioned be carried by the persons and in the manner expressed.... [ Continue Reading ]
Cut not off — Do not by your neglect provoke God to cut them off for touching the holy things.... [ Continue Reading ]
To his service — To that which is peculiarly allotted to him, the services, and burdens being equally distributed among them.... [ Continue Reading ]
The curtains — The curtains or covering of goats — hair. The tabernacle — The ten curtains which covered the boards of the tabernacle; for the boards themselves were carried by the Merarites. His covering — The covering of rams — skins which was put next over those ten curtains.... [ Continue Reading ]
Which is round about — Which court compassed both the tabernacle and the altar.... [ Continue Reading ]
Under the hand — Under his conduct and direction.... [ Continue Reading ]
The sockets — Which were as the feet upon which the pillars stood.... [ Continue Reading ]
Ye shall reckon — Every part and parcel shall be put in an inventory; which is required here rather than in the fore — going particulars; because these were much more numerous than the former; because being meaner things, they might otherwise have been neglected; and also to teach us, that God estee... [ Continue Reading ]
Three thousand — Here appears the wisdom of Divine Providence, that whereas in the Kohathites and Gershonites, whose burdens were fewer and easier, there were but about a third part of them fit for service; the Merarites, whose burdens were more and heavier, had above half of them fit for this work.... [ Continue Reading ]