Exodus 35 - Introduction
_MOSES DELIVERS THE COMMANDS OF GOD CONCERNING THE ERECTION OF THE TABERNACLE: THE PEOPLE READILY OFFER THEIR FREE GIFTS: BEZALEEL AND AHOLIAB ARE APPOINTED TO THE WORK._ _Before Christ 1491._... [ Continue Reading ]
_MOSES DELIVERS THE COMMANDS OF GOD CONCERNING THE ERECTION OF THE TABERNACLE: THE PEOPLE READILY OFFER THEIR FREE GIFTS: BEZALEEL AND AHOLIAB ARE APPOINTED TO THE WORK._ _Before Christ 1491._... [ Continue Reading ]
AND MOSES GATHERED, &C.— The narrative, having been interrupted by the affair of the calf, is here resumed; so that, from the 32nd to the present chapter, the whole may be considered as a digression, and read as in a parenthesis. We need not, I judge, give ourselves or our reader the trouble of refe... [ Continue Reading ]
YE SHALL KINDLE NO FIRE THROUGHOUT YOUR HABITATIONS— This seems only to be a specification of the general prohibition, _Thou shalt do no manner of work:_ importing, that all menial offices should cease on the sabbath; that the servants, as well as others, might enjoy the blessings of religious rest.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE SHEW-BREAD— i.e. (By an ellipsis frequent in the Hebrew language) the _plates,_ or _patens,_ for the shew-bread. The Hebrews often mention the thing contained for that in which it is contained. REFLECTIONS.—God now condescending to dwell among them, the tabernacle is to be erected. Moses del... [ Continue Reading ]
WHOSE HEART STIRRED HIM UP— In the Hebrew it is, _whose heart lifted him up;_ and so in Exodus 35:26. Nothing elevates and exalts the mind so much as true piety and gratitude to God.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND TABLETS— The original word כומז _cumaz,_ signifies some female _circular ornament,_ a _bracelet, girdle,_ or _necklace._ The LXX render it περιδεξια; and the Vulgate, &c. _dextralia._... [ Continue Reading ]
AND ALL THE WOMEN THAT WERE WISE-HEARTED DID SPIN— Women of the first rank among the Hebrews used in former times to employ themselves in spinning: this too was usual, even with princesses, among the Greeks and Romans, as well as among the Egyptians: Homer and Herodotus supply us with sufficient pro... [ Continue Reading ]
HATH FILLED HIM WITH THE SPIRIT OF GOD— What we call _genius_ is, in common language, the _gift of nature;_ that is, the gift of _God,_ the _Author_ of _nature._ Hence the heathens were wont to ascribe to their gods the extraordinary skill in arts which any man had without a teacher. (See the 22nd D... [ Continue Reading ]