HOLY BIBLE: Exodus 26 (original) (raw)

[1] According to the Hebrew text, here and in verse 31 but not in verse 36, the embroidery was a pattern of cherubim.

[2] It is clear from verses 15 sqq. that the main structure of the tabernacle was a wooden framework, unroofed, and open at the eastern end, ten cubits high, ten cubits wide (from north to south), and thirty cubits long (from east to west). Over this a huge piece of tapestry, made in strips, and measuring forty cubits by twenty-eight, appears to have been spread like a tablecloth, covering the top and the western end, but falling short of the ground by one cubit on the north and south. The tapestry, like all the structure of the tabernacle, was made of adjustable pieces, for convenience of transport.

[3] The outer covering of goats’ hair, being thirty cubits wide, reached the ground on the north and south. Its length exceeded that of the tapestry by four cubits, and verse 9 seems to imply that these extra four cubits hung looped over the eastern, open end of the structure. Confusingly, verse 12 appears to speak of this loop as being at the back of the tabernacle; but perhaps the reader is here expected to place himself in imagination inside the building, facing west. The size and position of the two coverings mentioned in verse 14 are a matter of conjecture.

[4] The Latin version evidently thinks of the frames as mortised to one another; some interpret the Hebrew text as meaning that each frame consisted of two uprights joined together by cross-pieces.

[5] The six frames give a width of nine cubits, where ten cubits are required. It seems natural to suppose that the gap was filled by the two frames mentioned in verse 23. These may have had a width of nine inches instead of eighteen; or they may have jutted out to north and south of the building; or they may have been put in a slanting position (so as to face north-west and south-west respectively) by way of joining the west end to the north and south sides—a need for which no provision is made in the text. Some think they acted as lean-to buttresses at the west end, but (i) the mention of sockets suggests that they stood perpendicular, and (ii) it is difficult in that case to see what filled the gap in the western wall; we can hardly suppose that the frames on the north and south sides were nine inches thick.

[6] The Latin text here differs considerably from the Hebrew, which is too obscure to admit of any certain interpretation.

[7] The Hebrew text appears to mean ‘And the middle pole along the middle of the frames (shall be) reaching from end to end’; see the description in 36.33 below.

[8] The rare word used in the Hebrew text is thought to mean ‘hooks’.

Knox Translation Copyright © 2013 Westminster Diocese
Nihil Obstat. Father Anton Cowan, Censor.
Imprimatur. +Most Rev. Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster. 8th January 2012.
Re-typeset and published in 2012 by Baronius Press Ltd