From Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, iv. 661.

thou shalt make fifty loops on the edge of the one curtain P that is outmost in the 'coupling, and fifty loops upon the edge of the curtain which is outmost in the second 'coupling. 11 And thou shalt make fifty clasps of brass, and put the clasps into the loops, and couple the tent together, that it may 12 be one. And the overhanging part that remaineth of the curtains of the tent, the half curtain that remaineth, shall 13 hang over the back of the tabernacle. And the cubit on 1 Or, first set 2 Or, set

of the Dwelling in front, so as to form a kind of portal above the entrance. But this is not the natural meaning of the Heb., which is that the curtain is to be doubled in front of the Dwelling, so as to hang down there for 2 cubits, forming a kind of valance over the top of the screen (v. 36), and securing that the Dwelling is in perfect darkness (so Kennedy, p. 662a). Render then double (without ‘over'); and see

further on v. 12.

10, 11. How the two sets, of five and six breadths respectively, were to be held together, viz. by 50 loops, with clasps of copper, attached to the outer edge of one of the end breadths in each set.

10. coupling] better as marg.: cf. vv. 4, 5.

11. brass] copper or bronze. Gold (v. 6) was confined to the clasps for the inner curtains, forming the Dwelling proper.

12. overhanging] The Heb. means loose or free, not necessarily 'overhanging.'

the half curtain that remaineth] The breadth in front is laid double (v. 9): it is consequently halved in width; and the entire length of the curtain is thus 42 cubits. As the Dwelling is 30 cubits long and 10 cubits high, it follows that, according to the usual view of v. 9, 12 cubits will hang down behind, according to Kennedy's view, 10 cubits will hang down behind. The 'half-curtain' (=2 cubits) overhanging at the back can thus, upon the usual view, be only the 2 cubits in excess of the 10 (so Di.), the whole 12, we may suppose, being stretched out, and pegged to the ground in the manner of a tent: it is not, however, very natural to speak of only the 2 cubits as hanging down loosely behind: we should rather expect the whole 12 to be so spoken of. The difficulty would be removed, if we might suppose the words, 'the half-curtain that remaineth,' in v. 12 to be a mistaken gloss, arising out of a hasty reading of v. 9b: if these words are omitted, the length of the part hanging down behind is not specified, and it might, of course, be either the 12 cubits required by the ordinary view of v. 9b, or the 10 cubits required by Kennedy's view. The latter view does better justice to v. 9b, and also has the advantage of making the goats' hair curtain hang down symmetrically on the two sides and the back, viz. so as exactly to touch the ground in each case.

P the one side, and the cubit on the other side, of that which remaineth in the length of the curtains of the tent, shall hang over the sides of the tabernacle on this side and on that side, to cover it. And thou shalt make a covering 14 for the tent of rams' skins dyed red, and a covering of 1 sealskins above.

And thou shalt make the boards for the tabernacle of 15 acacia wood, standing up. Ten cubits shall be the length 16 of a board, and a cubit and a half the breadth of each

13.

1 Or, porpoise-skins

On the two sides of the Dwelling, the curtain of goats' hair being 30 cubits broad, while the inner tapestry curtain was 28 cubits broad, the former would of course reach a cubit lower than the latter, and touch the ground.

14 (cf. xxxvi. 19). Two outer coverings of stronger and stouter materials, to be laid over the Tent, for protection against rain. Kn. reminds us that on military expeditions the Romans used in winter to cover their tents with skins (sub pellibus hiemare).

rams' skins dyed red] i.e. leather, dyed, not with the costly Phoenician 'scarlet' (xxv. 4), but probably (Kennedy), as LXX. ýpv@podavwμéva suggests, with madder (épv@pódavov).

sealskins] dugong skins (xxv. 5). The Dwelling, with the coverings above it, was kept in its place by cords connecting it with pins driven into the ground, in the manner of a tent: see xxvii. 19, xxxv. 18, xxxviii. 20, 31.

15-30 (cf. xxxvi. 20— -34). The 'boards,' or, perhaps, frames, for the Dwelling. There is great difficulty in some of the details: but the general sense is clear. The 'boards' were to be of acacia wood, overlaid with gold, each 10 cubits (15 ft.) long, and 1 cubits (2 ft. 3 in.) broad: they were to be placed upright, so as to form the sides and back of the Dwelling, each resting in two sockets of silver: there were to be twenty forming each side, six to form the back, and two, of special construction, at the corners, where the back and sides met: five bars, attached to the boards by rings, were to run horizontally along the two sides and the back, respectively, to hold them firmly in their place. 15-17. The wooden framework of the Dwelling.

15. boards] either beams or frames: 'boards' suggests something much thinner than seems to be intended. The Heb. kéresh, except in the present connexion (50 times), occurs only Ez. xxvii. 6, of some part of a ship, described there as made up of ivory, inlaid in boxwood (RV. benches, RVm. deck); and its exact sense is uncertain. Here it has commonly been rendered boards: but to this rend. Kennedy (p. 659b) makes the pertinent objections that, if these 'boards' are to support the curtains, the latter must hang down outside them: the boards, however,

17

board.

Two tenons shall there be in each board, 'joined P one to another: thus shalt thou make for all the boards of

1 Or, morticed

standing, as they are described, close to each other, would form, on the two sides and back of the Tabernacle, three solid wooden walls; if, then, the Dwelling on three of its sides was formed of these wooden walls, it is difficult to understand how it can be consistently spoken of as formed by the curtains (v. 1, &c.): and, moreover, if the sides of the Dwelling were thus solid, these richly worked curtains would be hidden from view, not only on the outside, as they would be in any case, by the curtain of goats' hair and the two skin coverings, but also on the inside (except on the roof). Hence Kennedy argues, with much force, that the ķērāshim were pictured, not as solid boards, but as wooden frames (as shewn in the illustr.), which, while affording sufficient support for the curtains and skin coverings, would allow the richly coloured tapestry curtains with their cherubim figures to appear inside the sanctuary. Kennedy's view undoubtedly brings a very great improvement into the idea of the Tabernacle: but the sense attached to kéresh being hypothetical, it is difficult to accept it quite unreservedly.

The thickness of the ķērāshim is not specified. Jos. (Ant. iii. 6. 3) gives it as 4 finger-breadths (3 in.): Rashi (11 cent.), Ew. al. suppose it to have been a cubit (18 in.). V. 22 suggests that the writer pictured them as a cubit (9 in.) thick: but even in this case, if they were solid, their dimensions being 15 ft. x 2 ft., 3 in. x 9 in., they would be so substantial as to be beams rather than 'boards.'

A Frame,' with
its bases.

Reduced from Hastings'
Dictionary of the
Bible, iv. 660.

17. tenons] lit. hands, used fig. of supports: cf. I K. vii. 32, 33 (EVV. axletrees; rather, diagonal stays under the body of the laver, holding the axles in their places), 35 (supports of the basin at the top), 36 (corrupt dittography from v. 35: see Skinner's note in the Century Bible), x. 16 (of the 'arms' of a throne). These 'hands,' or tenons, as ordinarily understood, were pegs projecting underneath the bottom of the boards, to hold them firm in their sockets (v. 19).

joined the word (only here and in the ||, xxxvi. 22) means joined by

P the tabernacle. the tabernacle, twenty boards for the south side southward. And thou shalt make forty sockets of silver under the twenty 19 boards; two sockets under one board for its two tenons, and two sockets under another board for its two tenons:

And thou shalt make the boards for 18

a cross-piece (cf. the cognate shělabbim, 1 K. vii. 28, 29t, 'cross-pieces,' or 'cross-rails' [see Skinner's note: in EVV. misrendered ledges], and the post-Bibl. shělībah, the 'rung' of a ladder), clamped together. The tenons of each board (or frame) were secured in their places by a clamp of metal underneath the bottom of the board.

Kennedy, however (p. 660a), understands the 'hands' not of tenons, but of the upright sides of the 'frame' themselves, and would render vv. 15-17 thus: 'And thou shalt make the frames for the Dwelling of acacia wood, standing up,-10 cubits the length of a frame, and I cubits the breadth of a frame,-namely, two uprights for [so rightly, for EVV. in] each frame, joined one to another by cross-rails [see the illustr.]: thus shalt thou make for all the frames of the Dwelling.' The translation is quite legitimate (for there is in the Heb. no 'shall be' in either v. 16 or v. 17), and the explanation clever: but it is difficult to feel certain that such 'uprights' would be called hands in Heb. The sense 'frames' for ķērāshim is not dependent upon it; and it is perhaps safer to adhere to the usual rend. 'tenons.'

18-25. The number of frames for each side of the Dwelling, and the arrangements for holding them firmly in their place.

18. for the south side southward] lit., with not quite the same tautology as the English, towards (the) Negeb, southward. The 'Negeb' (properly, as Aram. shews, meaning dry land) is a geographical term denoting the arid district in the S. of Judah (Gen. xii. 9 RVm., Jos. xv. 21, and often); as this district was on the S. of Canaan, it became the most usual word in Heb. for 'south.' Its use in the Pent. is an indication that this was written after Israel had lived long enough in Canaan for 'négeb' to have acquired this sense. The same pleonasm recurs in xxvii. 9, and in the || ||, xxxviii. 9, xxxvi. 23, Ez. xlvii. 19, xlviii. 28; and there are similar ones in xxvii. 13 ( xxxviii. 13), Nu. xxxiv. 15.

19. sockets] bases (Ez. xli. 22 RVm.), or pedestals (cf. Job xxxviii. 6 'foundations'; Cant. v. 15 supporting pillars), i.e. solid blocks of silver-acc. to xxxviii. 27 weighing a talent (96 lbs.) each-resting on the ground, and, naturally, with sockets' in them to receive the 'tenons.' A talent of silver, of the sacred standard, weighed probably (DB. iii. 422b, 419b) about 96 lbs. av. : so that, as a cubit ft. of silver weighs 655 lbs., the talent would amount to about 250 cubic inches, i.e. it might form a block about 7 in. square and 5 in. deep: two such blocks were to stand under each of the frames. Kennedy, however, discarding xxxviii. 27 as part of a late addition to P (see on xxxviii. 24-31), pictures each base as a square plinth, cubit on the side and a