Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary

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Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)

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E X O D U S

CHAP. XXXVIII.

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Here is an account,

I. Of the making of the brazen altar

(ver. 1-7),

and the laver,

ver. 8.

II. The preparing of the hangings for the enclosing of the court in

which the tabernacle was to stand,

ver. 9-20.

III. A summary of the gold, silver, and brass, that was contributed to,

and used in, the preparing of the tabernacle,

ver. 21, &c.

The Tabernacle and Its Furniture.	B. C. 1491.

     

1 And he made the altar of burnt offering of shittim wood:

five cubits was the length thereof, and five cubits the breadth

thereof; it was foursquare; and three cubits the height

thereof.

  2 And he made the horns thereof on the four corners of it; the

horns thereof were of the same: and he overlaid it with brass.

  3 And he made all the vessels of the altar, the pots, and the

shovels, and the basons, and the fleshhooks, and the firepans:

all the vessels thereof made he of brass.

  4 And he made for the altar a brazen grate of network under the

compass thereof beneath unto the midst of it.

  5 And he cast four rings for the four ends of the grate of

brass, to be places for the staves.

  6 And he made the staves of shittim wood, and overlaid them

with brass.

  7 And he put the staves into the rings on the sides of the

altar, to bear it withal; he made the altar hollow with boards.

  8 And he made the laver of brass, and the foot of it of

brass, of the looking-glasses of the women assembling, which

assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

     

Bezaleel having finished the gold-work, which, though the richest, yet

was ordered to lie most out of sight, in the tabernacle itself, here

goes on to prepare the court, which lay open to the view of all. Two

things the court was furnished with, and both made of brass:–

     

I. An altar of burnt-offering,

v. 1-7.

On this all their sacrifices were offered, and it was this which, being

sanctified itself for this purpose by the divine appointment,

sanctified the gift that was in faith offered on it. Christ was himself

the altar to his own sacrifice of atonement, and so he is to all our

sacrifices of acknowledgment. We must have an eye to him in offering

them, as God has in accepting them.

     

II. A laver, to hold water for the priests to wash in when they went in

to minister,

v. 8.

This signified the provision that is made in the gospel of Christ for

the cleansing of our souls from the moral pollution of sin by the merit

and grace of Christ, that we may be fit to serve the holy God in holy

duties. This is here said to be made of the looking-glasses (or

mirrors) of the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle.

     

1. It should seem these women were eminent and exemplary for devotion,

attending more frequently and seriously at the place of public worship

than others did; and notice is here taken of it to their honour. Anna

was such a one long afterwards, who departed not from the temple,

but served God with fastings and prayers night and day,
Luke ii. 37.

It seems in every age of the church there have been some who have thus

distinguished themselves by their serious zealous piety, and they have

thereby distinguished themselves; for devout women are really

honourable women

(Acts xiii. 50),

and not the less so for their being called, by the scoffers of the

latter days, silly women. Probably these women were such as

showed their zeal upon this occasion, by assisting in the work that was

now going on for the service of the tabernacle. They assembled by

troops, so the word is; a blessed sight, to see so many, and

those so zealous and so unanimous, in this good work.

     

2. These women parted with their mirrors (which were of the finest

brass, burnished for that purpose) for the use of the tabernacle. Those

women that admire their own beauty, are in love with their own shadow,

and make the putting on of apparel their chief adorning by which they

value and recommend themselves, can but ill spare their

looking-glasses; yet these women offered them to God,

either,

(1.) In token of their repentance for the former abuse of them, to the

support of their pride and vanity; now that they were convinced of

their folly, and had devoted themselves to the service of God at the

door of the tabernacle, they thus threw away that which, though lawful

and useful in itself, yet had been an occasion of sin to them. Thus

Mary Magdalene, who had been a sinner, when she became a penitent wiped

Christ’s feet with her hair. Or,

(2.) In token of their great zeal for the work of the tabernacle;

rather than the workmen should want brass, or not have of the best,

they would part with their mirrors, though they could not do well

without them. God’s service and glory must always be preferred by us

before any satisfactions or accommodations of our own. Let us never

complain of the want of that which we may honour God by parting

with.

     

3. These mirrors were used for the making of the laver. Either they

were artfully joined together, or else molten down and cast anew; but

it is probable that the laver was so brightly burnished that the sides

of it still served for mirrors, that the priests, when they came to

wash, might there see their faces, and so discover the spots, to wash

them clean. Note, In the washing of repentance, there is need of the

looking-glass of self-examination. The word of God is a glass, in which

we may see our own faces (see

Jam. i. 23);

and with it we must compare our own hearts and lives, that, finding out

our blemishes, we may wash with particular sorrow, and application of

the blood of Christ to our souls. Usually the more particular we are in

the confession of sin the more comfort we have in the sense of the

pardon.

     

9 And he made the court: on the south side southward the

hangings of the court were of fine twined linen, an hundred

cubits:

  10 Their pillars were twenty, and their brazen sockets

twenty; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets were of

silver.

  11 And for the north side the hangings were an hundred

cubits, their pillars were twenty, and their sockets of brass

twenty; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver.

  12 And for the west side were hangings of fifty cubits, their

pillars ten, and their sockets ten; the hooks of the pillars and

their fillets of silver.

  13 And for the east side eastward fifty cubits.

  14 The hangings of the one side of the gate were fifteen

cubits; their pillars three, and their sockets three.

  15 And for the other side of the court gate, on this hand and

that hand, were hangings of fifteen cubits; their pillars

three, and their sockets three.

  16 All the hangings of the court round about were of fine

twined linen.

  17 And the sockets for the pillars were of brass; the hooks

of the pillars and their fillets of silver; and the overlaying

of their chapiters of silver; and all the pillars of the court

were filleted with silver.

  18 And the hanging for the gate of the court was needlework,

of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen: and

twenty cubits was the length, and the height in the breadth

was five cubits, answerable to the hangings of the court.

  19 And their pillars were four, and their sockets of brass

four; their hooks of silver, and the overlaying of their

chapiters and their fillets of silver.

  20 And all the pins of the tabernacle, and of the court round

about, were of brass.

     

The walls of the court, or church-yard, were like the rest curtains or

hangings, made according to the appointment,

ch. xxvii. 9,

&c. This represented the state of the Old-Testament church: it was a

garden enclosed; the worshippers were then confined to a little

compass. But the enclosure being of curtains only intimated that the

confinement of the church in one particular nation was not to be

perpetual. The dispensation itself was a tabernacle-dispensation,

movable and mutable, and in due time to be taken down and folded up,

when the place of the tent should be enlarged and its cords lengthened,

to make room for the Gentile world, as is foretold,

Isa. liv. 2, 3.

The church here on earth is but the court of God’s house, and happy

they that tread these courts and flourish in them; but through these

courts we are passing to the holy place above. Blessed are those

that dwell in that house of God: they well be still praising

him. The enclosing of a court before the tabernacle teaches us a

gradual approach to God. The priests that ministered must pass through

the holy court, before they entered the holy house. Thus before solemn

ordinances there ought to be the separated and enclosed court of a

solemn preparation, in which we must wash our hands, and so draw near

with a true heart.

     

21 This is the sum of the tabernacle, even of the tabernacle

of testimony, as it was counted, according to the commandment of

Moses, for the service of the Levites, by the hand of Ithamar,

son to Aaron the priest.

  22 And Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of

Judah, made all that the LORD commanded Moses.

  23 And with him was Aholiab, son of Ahisamach, of the tribe

of Dan, an engraver, and a cunning workman, and an embroiderer in

blue, and in purple, and in scarlet, and fine linen.

  24 All the gold that was occupied for the work in all the work

of the holy place, even the gold of the offering, was twenty

and nine talents, and seven hundred and thirty shekels, after the

shekel of the sanctuary.

  25 And the silver of them that were numbered of the

congregation was an hundred talents, and a thousand seven

hundred and threescore and fifteen shekels, after the shekel of

the sanctuary:

  26 A bekah for every man, that is, half a shekel, after the

shekel of the sanctuary, for every one that went to be numbered,

from twenty years old and upward, for six hundred thousand and

three thousand and five hundred and fifty men.

  27 And of the hundred talents of silver were cast the sockets

of the sanctuary, and the sockets of the vail; an hundred sockets

of the hundred talents, a talent for a socket.

  28 And of the thousand seven hundred seventy and five shekels

he made hooks for the pillars, and overlaid their chapiters, and

filleted them.

  29 And the brass of the offering was seventy talents, and two

thousand and four hundred shekels.

  30 And therewith he made the sockets to the door of the

tabernacle of the congregation, and the brazen altar, and the

brazen grate for it, and all the vessels of the altar,

  31 And the sockets of the court round about, and the sockets of

the court gate, and all the pins of the tabernacle, and all the

pins of the court round about.

     

Here we have a breviat of the account which, by Moses’s appointment,

the Levites took and kept of the gold, silver, and brass, that was

brought in for the tabernacle’s use, and how it was employed. Ithamar

the son of Aaron was appointed to draw up this account, and was thus by

less services trained up and fitted for greater,

v. 21.

Bezaleel and Aholiab must bring in the account

(v. 22, 23),

and Ithamar must audit it, and give it in to Moses. And it was

thus:–

1. All the gold was a free-will offering; every man brought as he

could and would, and it amounted to twenty-nine talents, and 730

shekels over, which some compute to be about 150,000l. worth of

gold, according to the present value of it. Of this were made all the

golden furniture and vessels.

2. The silver was levied by way of tax; every man was assessed half a

shekel, a kind of poll-money, which amounted in the whole to 100

talents, and 1775 shekels over,

v. 25, 26.

Of this they made the sockets into which the boards of the tabernacle

were let, and on which they rested; so that they were as the foundation

of the tabernacle,

v. 27.

The silver amounted to about 34,000l. of our money. The raising

of the gold by voluntary contribution, and of the silver by way of

tribute, shows that either way may be taken for the defraying of public

expenses, provided that nothing be done with partiality.

3. The brass, though less valuable, was of use not only for the brazen

altar, but for the sockets of the court, which probably in other tents

were of wood: but it is promised

(Isa. lx. 17),

For wood I will bring brass. See how liberal the people were and

how faithful the workmen were, in both which respects their good

example ought to be followed.

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Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)

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