Exodus 26:30

(30) According to the fashion thereof which was shewed thee.—See Exo_25:9; Exo_25:40. However minute—even tediously minute—the description, there would necessarily have been a multitude of particulars, not to be described in words, where Moses would have to be guided by the pattern that he had seen.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

30. Cf. Exo_25:9; Exo_25:40; and see Exo_40:18.

fashion] more exactly, prescribed norm: cf. 1Ki_6:38, Eze_42:11; and see on this sense of mishpâṭ the writer’s Jeremiah, p. 345.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And thou shalt hang it upon four pillars of shittim wood, overlaid with gold,.... For it was ten cubits long, and as many broad; and being of such a stiffness and thickness as it was, required so many pillars to support it: these pillars may signify the deity of Christ, which is the support of his human nature, and in which it has its personal subsistence, and gives all its actions and sufferings virtue and efficacy; and being of "shittim wood", which is incorruptible, may denote his eternity, and being covered with gold, his glory:

their hooks shall be of gold; which were upon the tops of the pillars on which the vail was hung: and the pillars were

upon the four sockets of silver; which were properly the pedestals or feet of the pillars; and these sockets, into which the pillars were let and placed, and the hooks the vail hung by, may hint to the union of the two natures in Christ, who is God and man in one person, God manifest in the flesh; see Sol 5:15.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Either by visible representation to his eye, or rather by mental vision or impression of it upon his imagination.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

30. Thou shalt rear up the tabernacle — The making and erection of the tabernacle involved a great many details which are not here recorded; but as Moses was shown the fashion thereof, (Hebrews its judgment,) he understood perfectly what was judged, and ordered to be, the appropriate arrangement of each part.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

According to the fashion. Where the description was incomplete (and it could not but be incomplete in many points), Moses was to follow his recollection of the "pattern," which either in vision, or otherwise he had seen in the mount This would be his best guide, for

Segnius irritant animum demissa per aures, Quam quae sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus.

HOMILIES BY G. A. GOODHART Ver. 30. God dwelleth not in temples made with hands.

An idea, to be realised, must be embodied; e.g. , thoughts must be expressed in words; the vision of the artist must take form on canvas or in marble. So, too, with the Divine ideas; they also must be embodied, and as presented for man"s instruction, they must be so embodied that man may apprehend them. The unseen must be made visible; the pattern on the mount must be modelled and reared up upon the plain. Notice

I THE DIVINE IDEAL. Moses was shown the original Divine embodiment, not a mere toy model which he was to enlarge, but the actual God-fashioned tabernacle, in all the perfection of its related parts. So far as man was concerned, it might be a purely ideal structure; but the ideals of earth are the realities of heaven. The holy of holies, and the holy place, and the outer court all these must exist, or Moses could not have been shown them. May we not also discern dimly that reality which Moses saw? The holy of holies, where God"s throne is set heaven in its innermost recesses, screened off from earth by the blue sky-curtain, which no unaided eye can pierce. The holy place and the outer court, God"s earthly sanctuary, his Church in this world, related on the one side to heaven, and on the other to the world around it; the visible heavens are, in some sort, an expression of this Divine idea, illuminated by the sun, (cf. Ps 19) and with the earth from man"s standpoint forming a kind of outer court. Even this true tabernacle (cf. Heb_8:2) is only an embodiment of the Divine idea; but then it is the Divine embodiment, the expression found for it by God himself.

II THE HUMAN COPY. The divine ideal as divinely embodied is still beyond man"s understanding; it needs to be translated for men into language with which they are familiar. The child must be spoken to as, (Isa_28:11) "with stammering lips and a feigned tongue." The tabernacle of nature expresses God"s idea in polysyllables; the tabernacle which Moses reared translates it into easier language. Notice

1. The holy of holies.

(1) The sanctity of the Divine dwelling-place emphasises the sanctity of its Divine inmate. "Clouds and darkness are round about him." "Holiness becometh his house for ever.

(2) "Righteousness and judgment are the establishment of his throne;" it is founded upon a guarded law.

(3) Mercy rejoiceth over judgment. God is just, or righteous, but also the justifier who makes righteous. "Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

2. The holy place. God has made it possible for man to approach him. They who may not bear the presence may yet be admitted to the ante-chamber. The Church is the link between heaven and earth, as the high priest is the link between the Divine and human. Notice

(1) The golden altar. The fumes of the incense may penetrate the veil, which shuts out the priest who offers it. Prayer can go where the worshipper cannot go.

(2) The golden candlestick. No lamp needed in the holiest place. (cf. Rev_21:23) Here, when man meets with God, for man"s sake the lamp is needed. The light derived from God must be guarded by man, so only is the required illumination to be secured.

(3) The golden table. Furnished week by week with food satisfying alike to God and man. Such the Church a heaven on earth. Prayer ascending towards the unseen holy; light from God carefully guarded; offerings wherein God and man both find satisfaction such are the notes of a true Church, one wherein man may have communion with his Maker, holy as preluding to the holy of holies.

(4) The outer court. Here we have the first stage in man"s progress from the world God-wards. The altar and the laver, sacrifice and purification, must come before communion. Consecration and cleansing precede intercourse and fellowship, and these again prepare for the beatific vision.

Conclusion. What is the central thought thus shadowed forth? Is it not this: God"s holiness can only be approached step by step, whilst the road by which we must approach it is that which will ensure for us growth in holiness. "The pure in heart shall see God;" the beatific vision is for those only whose spiritual eyesight has been prepared for its reception. We cannot come up to the throne of God save through the outer court and through the sanctuary; sacrifice and cleansing, illumination and communion; then, for those who can receive it, the open vision and the presence of God. G.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

"And set up the dwelling according to its right, as was shown thee upon the mountain" (cf. Exo 25:9). Even the setting up and position of the dwelling were not left to human judgment, but were to be carried out כּמשׁפּטו, i.e., according to the direction corresponding to its meaning and purpose. From the description which is given of the separate portions, it is evident that the dwelling was to be set up in the direction of the four quarters of the heavens, the back being towards the west, and the entrance to the east; whilst the whole of the dwelling formed an oblong of thirty cubits long, ten broad, and ten high. The length we obtain from the twenty boards of a cubit and a half in breadth; and the breadth, by adding to the nine cubits covered by the six boards at the back, half a cubit as the inner thickness of each of the corner beams. The thickness of the corner beams is not given, but we may conjecture that on the outside which formed part of the back they were three-quarters of a cubit thick, and that half a cubit is to be taken as the thickness towards the side. In this case, on the supposition that the side beams were a quarter of a cubit thick, the inner space would be exactly ten cubits broad and thirty and a quarter long; but the surplus quarter would be taken up by the thickness of the pillars upon which the inner curtain was hung, so that the room at the back would form a perfect cube, and the one at the front an oblong of exactly twenty cubits in length, ten in breadth, and ten in height.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

והקמת את המשכן AND THOU SHALT SET UP THE TABERNACLE — after it is completed set it up....

הראית בהר This must be translated: WHICH THOU WILT before then HAVE BEEN SHOWN IN THE MOUTAIN — (The verb is future perfect). For later on I shall instruct thee and show thee the way to erect it.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.