Exoduschapter 37
29 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th or 13th century BC · The Law
Key verse
Bezalel went on to construct the ark of acacia wood, two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high.
It stands in Bezalel Makes the Ark, verses 1 to 9.
The chapter
Chapter summary
The ark, the mercy seat, the table of shewbread, the golden lampstand, and the altar of incense all wrought. Bezaleel himself makes the ark. Shittim wood overlaid within and without with pure gold; the crown of gold round about; four rings of gold in the four corners; staves overlaid with gold; the mercy seat of pure gold, the two cherubim of beaten work covering it with their wings, facing each other, their faces toward the mercy seat. The table, the lamp-stand with its seven lamps and snuffers of pure gold, and the altar of incense with its horns and its crown. Chapter 25's instructions fulfilled in order. Everything exactly as Moses saw in the mount.
Context
Law · Moses · Exodus overview
The world of this chapter
- Who
- Israel in the wilderness, whose most sacred objects were made by a man they could name
- Where
- Bezalel's workshop, where the ark, the table, the lampstand and the altar of incense are made
- When
- Israel at Sinai, the building of the tabernacle. The first year after the exodus, in the months of the building. The early dating puts the year near 1446 BC, read from the four hundred and eighty years of 1 Kings 6:1. A thirteenth-century date is held by scholars who read the store cities of Exodus 1:11 as Ramesside. This page states no verdict between them.
Historical context
Bezalel son of Uri is named at verse 1 as the maker of the ark, where the curtains of the previous chapter are credited to the skilled workmen generally. It falls in the months of the building, in the first year after the exodus. The place is the camp at the foot of Sinai.
Show the rest of the historical context, 2 more paragraphs
The occasion is the making of the furniture for the two rooms inside the tent, which only priests would ever see.
A first hearer knew what hammered gold work of this quality meant, since beating two cherubim and a lid out of one piece of pure gold is elite metalcraft. A first hearer also knew how the surrounding nations furnished a sanctuary, and the seat between these cherubim carries no image on it. The ornament of the lampstand is almond blossom, which is what Aaron's rod brings forth at Numbers 17:8 on the day God settles who is to serve Him. The tabernacle description gives no window anywhere, so the seven lamps of verse 23 were the only light in the holy place.
Significance
The gold that had been an idol in chapter 32 is a mercy seat in chapter 37. It is the same metal, in obedient hands, worked to a given pattern.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The lampstand told them that the God who has no image lights His own house. The room it lit had no other source of light in it.
Where the chapter sits
Exodus 37 falls in Tabernacle, pattern, break, construction (chapters 25–40). Instructions given (25–31); the golden calf and covenant renewed (32–34); the tabernacle built and the glory descending (35–40).
Before it: Covenant at Sinai, chapters 19–24.
The whole shape of Exodus→The structure of this chapter
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Bezalel Makes the Ark
The curtains of the previous chapter are credited to every wise hearted man among them at 36:8, and the ark is credited to Bezaleel by name. Exodus 31:3 says God filled him with the spirit of God for working metal, cutting stone and carving wood, and no person before him in Scripture is said to be filled with the Spirit. John Gill passes on Jarchi's reading, that the work carries his name because he gave his mind to it beyond the rest of the wise men. These building chapters repeat chapters 25 to 31 almost word for word, and the repetition is the report that this time the people did exactly what they were told, placed immediately after the chapter where they did the opposite.
Exodus 37:1
“And Bezaleel made the ark of shittim wood,.... Jarchi says, because he gave his mind to this work more than the rest of the wise men, it is called by his name.”
The rings are cast into the corners and the staves go in, and Exodus 25:15 had added one line that this chapter does not repeat, that the staves shall not be taken from it. The ark is therefore fitted to be carried on shoulders and to stay fitted for it, even while standing still behind the vail. 2 Samuel 6:3 has the ark moved on a new cart instead and Uzzah dies at the threshingfloor, and 1 Chronicles 15:15 records the correction, the Levites bearing it on their shoulders with the staves thereon as Moses commanded.
The mercy seat is solid gold rather than wood overlaid with gold, and it is the one piece of furniture given a length and a breadth with no height, here and at the command in 25:17. The cherubims are beaten out of that same piece, so the guards and the seat are a single object, and their faces are turned inward and down toward it. Cherubims stood at the east of Eden in Genesis 3:24 keeping the way, and here they look at the place where blood is put. The Septuagint renders mercy seat with the Greek hilasterion, the word Romans 3:25 uses of Christ, and Hebrews 9:5 calls these the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat.
Exodus 37:6
“He made the mercy-seat - See this described Exo 25:17 (note).”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Exodus 37:8
“One cherub on the end on this side, and another cherub on the other end on that side: out of the mercy-seat made he the cherubims on the two ends thereof.”
John Calvin· Commentaries (1554)reformed
Exodus 37:9
“And the cherubims spread out their wings on high, and covered with their wings over the mercy-seat, with their faces one to another; even to the mercy-seat-ward were the faces of the cherubims.”
John Calvin· Commentaries (1554)reformed
The Table and Its Vesselsvv. 10-16
The table takes rings and staves like the ark, so every piece inside the holy place is built to be carried. Its vessels are finished here in pure gold, the dishes and the spoons and the bowls and the covers. The bread the table is named for does not appear in this chapter at all, since 25:30 had ordered shewbread set before the LORD alway and Moses sets it in order at 40:23.
Exodus 37:16
“And we know that in the tabernacle of God not only bowls but also, by the Lord's command, cups were made. By bowls, indeed, abundant teaching is designated; by cups, however, small and limited knowledge. One person, full of the teaching of truth, intoxicates the minds of his hearers. By what he says, therefore, he surely offers a bowl.”
Gregory the Dialogist· written before 604· Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 6patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 37:16
“He made the vessels - See all these particularly described in the notes on Exo 25:29 (note).”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The Lampstand Hammered from Gold
The candlestick is the one item of furniture with no dimensions given, here or in the command at 25:31 to 25:39, where the only quantity stated is a weight of gold. It is hammered from a single piece and verse 22 says so plainly, all of it one beaten work, so the shaft and the six branches and every bowl and knop and flower are the same lump of metal. Its ornament is almond blossom, which is what Aaron's rod brings forth in Numbers 17:8 when God settles who is to serve him.
Exodus 37:17
“Every object was symbolical of important truth--every piece of furniture was made the hieroglyphic of a doctrine or a duty--on the floor and along the sides of that movable edifice was exhibited, by emblematic signs addressed to the eye, the whole remedial scheme of the gospel.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Exodus 37:17
“29 And he made the holy anointing oil, and the pure incense of sweet spices, according to the work of the apothecary. The making of the golden altar, on which incense was to be burnt daily, which signified both the prayers of saints and the intercession of Christ, to which are owing the acceptableness and success of those prayers.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Exodus 37:17
“He made the candlestick - See this described in the note on Exo 25:31 (note).”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The tabernacle description gives no window anywhere, so these seven lamps are the only light by which anything in the holy place is seen. The snuffers and snuffdishes belong with them, since a lamp that burns continually has to be tended continually. Zechariah 4:2 sees a candlestick all of gold with seven lamps upon it, and Revelation 1:20 says the seven golden candlesticks John saw are seven churches.
Incense Altar, Oil, and Spices
The golden altar carries horns like the altar of burnt offering in the court, and Exodus 30:10 puts blood from the sin offering on those horns once a year. It stands before the vail rather than behind it, by 30:6, so the priests reach it daily while the ark stays out of sight. The command for it came late, at 30:1 after the priesthood and the garments, and here it is made in its own place among the furniture of the holy place. Luke 1:10-11 sets Zacharias at this altar with the people praying outside, and Revelation 8:3 has the prayers of all saints offered on the golden altar before the throne.
Exodus 37:25
“The incense burnt on this altar daily, signified both the prayers of saints, and the intercession of Christ, to which is owing the acceptableness of them.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The chapter ends with two compounds rather than a piece of furniture, the anointing oil and the pure incense, both made by the work of the apothecary. Exodus 30:32-33 and 30:37-38 forbid either recipe being copied for common use, and the penalty in both places is being cut off from the people. The formula was given to the whole nation in writing and reserved to one use.
Exodus 37:29
“He made the holy anointing oil - See this and the perfume, and the materials out of which they were made, described at large in the notes on Exo 30:23-25 and Exo 30:34-38. As this chapter also is a repetition of what has been mentioned in preceding chapters, the reader is desired to refer to them.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 37:29
“Consider these three together, and they represent the glory of a holy god, the sincerity of a holy heart, and the communion that is between them, in and by a Mediator. It is the glory of a holy god that he dwells between the cherubim; that is, is continually attended and adored by the blessed angels, whose swiftness was signified by their faces being one towards another.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Keep studying
On this page
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Alfred Edersheim, The Temple: Its Ministry and Services; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Sir Robert Anderson, Types in Hebrews.