Exoduschapter 38
31 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th or 13th century BC · The Law
Key verse
The curtain for the entrance to the courtyard was embroidered with blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and finely spun linen. It was twenty cubits long and, like the curtains of the courtyard, five cubits high,
It stands in The Court and Its Hangings, verses 9 to 20.
The chapter
Chapter summary
The bronze altar, the laver, and the court. The altar of shittim wood overlaid with brass, hollow with boards, with horns at the four corners; the brass grating and staves. The laver of brass, made of the mirrors of the serving-women. Instruments of vanity now put to holy use. The court of fine twined linen, its gate of blue and purple and scarlet, hung on pillars with silver hooks. A careful inventory of the metals used: twenty-nine talents and seven hundred thirty shekels of gold; a hundred talents and 1,775 shekels of silver from the atonement money; seventy talents and 2,400 shekels of brass. Every half-shekel accounted for.
Context
Law · Moses · Exodus overview
The world of this chapter
- Who
- Israel in the wilderness, given a public reckoning of what they had given
- Where
- The bronze work and the courtyard, and the audited accounts of the whole project
- 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 is named again at verse 22 as the maker with Oholiab beside him, and the inventory at the end is recorded by the Levites under Ithamar son of Aaron the priest. 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, and the chapter's subject is the courtyard around the tent, a hundred cubits by fifty.
Show the rest of the historical context, 2 more paragraphs
The occasion is the finishing of the outdoor work, followed by a public accounting of every metal that went into the structure.
A first hearer knew what the mirrors of verse 8 were, since Egyptian mirrors were polished bronze discs with ornamented handles and were personal possessions of real value. A first hearer also knew that itemised building accounts were the kind of document ancient administrations kept, and the totals here are given by talent and shekel. The silver came in on different terms from the gold, because 30:12 to 30:16 had levied it at half a shekel from every man numbered and called it a ransom for his life. The census figure of 603,550 at verse 26 is the figure Numbers 1:46 reports about a year later. How it should be read is one of the four debated points the Exodus dossier already carries.
Significance
The books were opened. Nobody in Israel had to wonder where the offering went, because the totals were published and the silver could be checked against the head count.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The mirrors are worth pausing on. Women gave up the objects they had used to look at themselves, and the priests washed in what was made from them.
Where the chapter sits
Exodus 38 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.
The Altar and the Bronze Basin
The altar in the court is the one article of furniture an ordinary Israelite could come near, and it is overlaid with brass rather than gold, which is the metal of the whole court. Its horns are of the same piece as the altar rather than fitted on, and the blood of the sin offering is put on them at Exodus 29:12. At 1 Kings 1:50 and again at 2:28 a man in fear of his life lays hold of the horns of the altar, which is a use Exodus never describes.
Exodus 38:1
“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.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The altar is hollow with boards rather than solid, and it carries rings and staves like the ark inside the vail. Everything in the court is built to be taken down and carried, and Numbers 4:13-14 gives the order for covering this altar and bearing it on the march. Its tools are brass like the altar itself, so nothing of gold is handled where the people stand.
The laver is the only vessel in the tabernacle whose material is traced to the people who gave it, and the verse names the women assembling at the door and then says nothing further. Exodus 30:18 commanded a laver of brass and gave neither its size nor its source, so this line supplies what the instruction left out and still gives no measurement. The same phrase for women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle returns at 1 Samuel 2:22, where it describes a standing service at the entrance rather than a crowd passing by. Matthew Henry reads the gift as women parting with the metal they had used to look at themselves in, and Adam Clarke argues the word means polished mirrors, since glass did not yet exist and could not have been cast into a laver.
Exodus 38:8
“He made the laver - See Clarke’s note on Exo 30:18, etc. The looking-glasses - The word מראת maroth, from ראה raah, he saw, signifies reflectors or mirrors of any kind. Here metal, highly polished, must certainly be meant, as glass was not yet in use; and had it even been in use, we are sure that looking - Glasses could not make a Brazen laver. The word therefore should be rendered mirrors, not looking-glasses, which in the above verse is perfectly absurd, because from those maroth the brazen laver was made.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The Court and Its Hangings
The court is walled with cloth rather than stone, a hundred cubits by fifty, and every hanging around it is plain white linen. Colour is held back for the gate alone in verse 18. Three sides get their pillars and sockets counted and the east side gets one short line, because the east is where the way in is and the account turns from wall to entrance.
Exodus 38:9
“And he made the court - The walls of the court, were like the rest, curtains, or hangings. 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 inclosure being of curtains only, intimated that that confinement of the church to one particular nation was not to be perpetual.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 38:9
“And he made the court,.... The open court of the tabernacle, where the people met, of which, its pillars, sockets, hangings, hooks, and pins, an account is given, to Exo 38:10 of which See Gill on Exo 27:9, Exo 27:10, Exo 27:11, Exo 27:12, Exo 27:13, Exo 27:14, Exo 27:15, Exo 27:16, Exo 27:17, Exo 27:18, Exo 27:19.”
Every pillar of the court stands in a brass socket and is banded and capped in silver, and verse 28 says where that silver came from. It is the odd 1,775 shekels left over from the ransom money once the hundred sockets of the dwelling had been cast. A man walking into the court passed his own half shekel worked into the fittings above his head.
Exodus 38:17
“The hooks - and their fillets - The capitals, and the silver bands that went round them; see Clarke’s note on Exo 26:32.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The one door into the court wears the four materials of the vail and the inner curtain, blue and purple and scarlet and fine twined linen, and the wall on either side of it does not. It is twenty cubits wide in a wall a hundred cubits long, so the entrance is marked out by colour where everything else is white. Exodus 26:31 puts cherubims into the vail and 26:36 leaves them out of the tent door, and this gate follows the door rather than the vail.
The Reckoning of the Metals
The metals given for the tabernacle are counted and the count is written into the record, taken by Ithamar under Moses' commandment. Bezaleel is named again as the man who made all that the LORD commanded, and Exodus 31:3 is the first place in Scripture that anyone is said to be filled with the Spirit of God, given for cutting stone, working metal and carving wood. He is of Judah and Aholiab is of Dan, so the work is not held by one tribe. The line about doing all that the LORD commanded Moses becomes the refrain of chapters 39 and 40, where it occurs thirteen times.
Exodus 38:21
“This is the sum of the tabernacle--Having completed his description of the component parts of the tabernacle, the inspired historian digresses into a statement respecting the gold and silver employed in it, the computation being made according to an order of Moses--by the Levites, under the direction of Ithamar, Aaron's youngest son.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Exodus 38:22
“And Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah,.... Of whom and his descent see Exo 31:2. made all that the Lord commanded Moses; gave directions about them, and took care that the tabernacle and all things belonging to it were made, which the Lord commanded Moses, and in the exact manner in which they were ordered to be made.”
Exodus 38:23
“And with him was Aholiab, son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan,.... Of him see Exo 31:6. an engraver; of precious stones, as those in the ephod and breastplate: and a cunning workman; in devising and working curious figured works, either in weaving or with the needle: and an embroiderer in blue, and purple, and in scarlet, and in fine linen; which were used in the curtains and hangings of the tabernacle, and in the priests' garments.”
The gold came in as an offering and the silver did not. Exodus 30:12-16 fixed the silver at half a shekel from every man numbered, with the rich forbidden to give more and the poor forbidden to give less, and called it a ransom for his soul. The 603,550 men counted here is the same figure Numbers 1:46 reports for the census taken about a year later.
Exodus 38:24
“All the gold that was occupied for the work, etc. - To be able to ascertain the quantum and value of the gold, silver, and brass, which were employed in the tabernacle, and its different utensils, altars, etc., it will be necessary to enter into the subject in considerable detail. In the course of my notes on this and the preceding book, I have had frequent occasion to speak of the shekel in use among the ancient Hebrews, which, following Dean Prideaux, I have always computed at 3s (shillings), English. As some value it at 2s.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Exodus 38:25
“It may seem difficult to imagine how the Israelites should be possessed of so much wealth in the desert; but it should be remembered that they were enriched first by the spoils of the Egyptians, and afterwards by those of the Amalekites. Besides, it is highly probable that during their sojourn they traded with the neighboring nations who bordered on the wilderness [HEWLETT].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Exodus 38:26
“A bekah for every man - The Hebrew word בקי beka, from בקי baka, to divide, separate into two, seems to signify, not a particular coin, but a shekel broken or cut in two; so, anciently, our farthing was a penny divided in the midst and then subdivided, so that each division contained the fourth part of the penny; hence its name fourthing or fourthling, since corrupted into farthing. There appear to be three particular reasons why much riches should be employed in the construction of the tabernacle, etc.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The ransom money is accounted for to the shekel and it went into the ground. A hundred talents made a hundred sockets at a talent each, ninety six under the boards of the dwelling and four under the pillars of the vail, so the frame of the tent stands on the price paid for the men who were numbered. Exodus 30:16 said the money was to be appointed for the service of the tabernacle, and this verse says which part of the service it became.
Exodus 38:27
“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.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Exodus 38:28
“The hooks, chapiters, and fillets here spoken of belonged to the pillars of the court. See Exo 27:10, Exo 27:17.”
The brass total closes the audit, and what it made runs from the altar down to the tent pins. The three metals of the chapter fall by distance from the ark, gold within the vail, silver at the foundations and the fittings, brass out in the court where the people stood. The last thing counted is a pin, the smallest object in the structure, entered in the record beside the altar.
Exodus 38:29
“And the brass of the offering was seventy talents, and two thousand four hundred shekels. Which, according to Paris weight, were 6177 pounds, ten ounces, two drachms, and sixty four grains (w): this might be had from the neighbouring mountains of Arabia, where it is said (x) the metals of brass and iron were first dug. (w) Vid. Scheuchzer, ut supra. (Physic. Sacr. vol. 2. p. 253.) (x) Aristeas de 72. interpret. p. 42. Vid. Hieron. de loc. Hebr. fol. 90. A.”
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 38:29
“According to the estimate of the shekel that has here been adopted, the weight of the metals mentioned in this chapter would be nearly as follows, in avoirdupois weight: Gold 1 ton 4 cwt. 2 qrs. 13 lbs. Silver 4 tons 4 cwt. 2 qrs. 20 lbs. Bronze 2 tons 19 cwt. 2 qrs. 11 lbs. The value of the gold, if pure, in our money would be 175,075 British pounds, 13 shillings, and of the silver, 38,034 British pounds, 15 shillings 10d.”
Exodus 38:30
“And therewith he made the sockets to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation,.... Which were five; see Exo 26:37. and the brazen altar, and the brazen grate for it, and all the vessels of the altar; which were all made of brass; see Exo 27:2.”
Exodus 38:31
“And the sockets of the court round about, and the sockets of the court gate,.... These were also of brass, in all sixty: and all the pins of the tabernacle, and all the pins of the court round about; the pins for the curtains of the tabernacle, and for the hangings of the court; see Exo 27:19.”
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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; 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 and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.