Exoduschapter 39
43 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th or 13th century BC · The Law
Key verse
From the blue, purple, and scarlet yarn they made specially woven garments for ministry in the sanctuary, as well as the holy garments for Aaron, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.
It stands in Making the Ephod, verses 1 to 7.
The chapter
Chapter summary
The priestly garments made. The ephod of gold, blue, purple, scarlet, and fine twined linen; the onyx shoulder-stones; the breastplate with its twelve stones in four rows; the robe of blue with the bells and pomegranates; the plate of pure gold engraved HOLINESS TO THE LORD fastened with a lace of blue upon the mitre. ‘As the LORD commanded Moses’ is the chapter's refrain. Seven repetitions within the chapter alone. When all is finished, the children of Israel bring all the work to Moses; he inspects it; he sees it is done according to the pattern; and he blesses them. Obedience completed, now the raising.
Context
Law · Moses · Exodus overview
The world of this chapter
- Who
- Israel in the wilderness, watching every commanded item checked off in public
- Where
- The making of the priestly garments, and the inspection of the finished work
- When
- Israel at Sinai, the building of the tabernacle completed. The first year after the exodus, at the end 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
The workmen make the garments and bring the whole of the work to Moses, who inspects it, and Aaron is the man the garments are made for three chapters after he made the calf. It falls at the end 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 completion of everything commanded in chapters 25 to 31, and the handing of it over.
A first hearer would have recognised the technique described at verses 2 and 3, where gold is hammered into thin sheets and cut into threads to be worked into the yarn. That method is attested in Egyptian metalwork, and this is the only place in Scripture that explains it. A first hearer also knew what engraving like a seal meant, because a seal was how a man signed. The bells around the hem have their reason at 28:35, that the high priest's sound would be heard when he went in before the LORD, so that he would live.
Significance
After the calf, Israel needed a chapter where nothing went wrong, and this is a checklist that passes. Every commanded item is made, brought and approved.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The blessing at the end is the first thing Moses says to the people in these chapters that carries no correction. He looks at the work, sees it was done as commanded, and blesses them.
Where the chapter sits
Exodus 39 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
Threads running through this chapter
- The work finished, and the glory come downPattern, v. 43
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Making the Ephod
The chapter opens on the phrase it repeats seven times, as the Lord commanded Moses, and the first thing named is cloths of service for the holy place. The Hebrew root behind service here is the one Exodus 1:14 used five times over for the bondage in Egypt, where the people served with rigour. Exodus begins with service to Pharaoh and closes with an order of service to God, and the book is the transfer between them.
Exodus 39:1
“It is said of those that are arrayed in white robes that they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple, Rev. vii. Holy garments were not made for men to sleep in, or to strut in, but to do service in; and then they are indeed for glory and beauty.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Gold is beaten into thin plates and cut into wires so it can be worked into the blue, the purple, the scarlet and the linen, and this is the only place in Scripture that describes how the thread was made. Adam Clarke argues the Israelites already knew how to draw gold wire, and that a beaten plate gave a more solid figure than a drawn thread would. The metal itself came out of Egypt at Exodus 12:35, where the people asked their neighbours for jewels of silver and gold, and the same gold went into the calf at Exodus 32:3.
Exodus 39:2
“Ephod - See this described, Exo 25:7 (note).”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Exodus 39:3
“They did beat the gold into thin plates - For the purpose, as it is supposed, of cutting it into wires (פתילם) or threads; for to twist or twine is the common acceptation of the root פתל pathal. I cannot suppose that the Israelites had not then the art of making gold thread, as they possessed several ornamental arts much more difficult: but in the present instance, figures made in a more solid form than that which could have been effected by gold thread, might have been required.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 39:3
"Cloth of golden tissue is not uncommon on the monuments, and specimens of it have been found rolled about mummies; but it is not easy to determine whether the gold thread was originally interwoven or subsequently inserted by the embroiderer" [TAYLOR].
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Two onyx stones sit on the shoulders of the ephod with the names of the tribes cut into them as a signet is cut, and the text gives the reason, that they should be stones for a memorial to the children of Israel. Memorial first occurs in Scripture at Exodus 3:15, where God applies the word to his own name, and here what is carried in memorial is the name of every tribe. Aaron goes nowhere in this garment without the whole nation on him.
Exodus 39:5
“And (lastly) he crowned himself with holiness to the Lord, consecrating his whole undertaking to the honour of his Father's holiness: now consider how great this man is. (2.) True believers are spiritual priests. The clean linen with which all their clothes of service must be made is the righteousness of saints ( Rev. xix.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Exodus 39:6
“Onyx stones - Possibly the Egyptian pebble. See Exo 25:7, and Exo 28:17, etc.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Making the Breastplate
The breastplate carries the same names a second time, twelve stones in four rows, each engraved like a signet, and Exodus 28:29 says Aaron bears them upon his heart when he goes into the holy place. It is a span square and made double, so it forms a pouch. The making account never mentions the Urim and the Thummim that Exodus 28:30 puts inside it, and Leviticus 8:8 is where Moses sets them in. Adam Clarke holds that several of these stones can no longer be identified with confidence and sends the reader back to Exodus 28:17.
Exodus 39:10
“And they set in it four rows of stones - See all these precious stones particularly explained in the notes on Exo 28:17 (note), etc.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Rings, wreathen chains and a lace of blue bind the breastplate to the ephod, and the paragraph ends by stating its purpose, that the breastplate might not be loosed from the ephod. That is the one purpose clause among seven verses of fastenings, and the rest is method. The names of the tribes are fixed to the garment so that they stay on it.
Robe, Tunics, and the Holy Crown
The robe is woven in one piece, all of blue, and the opening for the head is bound with a band so that it should not rend. Bells of pure gold alternate with pomegranates around the hem, and Exodus 28:35 gives the reason for the bells, that his sound shall be heard when he goeth in unto the holy place before the Lord, and that he die not. The high priest is heard before he is seen.
Exodus 39:23
“As the hole of a habergeon - The habergeon or hauberk was a small coat of mail, something in form of a half shirt, made of small iron rings curiously united together. It covered the neck and breast, was very light, and resisted the stroke of a sword. Sometimes it went over the whole head as well as over the breast. This kind of defensive armor was used among the Asiatics, particularly the ancient Persians, among whom it is still worn. It seems to have been borrowed from the Asiatics by the Norman crusaders.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Aaron and his sons share the linen, the coats and the mitre and the bonnets and the breeches and a girdle of needlework. What the sons wear is linen, while the gold, the stones and the engraved plate belong to Aaron, and the chapter grades the priesthood by its cloth without saying why. Ezekiel 44:17 and 44:18 keep linen as the ministering cloth in the temple Ezekiel is shown.
the plate of the holy crown of pure gold: A plate of pure gold is engraved like a signet with the words HOLINESS TO THE LORD and tied by a lace of blue to the front of the mitre. Holy first occurs in Scripture at Exodus 3:5, of the ground Moses is standing on at the bush, and holiness first occurs at Exodus 15:11 in the song at the sea. Exodus 28:38 says what the plate is for, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things which the children of Israel shall hallow. The last thing made for the priesthood is a sentence the priest wears on his forehead.
Exodus 39:30
“The holy crown of pure gold - On Asiatic monuments, particularly those that appear in the ruins of Persepolis and on many Egyptian monuments, the priests are represented as wearing crowns or tiaras, and sometimes their heads are crowned with laurel. Cuper observes, that the priests and priestesses, among the ancient Greeks, were styled στεφανοφοροι, or crown-bearers, because they officiated having sometimes crowns of gold, at others, crowns of laurel, upon their heads.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Moses Inspects and Blesses the Work
Genesis 2:1 reads Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and this verse opens with the same construction over a tent. The echo runs on into 39:43 and into 40:33, where Moses finished the work as God ended his work on the seventh day at Genesis 2:2. The instructions themselves came in seven divine speeches across chapters 25 to 31, and the seventh of them, at 31:12, was the sabbath.
Exodus 39:32
“Did according to all that the Lord commanded Moses - This refers to the command given Exo 25:40; and Moses has taken care to repeat every thing in the most circumstantial detail, to show that he had conscientiously observed all the directions he had received.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 39:32
“Thus was all the work finished - In not much more than five months. Though there was a great deal of fine work, such as used to be the work of time, embroidering, and engraving, not only in gold, but in precious stones, yet they went through with it in a little time, and with the greatest exactness imaginable.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Everything made is carried to Moses and listed piece by piece, from the tent and its boards through the ark and the mercy seat to the table, the candlestick, the two altars, the laver and the court. John Gill reads the bringing as an inspection, so that Moses could see whether the work matched the pattern he was shown in the mount and the instructions he had given the workmen. The inventory closes on the cloths of service and the holy garments for Aaron, which is where the chapter began at verse 1.
Exodus 39:33
“And they brought the tabernacle unto Moses,.... That is, the several parts of it before it was put together, with all its furniture, and everything appertaining to it; which are examined in the order in which they were directed to be made, from hence to the end of Exo 39:42 and this was done, that Moses might inspect the whole, and see whether it was done according to the pattern shown him, and the instructions he had given to the workmen.”
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 39:33
“Thus they showed respect to Moses, who was set over them in the Lord; not objecting that Moses did not understand such work, and therefore that there was no reason for submitting it to his judgment.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Exodus 39:37
“The pure candlestick - See Clarke’s note on Exo 25:31. The lamps to be set in order - To be trimmed and fresh oiled every day, for the purpose of being lighted in the evening. See Clarke’s note on Exo 27:21.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The refrain as the Lord commanded Moses falls seven times in this chapter, at verses 1, 5, 7, 21, 26, 29 and 31, and this verse gathers them into one statement over the whole build. Readers find chapters 35 to 40 repetitive, and the repetition is the report itself, that this time the people did exactly what they were told. It stands seven chapters after Exodus 32, where the same people brought the same gold to Aaron and made a calf out of it.
The sentence is built like Genesis 1:31, where God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. Here the behold falls on obedience, that they had done it as the Lord had commanded, even so had they done it. Moses then blesses them, as God blessed the seventh day at Genesis 2:3, and Adam Clarke sends the reader to that verse for the sense the word carries here.
Exodus 39:43
“And Moses did look upon all the work - As being the general superintendent of the whole, under whom Bezaleel and Aholiab were employed, as the other workmen were under them. They had done it as the Lord had commanded - Exactly according to the pattern which Moses received from the Lord, and which he laid before the workmen to work by. And Moses blessed them - Gave them that praise which was due to their skill, diligence, and fidelity. See this meaning of the original word in the note on Gen 2:3 (note).”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Keep studying
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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 context
Keil, The Books of the Kings and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Alfred Edersheim, The Temple: Its Ministry and Services; Chuck Missler, Learn the Bible in 24 Hours; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentary on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony; 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.