Exoduschapter 40
38 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th or 13th century BC · The Law
Key verse
Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.
It stands in The Glory Fills the Tabernacle, verses 34 to 38.
The chapter
Chapter summary
The tabernacle raised. On the first day of the first month of the second year, Moses sets up the tabernacle, the ark within the veil, the table and the lampstand in the holy place, the incense altar before the veil, the bronze altar at the door, the laver between the tent and the altar. He anoints the tabernacle and the furnishings and the priests. Then the cloud covers the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD fills the tabernacle; Moses cannot enter. When the cloud lifts, Israel journeys; when it rests, they camp. ‘The cloud of the LORD was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.’
Context
Law · Moses · Exodus overview
The world of this chapter
- Who
- Israel in the wilderness, who from this day moved only when the cloud moved
- Where
- The camp at Sinai, as the tent is raised and the cloud settles on it
- When
- Israel at Sinai, the tabernacle raised and the glory come down. The first day of the first month of the second year after leaving Egypt, which the chapter states at verses 2 and 17. 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
Moses performs every act in this chapter himself, since Aaron and his sons are being consecrated in it and the seven days of that rite are carried out in Leviticus 8. The date is the most exact in the book, the first day of the first month of the second year, and 12:2 had made that month the beginning of months for Israel. Numbers 33:3 says Israel left Rameses on the fifteenth day of the first month, so the structure stands two weeks short of a year after that night. The place is the camp at the foot of Sinai, and Numbers 1:1 opens one month later in the same place.
Show the rest of the historical context, 2 more paragraphs
The occasion is the raising of everything that had been made, the anointing of it, and the consecration of the priesthood.
A first hearer knew the order of erection mattered, since the ark goes in first and the work runs outward from there to the courtyard gate. A man bringing a sacrifice met those things in the reverse of the order they were set up in. A first hearer also knew what the cloud on the tent meant for daily life, because the camp moved when it lifted and stayed while it stayed. The book began with a people made to serve Pharaoh with rigour at 1:13 and 1:14, and the Hebrew root behind that service is the root behind the order of service the book closes with.
Significance
The God who had spoken from a mountain they could not touch now filled a tent in the middle of their camp. That was the point of the exodus, and the book stops the moment it happens.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
Their travel schedule was no longer their own. Israel left Egypt on Pharaoh's timetable, and from here they moved on God's.
Where the chapter sits
Exodus 40 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).
Glory fills the tabernacle. Israel's journeys now take their cue from the cloud that rests on the tent.
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, vv. 33 to 35
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Set Up the Tabernacle and Anoint It
The last chapter of Exodus opens with a date. Exodus 12:2 had made this month the beginning of months for Israel, so the tent goes up on the first day of the year that the passover created. A calendar reset at the start of the deliverance is answered here by a dwelling place standing in the middle of the camp.
Exodus 40:1
“And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... When the tabernacle, and the work of it, were finished, and he had taken a survey of it, and everything belonging to it, which appeared to be done as was ordered: saying; as follows.”
Exodus 40:2
“On the first day of the first month,.... Which was the month Nisan, as the Targum of Jonathan expresses it; which was the month the children of Israel came out of Egypt, out of which they had now been a whole year, excepting fourteen days: shalt thou set up the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation; the tabernacle, which had a tent or covering over it, to which the people were gathered at times for religious service.”
2 more voices on this verse
Exodus 40:2
“The first day of the first month - It Is generally supposed that the Israelites began the work of the tabernacle about the sixth month after they had left Egypt; and as the work was finished about the end of the first year of their exodus, (for it was set up the first day of the second year), that therefore they had spent about six months in making it: so that the tabernacle was erected one year all but fifteen days after they had left Egypt.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Exodus 40:2
“The time for doing this is, On the first day of the first month - This wanted but fourteen days of a year since they came out of Egypt. Probably the work was made ready just at the end of the year, so that the appointing this day gave no delay. In Hezekiah's time they began to sanctify the temple on the first day of the first month, 2 Chron. xxix, 17.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The order of the command runs from the inside out. The ark goes in first and the vail covers it before anything else is placed, then the table and the candlestick, then the altar of gold for the incense, then the hanging at the door. Most of what is arranged here stands in two rooms closed to everyone outside the priesthood.
Exodus 40:4
“Thou shalt bring in the table, and set in order the things, etc. - That is, Thou shalt place the twelve loaves upon the table in the order before mentioned. See Clarke’s note on Exo 25:30.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 40:4
“The directions given in Lev 24:5-9 are here presupposed, and must have been issued before this chapter was written.”
Outside the tent the order keeps running outward, the altar of burnt offering at the door, the laver between the altar and the tent, then the court and the hanging at its gate. A man bringing a sacrifice met these in the reverse of the order they were set up in, gate first and the door of the tent last. Exodus 27:9-19 gave that court its measure of a hundred cubits by fifty, so the whole dwelling stood inside a fence of fine twined linen.
Exodus 40:6
“And thou shall set the altar of the burnt offering,.... Where the sacrifices of the people were to be brought, and offered up by the priests; and this was to be set up in the open court, as it was proper it should, both because of the smell and smoke of the sacrifices: before the door of the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation; just a little before the entrance into the holy place.”
Exodus 40:7
“And thou shall set the laver,.... As is directed in Exo 30:18.”
Exodus 40:8
“And thou shall set up the court round about,.... Which consisted of various hangings, east, west, north, and south; see Exo 27:9.”
Take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle: The oil compounded by the recipe of Exodus 30:22-33 goes over the tent, its vessels, the altar and the laver, and what changes is the status of each thing rather than the look of it. Matthew Henry observes that each item was sanctified once it stood in its proper place, since until then it was not fit for the use it was set apart for. The altar of burnt offering is called most holy, and it is the one anointed piece standing in the open court where the people came.
Exodus 40:9
“Observe, Every thing was sanctified when it was put in its proper place, and not till then, for till then it was not fit for the use to which it was to be sanctified.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Exodus 40:10
“Most holy - In Exo 40:9 the tabernacle and its utensils are said to be rendered holy by the anointing; the altar and its utensils are in Exo 40:10 said to be “most holy”. The difference does not express a higher degree of holiness: it is only used as a caution. The position of the altar exposed it to the chance of being touched by the people when they assembled in the court, while they were not permitted to enter the tabernacle. The tabernacle itself, with all that belonged to it, is called most holy in Exo 30:29.”
Aaron is washed with water, clothed in the holy garments, and anointed, in that order. Exodus 29 laid out the whole rite and this is the order to carry it out. The word anoint first occurs in Scripture at Exodus 28:41 and the word atonement at Exodus 29:33, so both arrive with the priesthood rather than with the passover seventeen chapters earlier.
Exodus 40:12
“And thou shalt bring Aaron and his sons to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation,.... To wash, anoint, and clothe them, as in the two following verses Exo 40:13, that they might minister in the priest's office, according to Exo 28:41.”
2 more voices on this verse
Exodus 40:12
“Hence it appears how foolishly the Popish bishops, as it were, ape Moses, when, in imitation of him, they sprinkle their priests and altars and other rubbish with stinking oil, since it is abundantly clear that this ceremony of anointing, belonging as it did to the ancient shadows of the Law, ceased at the coming of Christ.”
John Calvin· Commentaries (1554)reformed
Exodus 40:12
“The law which was now ordered to be put in execution we had before, ch. xxix. Thus in the visible church, which is God's tabernacle among men, it is requisite that there be ministers to keep the charge of the sanctuary, and that they receive the anointing.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The sons are clothed and anointed as their father was, and the anointing is called an everlasting priesthood throughout their generations. Hebrews 7:23-24 takes up the same office and says the priests were many in number because death did not suffer them to continue. Two of the sons anointed in this verse die offering strange fire at Leviticus 10:1-2.
Moses Finishes All the Work
One verse carries the whole report of the obedience. The phrase as the Lord commanded Moses falls fifteen times in Exodus and thirteen of them are in chapters 39 and 40. Chapter 32 sits between the instructions and the building, and the refrain in these closing chapters is the record that this time the people did what they were told.
Exodus 40:16
“Thus did Moses: according to all that the Lord commanded him--On his part, the same scrupulous fidelity was shown in conforming to the "pattern" in the disposition of the furniture, as had been displayed by the workmen in the erection of the edifice.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The date is exact, the first day of the first month in the second year. Numbers 33:3 says Israel left Rameses on the fifteenth day of the first month, so the tabernacle stands two weeks short of a year after the night of the passover. Numbers 1:1 opens one month after this verse, on the first day of the second month of the same year.
The sockets go down first and everything else rests on them. Exodus 38:27 says the hundred sockets of silver were cast from the atonement money, half a shekel a man at a talent to a socket, so the frame of the dwelling place stands on ransom silver. The goats' hair tent and the coverings go over the frame, and the refrain as the Lord commanded Moses begins here and returns after each thing is put in its place.
Exodus 40:19
“And he spread abroad the tent over the tabernacle,.... Which were curtains of goats' hair: and put the covering of the tent above upon it; which was of rams' skins died red, and over that another covering of badgers' skins: as the Lord commanded Moses; Exo 26:7.”
The testimony placed in the ark is the second pair of tables, cut at Exodus 34:1 and written at 34:28 after Moses broke the first at 32:19. The mercy seat goes on above it, and the Greek word the Septuagint uses for that seat is hilasterion, which is the word Romans 3:25 applies to Christ. The vail is set up to cover the ark, and Matthew 27:51 reports that curtain torn from the top to the bottom.
Exodus 40:21
“And he brought the ark into the tabernacle,.... Into that part of it called the holy of holies: and set up the vail of the covering, and covered the ark of the testimony; the vail which divided between the and most holy place, and so kept out of sight the ark of the testimony within, from being seen by any, even by the priests in the holy place: as the Lord commanded Moses; Exo 26:33.”
The table stands on the north side outside the vail and Moses sets the bread on it before the Lord. Leviticus 24:5-9 gives the arrangement, twelve cakes in two rows renewed every sabbath, one loaf for each tribe of Israel. The bread is set out in a room that nobody outside the priesthood will ever see.
Exodus 40:22
“And he put the table in the tent of the congregation,.... In the holy place; for there the shewbread table, which is here meant, was put: upon the side of the tabernacle northward, without the vail; on the north side of the tabernacle, at a little distance from the walls, which were the curtains and boards, even in the holy place on the outside of the vail, which divided from the most holy place.”
Exodus 40:23
“And he set the bread in order upon it before the Lord,.... The shewbread, the twelve cakes of it, in two rows, six in a row: as the Lord had commanded Moses: Exo 25:30.”
The candlestick faces the table from the south side, and Moses lights the lamps himself. Aaron and his sons are washed and clothed in this chapter and the seven days of their consecration are carried out in Leviticus 8, so the priestly acts here fall to Moses. John Gill makes the same observation at the incense in verse 27.
Exodus 40:24
“And he put the candlestick in the tent of the congregation,.... In the same place, the holy place: over against the table: the shewbread table: on the side of the tabernacle southward: directly opposite to the table.”
Exodus 40:25
“And he lighted the lamps before the Lord,.... The seven lamps belonging to it: this, though it was the business of the priests of Aaron, and his sons, yet they not being at present invested with their office, was done by Moses, who in this and several other things mentioned in this chapter officiated as a priest: as the Lord commanded Moses, Exo 25:37.”
The golden altar stands before the vail, as near the ark as anything outside the most holy place, and Moses burns sweet incense on it. Exodus 30:34-38 gave the compound and forbade anyone to make it for his own use. Revelation 8:3-4 sets an angel at a golden altar with much incense offered with the prayers of all saints.
Exodus 40:26
“And he put the golden altar,.... The altar of incense; so called because it was overlaid with gold, and to distinguish it from the altar of burnt offering, which was covered with brass: to this altar there is an allusion in Rev 8:3. in the tent of the congregation, before the vail; in the same place, the holy place, where the shewbread table and candlestick were, and these were all the furniture of it; and this was put, not within the vail, but before it, over against the ark, as that stood within it, Exo 40:5.”
Exodus 40:27
“And he burnt sweet incense thereon,.... Which is another branch of the priestly office exercised by Moses, and which he would never have done had he not had a command from God for it, as follows: as the Lord commanded Moses; he commanded Moses indeed to order and direct Aaron to do this, but he being not yet consecrated, Moses, being the Lord's priest, did it.”
The hanging closes the door of the tent, and the altar of burnt offering stands outside it where the blood and the smoke belong. Moses offers the burnt offering and the meat offering on it, the first sacrifice made at the finished tabernacle. Exodus 29:38-42 had set a lamb morning and evening on that altar continually, and Leviticus 6:13 orders the fire on it never to go out.
Exodus 40:28
“And he set up the hanging at the door of the tabernacle. That is, at the door of the holy place, all being brought into it that were to be placed there.”
Exodus 40:29
“And he put the altar of burnt offering by the door of the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation,.... Of which see Exo 40:6. and offered upon it the burnt offering and the meat offering; either the burnt offering the meat offering of the daily sacrifice, as Jarchi interprets it, see Exo 28:38 or it may be rather the burnt offering and meat offering of the consecration of Aaron and his sons, Exo 29:1. as the Lord commanded Moses; in the places referred to.”
The laver sits between the altar and the door, so a priest passes the place of blood and then the place of water before he goes in. Exodus 38:8 says it was made of the looking glasses of the women assembling at the door of the tabernacle, and the text gives it no measurements. The washing is repeated every time they enter the tent or come near the altar, which makes it a thing done continually rather than once.
Exodus 40:30
“And he set the laver between the tent of the congregation and the altar,.... Of which position, see Exo 30:18. and put water there to wash withal; for the priests to wash their hands and feet with; a type of that laver or fountain opened for the house of David and inhabitants of Jerusalem to wash in, Zec 13:1.”
Exodus 40:31
“And Moses, and Aaron, and his sons, washed their hands and their feet thereat. This laver was for the priests, and Moses, officiating as a priest, washed in it, with Aaron, and his sons, whom he was now about to consecrate to the priest's office, and invest with it by offering sacrifice for them; Jarchi says this was on the eighth day of the consecration.”
The sentence that closes the building is the sentence that closed creation. Genesis 2:2 says God ended his work on the seventh day, Exodus 39:32 matches Genesis 2:1 on the work being finished, and Exodus 39:43 matches Genesis 1:31 on the maker looking at all that was made. The instructions themselves came in seven divine speeches at 25:1, 30:11, 30:17, 30:22, 30:34, 31:1 and 31:12, and the seventh of them is the sabbath.
Exodus 40:33
“So Moses finished the work--Though it is not expressly recorded in this passage, yet, from what took place on all similar occasions, there is reason to believe that on the inauguration day the people were summoned from their tents--were all drawn up as a vast assemblage, yet in calm and orderly arrangement, around the newly erected tabernacle.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The Glory Fills the Tabernacle
At Exodus 33:18 Moses asked to be shewn the glory and was set in a cleft of the rock to see the back parts of it. Here the glory fills a tent in the middle of the camp and Moses cannot get in. The man who went into the thick darkness at 20:21 and into the cloud on the mount at 24:18 stands outside a structure he has just finished. 1 Kings 8:10-11 reports the same thing at the dedication of the temple, where the priests could not stand to minister because the cloud filled the house.
Exodus 40:34
“With these the tabernacle was now filled, yet, as before the bush was not consumed, so now the curtains were not so much as singed by this fire; for to those that have received the anointing the terrible majesty of God is not destroying.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Connections1 Kings 8:10, Exodus 25:8, John 1:14, Luke 1:35
Exodus 40:35
“He was able to enter into the holy place not made with hands ( Heb. ix. 24 ); nay, he is himself the true tabernacle, filled with the glory of God ( John i. 14 ), even with the divine grace and truth prefigured by this fire and light.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The pillar that led Israel out of Egypt at Exodus 13:21 now rests on the tent and sets the pace of the camp. They move when it lifts and they stay while it stays, and the text gives no schedule and no distance. Numbers 9:15-23 works the arrangement out at length and says they kept the charge of the Lord whether the cloud stayed two days, a month or a year.
Exodus 40:36
“While the cloud continued on the tabernacle, they rested; when it removed, they removed and followed it, as being purely under divine direction. This is spoken of more fully, Num. ix.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 40:36
“When the cloud was taken up - The subject of these three last verses has been very largely explained in the notes on Exo 13:21, to which, as well as to the general remarks on that chapter, the reader is requested immediately to refer. See Clarke’s note on Exo 13:21.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The last picture in the book is a cloud over a tent by day and fire on it by night, where every household in Israel can see it. Exodus opened with a people made to serve Pharaoh with rigour at 1:13-14 and closes with a tent, a priesthood and an order of service, and the Hebrew root behind serve is the same at both ends. They are still in the wilderness and still short of the land promised at Genesis 15:18, and God is living in the middle of the camp. John 1:14 says the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, using the Greek verb for pitching a tent.
Exodus 40:38
“For the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day - This daily and nightly appearance was at once both a merciful providence, and a demonstrative proof of the Divinity of their religion: and these tokens continued with them throughout all their journeys; for, notwithstanding their frequently repeated disobedience and rebellion, God never withdrew these tokens of his presence from them, till they were brought into the promised land.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 40:38
“A concealment of the tabernacle, and the glory of God in it. God did indeed dwell among them, but he dwelt in a cloud: Verily thou art a God that hidest, thyself. Blessed be God for the gospel of Christ, in which we all with open face behold as in a glass, not in a cloud, the glory of the Lord.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Keep studying
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Studies4
On this book
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 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.