13 And the breadth of the court on the east side eastward shall be fifty cubits.

14 The hangings of one side of the gate shall be fifteen cubits: their pillars three, and their sockets three.

15 And on the other side shall be hangings, fifteen cubits: their pillars three, and their sockets three. 16 And for the gate of the court shall be a hanging of twenty cubits, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with needle-work: and their pillars shall be four, and their sockets four.

17 All the pillars round about the court shall be filletted with silver: their hooks shall be of silver, and their sockets of brass.

18 ¶ The length of the court shall be an hundred cubits, and the breadth fifty every where, and the

were to be appropriated to the gate or entrance-way, this would leave of course fifteen cubits on each side.

height five cubits of fine twined
linen, and their sockets of brass.
19 All the vessels of the taber-
nacle in all the service thereof,
and all the pins thereof, and all the
pins of the court, shall be of brass.
20 And e thou shalt command
the children of Israel, that they
bring thee pure oil olive beaten for
the light, to cause the lamp to
burn always.

21 In the tabernacle of the congregation f without the vail, which is before the testimony, s Aaron and his sons shall order it from evening to morning before the LORD: h It shall be a statute for ever unto their generations on the behalf of the children of Israel.

Sam. 3. 3. 2 Chron. 13. 11. h ch. 28. 43. & 29. e Lev. 24. 2. f ch. 26. 31, 33. 5 ch. 30. 8. 1 9,28. Lev. 3. 17 & 16. 34. & 24. 9. Numb. 18. 23. & 19. 21. 1 Sam. 30. 25.

THE OIL FOR THE CANDLESTICK.

20. Pure oil olive beaten. The Lamp was to be fed with pure oil, prepared 19. The pins of the court. The nails from olives which were bruised with a or small stakes which were driven into pestle, and so free from the sediment the ground that the hangings, attached and dregs which were apt to mar that to them by cords, might be made fast at that was obtained from an oil-press or the bottom. They are represented in mill. 'By the expression oil olive, this the cut above. In allusion to these and oil is distinguished from other kinds. in view of its future glorious enlarge. The addition beaten, indicates that it ment, the prophet thus apostrophizes is that oil obtained from olives pounded the church, Is. 54. 1-3, 'Sing, O barren, in a mortar, and not pressed from olives thou that didst not bear; break forth in the oil-mill. The oil obtained from into singing, and cry aloud, thou that pounded olives is, according to Columdidst not travail with child: for more ella's observation, much purer and betare the children of the desolate than the ter tasted, does not emit much smoke, children of the married wife, saith the and has no offensive smell.' Burder. Lord. Enlarge the place of thy tent, - To cause the lamp to burn aland let them stretch forth the curtains ways. To light it regularly every night. of thy habitations; spare not, lengthen | That is said, according to Scripture thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; usage, to be always done, which never For thou shalt break forth on the right fails to be done at the appointed seahand and on the left; and thy seed son. Thus a 'continual burnt-offering' shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the is one which is continually offered at desolate cities to be inhabited. See Mr. the stated time. Barnes's Note on the passage.

21. In the tabernacle of the congre

CHAPTER XXVIII.

him, from among the children of

AND take thou unto thee Aaron Israel, that he may minister unto

thy brother, and his sons with

a Numb. 18. 7. Hebr. 5. 1, 4. The following detailed account of the manner of 'ordering' the lamps is given by Ainsworth from Maimonides. As a Rabbinical relic exhibiting a striking specimen of the scrupulous exactness with which every part of the Tabernacle service was performed, it is not without its interest. 'Of every lamp that is burnt out, he takes away the wick, and all the oil that remaineth in the lamp, and wipeth it, and putteth in another wick, and other oil by meas

gation. Heb. 2 ohel moëd, tabernacle of appointment, or of stated meeting. The common rendering, 'tabernacle of the congregation,' implies that it was so called merely from the fact of the peoples' there congregating to attend upon the worship of God, whereas the genuine force of the original expression imports not only the meeting of the people with each other, a general assembling of the host, but the meeting of God also with them, according to his promise, v. 43. 'Andure, and that is an half a log (about a there will I meet with the children of Israel, and the Tabernacle shall be sanctified with my glory? The Hebrew 7 moëd, the term in question, strictly signifies a meeting by appointment, a convention at a time and place previously agreed upon by the parties. The Chaldee both of Onkelos and Jonathan render this by mish kan zimna, tabernacle of appointed time, implying that at stated seasons the children of Israel were to have recourse thither.¶ Which is before the testimony. That is, before the Ark of the testimony. See ch. 25. 21, 22.

-T Aaron and his sons shall order it from evening to morning. Josephus, in speaking of the duty of the priests (Ant. L. III. ch. 8.), says, 'They were also to keep oil already purified for the lamps; three of which were to give light all day long, upon the sacred Candlestick before God, and the rest were to be lighted at the evening.' It is not unreasonable to suppose that this was the case, although the authority of Josephus cannot be considered as decisive of any point of Jewish antiquity. Still as he was nearer the source of tradition, his testimony is always worthy of being carefully weighed, although the whole ritual had no doubt undergone great changes before his time. I

quarter of a pint); and that which he taketh away he casteth into the place of ashes by the altar, and lighteth the lamp which was out, and the lamp which he findeth not out, he dresseth it. The lamp which is middlemost, when it is out, he lights not it but from the altar in the court; but the rest of the lamps, every one that is out he lighteth from the lamp that is next. He lighteth not all the lamps at one time; but lighteth five lamps, and stay. eth, and doth the other service; and afterwards cometh and lighteth the two that remain. He whose duty it is to dress the candlestick cometh with a golden vessel in his hand (called Cuz, like to a great pitcher) to take away in it the wicks that are burnt out, and the oil that remaineth in the lamps, and lighteth five of the lamps, and beareth the vessel there before the Candlestick, and goeth out; afterwards he cometh and lighteth the two lamps, and taketh up the vessel in his hand, and boweth down to worship, and goeth his way.' Treat. of the Daily Sacrifice, C. III. Sect. 12—17.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE PRIESTLY GARMENTS.

As full and ample directions had now

me in the priest's office, even | Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron's sons.

been given in respect to rearing and furnishing the Tabernacle as a place of worship, we have in the present chapter an intimation of the setting apart an order of men to officiate as ministers of this worship, and a minute description of the vestment by which they were to be distinguished. Previous to this time the patriarchal mode of service had no doubt obtained, every master of a family being a priest to his own household; but now as a Tabernacle of the congregation was about to be erected, as a visible centre of unity to the nation, God saw fit to order the institutions of a public priesthood, and according to previous intimation, Ex. 27. 21, Aaron and his sons are here fixed upon as didates for the high distinction.

1. Take thou unto thee. Heb. hakreb, cause to come nigh. Gr. πpocayayov, bring near. The original root

his altar. The remark is no doubt well
founded, that wherever the word is con-
nected with any of the names of God,
it always denotes a priest; but when
standing alone it usually means а
prince, or some person of eminence.
Comp. Ex. 2. 16.
Of the duties per-

this it is used concerning the sons of David, 2 Sam. 8. 18, who could not, strickly speaking, be priests; and on the same grounds the substantive kohanim is in several places in the margin rendered 'princes.' See Note on Gen. 14. 18. But as princes or can-courtiers wait on the king, and are honored by nearer access to him than others; so the priests under the law were assumed into this near relation to the King of Israel, and for this reason karab is of the most frequent oc- the term in its ordinary acceptation is currence in relation to sacrifices, and is applied more especially to the duties the ordinary term applied to the bring-of priests in ministering before God at ing near or presenting the various of ferings which were enjoined under the Mosaic ritual. It is wholly in keeping with this usage to employ it, as here, in reference to persons who by their dedication to the service of the sanctuary, were in a sense sacrificially offered up and devoted to God. Before en-taining to the priestly office we shall tering upon the description of the sa- have occasion to speak in detail in subcerdotal dresses, the historian prefaces sequent notes; but we may here oba few words respecting those who were serve briefly, that although as high to wear them, viz., Aaron and his sons; functionaries in the court of the Great of whose solemn consecration to office a King, many of their duties were of a full account is given in the next chap- civil nature, as might be expected under ter. God is introduced as especially a system in which church and state designating and appointing these in- were united, yet those that more propdividuals to the sacred function of the erly belonged to them in their sacerpriesthood; and this would have the dotal character were mainly the followeffect at once to show that this was an ing: They were to pronounce the bene. honor too great to be assumed by men diction upon the people and to conduct without a call from heaven, according the whole service of the holy place. to the Apostle's statement, Heb. 5. 4, Their's was the business of sacrificing,

2 And bthou shalt make holy ch. 29. 5, 29. & 31. 10. & 39. 1, 2. Lev. 8.

7, 30. Numb. 20. 26, 28.

garments for Aaron thy brother, for glory and for beauty.

2. Holy garments. Heb. p 7733 bigdë kodesh, garments of holiness. Gr. aroλn ȧyia, a holy stole, or perhaps collectively a quantity of holy stoles. These, garments are called 'holy' because they were designed for holy men, and because they formed part of an establishment whose general character was holy. Indeed, whatever was separated from common use, and consecrated to the immediate service of God, acquired thereby a relative holiness; so that we see the amplest ground for the bestowment of this epithet upon the sacred dresses. In ordinary life, when not engaged in their official duties, the priests were attired like other Israelites of good condition; but when employed in their stated ministrations, they were to be distinguished by a peculiar and appropriate dress. Of this dress, which was kept in a wardrobe somehow connected with the Taberna

in all its rites, in all offerings upon the alter of burnt-offerings. The government and ordering of the sanctuary and of the house of God lay upon them. They kept the table of show-bread properly supplied; they attended to the lamps of golden candelabrum every morning at the same time they burnt the daily incense, which prevented any offensive scent from the dressing of the lamps from being perceived. It was their duty to keep up the fire upon the brazen altar, that the fire originally kindled from heaven might never be extinguished. It was their office to make the holy anointing oil; and their's to blow the silver trumpets at the solemn | feasts, and also before the Ark at its removals. While their numbers were few, there was occupation enough to keep them all employed; but when they afterwards became numerous, they were divided into twenty-four bands, or courses, each of which undertook week-cle, and which was laid aside when ly, in rotation, the sacred services. But this regulation belongs to the time of David, and remains to be considered in another place. Although the Most High had before, Ex. 19. 6, said of Israel in general, 'that they should be to him a kingdom of priests,' yet this did not militate with his concentrating the office, in its active duties, in a single family, as he now saw fit to do. It was only in this way that the great ends of the institution could be attained. Of the four sons of Aaron here selected, the two eldest, Nadab and Abihu, un-ple, attending upon their service, they fortunately showed themselves ere long unworthy of the honor now conferred upon them, and perished miserably in consequence of their presumptuous levity in the discharge of their office. The succession then reverted to the line of Eleazar and Ithamar, in which it was perpetuated down to the latest period of the Jewish polity.

their ministration ceased, and returned to the wardrobe, the Jewish writers have much to say. According to them the priests could not officiate without their robes, neither could they wear them beyond the sacred precincts. Under the Temple, where the usages were no doubt substantially the same as in the Tabernacle, when the priests arrived to take their turns of duty, they put off their usual dress, washed themselves in water, and put on the holy garments. While they were in the Tem

could not sleep in their sacred habits, but in their own wearing clothes. These they put off in the morning, when they went to their service, and, after bathing, resumed their official dress. But we shall treat of the details in their order.- -T For glory and for beauty. Heb. 3 3 lekabod u-letiphareth, for glory, or honor,