The fabric properly called the Tabernacle having moveable walls of board, was of a more substantial character than a tent; but it is right to regard it as a tent, its general appearance and arrangement being the same, and its more substantial fabric being probably on account of the weight of its several envelopes which required stronger supports than are usually necessary. It was of an oblong figure, fifty-five feet in length, by eighteen feet in breadth and height. Its length extended from east to west, the entrance being at the east end. The two sides and west end consisted of a framework of boards, of which there were twenty on each side and eight at the west end. The manner in which these boards were joined to each other so as to form a wall which might be easily taken down and set up again, may be illustrated in some degree by a reference to the windowshutters of an extensive shop; but the boards of the Tabernacle did not slide in grooves, but each was furnished at the bottom with two tenons, which were received into sockets in the bases of solid silver; and to give the whole greater security, the boards were furnished each with five rings or staples of gold, by means of which they were successively run up to their proper places on horizontal poles or bars, which served as the ribs of the fabric, binding its parts together. The boards as well as the bars were of shittim wood, overlaid with thin plates of gold. The east end, being the entrance, had no boards, but was furnished with five pillars of shittim wood overlaid with gold, and each standing on a socket of brass. Four similar pillars within the Tabernacle, towards the west or further end, supported a rich hanging, which divided the interior into two apartments, of which the outer was called 'the holy place,' and the innermost and smallest

of Holies,' in which the presence of the Lord was more immediately manifested. The separating hanging was called, by way of eminence, 'the vail;' and hence the expression within' or 'without the vail' is sometimes used to distinguish the most holy from the holy place. The people were never admitted into the interior of the tabernacle. None but the priests might go even into the outer chamber or holy place, and into the inner chamber the high-priest alone was allowed to enter, and that only once in the year, on the great day of atonement. To this, however, there was a necessary exception when the Tabernacle was to be taken down or set up. The outer chamber was only entered in the morning to offer incense on the altar which stood there, and to extinguish the lamps, and again in the evening to light them. On the Sabbath also the old shew-bread was taken away and replaced with new. These were all the services for which the attendance of the priests was necessary within the Tabernacle, all the sacrifices being made in the open space in front of the Tabernacle, where stood the brazen altar for burnt offerings. It will be useful to observe, that the most holy place contained only the ark with its contents; that the outer apartment contained the altar of incense, the table of shew-bread, and the great golden candlestick; while the open area in front of the Tabernacle contained the brazen laver for the ablutions of the priests, and the brazen altar for burnt offerings.

This description will give an idea of the general arrangement and substantial structure of the Tabernacle; and we may proceed to notice the various curtains which were thrown over and formed the outer coverings of the tent. The first or inner covering was of fin linen, splendidly embroidered with fig. ures of cherubim and fancy work in scarlet, purple, and light blue. It is

CHAPTER XXV.

ing a of every man that giveth it

ses, saying,

2 Speak unto the children of Israel that they bring me an offer

described in the same terms as the vail of the holy of holies,' and was doubtless of the same texture and appearance with the vail, which, according to Josephus, was embroidered with all sorts of flowers, and interwoven with various ornamented figures, excepting the forms of animals. Over this inner covering was another, made of goats' hair, which was spun by the women of the camp. Cloth made of goats' hair forms the customary covering for the tents of the Bedouin Arabs to this day, and it still continues to be spun and woven at home by the women. Over this covering was another of rams' skins dyed red, and over that the fourth and

take my offering.

a ch. 35. 5, 21. 1 Chron. 29. 3, 5, 9, 14. Ezra Neh. 11. 2. 2 Cor. 8.

2. 68. & 3. 5. & 7. 16.

12. & 9. 7.

outermost covering of tahash skins (see the Note on chap. 25. 5). These curtains, after covering, or rather forming, the roof, hung down by the sides and west end of the Tabernacle, those that were outside being calculated to protect the more costly ones within, while the whole combined to render the Tabernacle impervious to the rain, and safe from the injuries of the weather.

The annexed cut will give to the reader somewhat of an adequate idea of the frame work of the Tabernacle, while we have reserved to a subsequent Note, ch. 26. 14, a view of the structure in its completed state with its envelope of curtains.

2. Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me, &c. Heb. 3 va-yikhu li, that they take for me. The original word for 'take' very frequently has the import of take and bring, take and give, or take and offer. Thus Gen. 15. 9, 'Take me an heifer of three years old;' i. e. take and offer. So Ps. 68. 18, Thou hast received gifts for men Heb. 'thou hast taken;' i. e. in order to

bestow them upon men, as expounded by the apostle, Eph. 4. 8, 'gave gifts unto men.' Thus too 1 Kings, 3. 24, 'And the king said, Bring me a sword ;' Heb. 'take me a sword.' 1 Kings, 17, 10, Fetch me a little water; Heb. 'take me a little water.'-T An offering. Heb. 1 terumah, an eleva tion, a heave-offering, so called from its being lifted up when it was laid on

the earliest, and first applied to purposes of use and ornament. No other metals were employed in the construction of the Tabernacle, nor any others mentioned but in such slight allusions as to show that they were indeed known, but not in common use. The Hebrew has the same word for both copper and brass, but our translation always renders it by brass, even when the context shows that the simple metal (copper) is intended-as in Deut. 8. 9, 'Out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass'i. e. copper, brass being a compound factitious preparation. It is not always easy to distinguish where the word in the original denotes brass, and where copper. Perhaps we should always understand the latter in the more early passages where it occurs; and in later times we may assume that brass is intended where something refined and ornamental is implied in the text. The three metals, gold, silver, and copper, were naturally the first which men appropriated to their service; and the Scripture exhibits them as in use, and even abundant, in Egypt and Palestine a few ages after the flood. We know not precisely when these metals first became known; but at the time now immediately under our notice, the art of metallurgy had certainly attained considerable perfection; various personal ornaments, various utensils, and even images, of gold and silver, have already been often mentioned in the sacred text. It seems to our minds that a large mass of evidence in favor of the verity of the Pentateuch remains yet untouched—the evidence resulting | from the perfect conformity of all its allusions to the state of the arts and the materials on which the arts operate, as well as the agreement of its state ments concerning the condition of men, with the natural progress of men and of the arts they cultivate, and with the condition of things at the most early times of which profane history exhibits

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any knowledge. Even the silence of the Pentateuch, as to particulars which a later writer than Moses could scarcely have failed to notice, is not the least valuable of the internal evidences which the book bears of its own antiquity and truth.'-Pict. Bible.

4. Blue, and purple, and scarlet. These are merely the names of certain colors, while no mention is made of the thing or things colored. But as we find from the apostle, Heb. 9. 19, that scarlet wool was employed in the sprinkling of blood, the probability is that wool of those colors is intended which was afterward fabricated by the women into the curtains of the Tabernacle; for however difficult it may be to conceive that they should have had in the wilderness the implements necessary to such a process, the following passage, Ex. 35. 26, puts it beyond a doubt; ‘And all the women whose spirit stirred them up in wisdom spun goats' hair.' Thus the Heb. doctors; 'The blue spoken of in any place was wool dyed like the body of heaven; the scarlet, wool dyed in scarlet, &c.'-¶ Blue. Heb. tekëleth, blue, azure, sky-color. So Maimonides; 'This color is like the firmament.' Thus too in the Gemara (Menach. 4.) Rab. Meyr says, 'Wherein differs the non tekeleth from the other colors? Answer, because the non tekeleth is like the sea, and the sea like the firmament, and the firmament like the throne of glory, as it is said, Ex. 24. 10, 'Under his feet as it were sapphire bricks such as is the aspect of the serene heavens.” Gr. vakivbos, hyacinth. This was a color distinguish. ing the dress of princes and potentates among the ancients, with whom the art of dyeing was carried to a high degree of perfection. The splendor and magnificence of dress seem to have consisted very much in the richness of colors, and the blue, which we learn from many passages of the Scriptures to have been in great request, was imported from re

sive and elegant luxury. It is supposed by some to have been the product of the indigo, a plant deriving its origin, as it doubtless does its name, from India, where its beautiful dyes have long given value to the fine linens and cottons of that ancient empire. ¶ Purple. Heb. argaman, rendered purple by all the ancient versions. This is the name of a very precious color extracted from the purpura, or murex, a species of shell-fish, called in English the purple. This color, the same with the famous Tyrian dye, and the most celebrated of all the ancient dyes, is now lost, and it is doubted by many whether the moderns have any thing which equals it in richness and brilliancy. It is known, however, that the coloring juice of the purple was 'contained in a vessel found in the throat of the murex, and that only one drop of liquid was obtained from each. A sacred character was very early attached to the purple, and it was the predomimant color in things pertaining to the worship of God among heathen nations. In modern times, although the Tyrian purple has been long lost, yet the pride of the name is still preserved in the sacerdotal hierarchy. It was also an attribute of exalted birth and of dignities. It served as a decoration to the first magistrates of Rome, and finally became a symbol of the inauguration of the emperors. To assume the 'imperial purple' was but another name for succeeding to the throne, and the punishment of death was at length decreed against any of inferior grade who should presume to wear the royal color. To this penalty it was undoubtedly owing that the art of dyeing purple gradually disappeared from among the nations of Europe. From the epithet 'purple' being applied by Homer and Virgil to blood, it is probable that this color anciently approached much nearer to scarlet than the modern purple. Indeed the two, in the

confounded together. And so also in the New Testament we find them interchanged, as Mark, 15. 17, 'they clothed him with purple,' compared with Mat. 27. 28, 'they put on him a scarlet robe.' See also John, 19. 2. 'It is important,' says the Editor of the Pictorial Bible, 'to understand, that the word 'purple' in ancient writings does not denote one particular color. Pliny mentions the difference between some of the purples; one was faint, approaching to our scarlet, and this was the least esteemed; another was very deep approaching to violet; and a third was of a color compared to coagulated bullock's blood. The most esteemed Tyrian purple seems to have been of this last color. We say 'the most esteemed,' because it appears that even the Tyrian purple was not one particular color, but a class of animal dyes, as distinguished from vegetable, varying in shade from the most faint to the most intense.' The purple has been styled the most sublime of all earthly colors, having the gaudiness of the red, of which it retains a shade, softened with the gravity of the blue. Scarlet. Heb. yðın tolaath shani, worm of repetition. This tincture or color is expressed by a word which signifies 'worm-color,' as million,' comes from vermiculus, a little worm, from its being produced from a worm or insect which grew in a coccus, or excrescence of a shrub of the oak kind. This shrub is sometimes called the 'kermez-oak,' from 'kermez,' the Arabic word both for the worm and the color; whence the Latin carmasinus,' the French 'cramoisi,' and the English 'crimson.' The color produced from the coccus was a lively bright red, approaching to the hue of fire. In the original of the passage before us, the Heb. word ny tolaath, for the worm or coloring matter, is connected with 'Shani,' which signifies repeated or double, implying that to strike this

ver