Exodus 26:19 - meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Exodus 26:19
And thou shalt make forty sockets of silver under the twenty boards; two sockets under one board for his two tenons, and two sockets under another board for his two tenons.
a slab or plank · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
two
לִשְׁתֵּ֥יlish.Tei
H8147
two · preposition + cardinal number, feminine dual construct
tenons
יְדֹתָֽיוye.do.Tav
H3027
a hand (the open one (indicating power · noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Exodus 38:27 And of the hundred talents of silver were cast the sockets of the sanctuary, and the sockets of the vail; an hundred sockets of the hundred…
Exodus 26:25 And they shall be eight boards, and their sockets of silver, sixteen sockets; two sockets under one board, and two sockets under another boa…
Exodus 26:37 And thou shalt make for the hanging five pillars of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold, and their hooks shall be of gold: and thou sha…
Exodus 27:10 And the twenty pillars thereof and their twenty sockets shall be of brass; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets shall be of silver.
Exodus 27:12-18 And for the breadth of the court on the west side shall be hangings of fifty cubits: their pillars ten, and their sockets ten.
Exodus 36:24-26 And forty sockets of silver he made under the twenty boards; two sockets under one board for his two tenons, and two sockets under another b…
Exodus 38:30-31 And therewith he made the sockets to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and the brasen altar, and the brasen grate for it, and…
Exodus 40:18 And Moses reared up the tabernacle, and fastened his sockets, and set up the boards thereof, and put in the bars thereof, and reared up his…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Exodus 26:15-30
Very particular directions are here given about the boards of the tabernacle, which were to bear up the curtains, as the stakes of a tent which had need to be strong, Isa 54:2. These boards had tenons which fell into the mortises that were made for them in silver bases. God took care to have every thing strong, as well as fine, in his tabernacle. Curtains without boards would have been shaken by every wind; but it is a good thing to have the heart established with grace, which is as the boards to support the curtains of profession, which otherwise will not hold out long. The boards were coupled together with gold rings at top and bottom (Exo 26:24), and kept firm with bars that ran through g…
thou shalt make boards . . . rear up the tabernacle according to the fashion . . . which was showed thee--The tabernacle, from its name as well as from its general appearance and arrangements, was a tent; but from the description given in these verses, the boards that formed its walls, the five (cross) bars that strengthened them, and the middle bar that "reached from end to end," and gave it solidity and compactness, it was evidently a more substantial fabric than a light and fragile tent, probably on account of the weight of its various coverings as well as for the protection of its precious furniture.
Adam Clarke on Exodus 26:16
Ten cubits shall be the length of a board - Each of these boards or planks was about five yards and two feet and a half long, and thirty-two inches broad; and as they are said to be standing up, this was the Height of the tabernacle. The length being thirty cubits, twenty boards, one cubit and a half broad each, make about seventeen yards and a half, and the Breadth was about five yards.
John Gill on Exodus 26:19
And thou shall make forty sockets of silver under the twenty boards,.... Or bases (s), and which were properly the foundation of the tabernacle, on which it was settled and established; these sockets were the mortises for the two tenons of each board or plank to be placed in, and were as broad as the plank, and, joining each other, made one entire basis for the whole structure; each socket contained a talent of silver, and was made of the silver given at the numbering of the people, Exodus 38:25, and a talent of silver, according to Bishop Cumberland, amounted to three hundred and fifty three pounds, eleven shillings and some odd pence of our money: by which may be judged the whole value of…
The Church Fathers
What can the silver bases of the frames signify, except the order of prophets? They were the first to speak openly of the Lord's incarnation. They were like bases, and we see them rising from the foundations and sustaining the weight of the structure built on them. So when the Lord bade Moses build the frames of the tabernacle, Moses had the builders set them on their silver bases. What do the frames mean, except the apostles, who were spread out into the world by their preaching? What do the silver bases mean, except the prophets? They are firm, cast metal, and sustain the frames placed on them. The apostles' lives are guided by their proclamation and strengthened by their authority. So two bases are joined and placed under each frame. For when the holy prophets agree in what they say about the incarnation of the Mediator, they undoubtedly build up the preachers in the church who follow them. They do not disagree among themselves, and they make the preachers stronger. God rightly commands that the bases, which signify the prophets, should be cast in silver. The gleam of silver is maintained by use; when it is not used, it turns black. The prophets spoke before the Mediator came. Since their words were not joined into one spiritual understanding and could not be seen clearly because of the darkness, they remained, as it were, black. But afterwards, the Mediator came and cleansed our eyes with the hand of his incarnation. Whatever light was concealed in our eyes he made clear. He made the intentions of the ancient fathers useful, because he confirmed their words with his deeds.
What can the silver bases of the frames signify, except the order of prophets? They were the first to speak openly of the Lord's incarnation. They were like bases, and we see them rising from the foundations and sustaining the weight of the structure built on them. So when the Lord bade Moses build the frames of the tabernacle, Moses had the builders set them on their silver bases. What do the frames mean, except the apostles, who were spread out into the world by their preaching? What do the silver bases mean, except the prophets? They are firm, cast metal, and sustain the frames placed on them. The apostles' lives are guided by their proclamation and strengthened by their authority. So two bases are joined and placed under each frame. For when the holy prophets agree in what they say about the incarnation of the Mediator, they undoubtedly build up the preachers in the church who follow them. They do not disagree among themselves, and they make the preachers stronger. God rightly commands that the bases, which signify the prophets, should be cast in silver. The gleam of silver is maintained by use; when it is not used, it turns black. The prophets spoke before the Mediator came. Since their words were not joined into one spiritual understanding and could not be seen clearly because of the darkness, they remained, as it were, black. But afterwards, the Mediator came and cleansed our eyes with the hand of his incarnation. Whatever light was concealed in our eyes he made clear. He made the intentions of the ancient fathers useful, because he confirmed their words with his deeds. Exposition of the Old and New Testament, Exodus
Dictionary and topics
Silver — Used for a great variety of purposes, as may be judged from the frequent references to it in Scripture. It first appears in commerce in Gen. 13:2; 23:15, 16. It was largely employed for making…
Shittim · .The boards in the tabernacle ma — .The boards in the tabernacle ma
Silver · of, and in the ma — of, and in the ma
Tabernacle · .The frame — .The frame
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Moreover, thou shalt make the tabernacle. In the whole construction of the tabernacle we must remember what we have already seen, that the Israelites were instructed by external figures how precious a thing is the worship of God, and therefore that they must diligently beware lest it should be polluted by any meanness. For all this richness and magnificence of ornament was the very contrast to meanness. They were also reminded that, if they would be accounted pure worshippers of God, they must avoid all uncleanness, for the tabernacle was the type of the Church. Thus it is certain that by its external ornaments the excellency of spiritual gifts was designated. On this ground Isaiah, discours…
Twenty of these boards were to be prepared for the side of the dwelling that was turned towards the south, and forty sockets (אדנים foundations, Job 38:6) or bases for the pegs, i.e., to put the pegs of the boards into, that the boards might stand upright; and the same number of boards and sockets for the north side. תּימנה, "southward," is added to נגבּה לפאת in Exo 26:18, to give a clearer definition of negeb, which primarily means the dry, and then the country to the south; an evident proof that at that time negeb was not established as a geographical term for the south, and therefore that it was not written here by a Palestinian, as Knobel supposes, but by Moses in the desert.
The form o…
Apparently each of the bases stood beneath the junction where the frames met. The right peg of one frame and the left peg of the next frame went into one base. Along with the crossbars (26:27-28), this arrangement would contribute to the stability of the whole.
Rashi on Exodus 26:18
לפאת נגבה תימנה ON THE SOUTH SIDE SOUTHWARD — The word פאה here has not the meaning of “corner” (as e. g., Leviticus 19:9, פאת שדך) but the whole side is called פאה, as the Targum has it: לרוח עבר דרומא.
