Matthew Henry on Exodus 26:1-6
I. The house must be a tabernacle or tent, such as soldiers now use in the camp, which was both a mean dwelling and a movable one; and yet the ark of God had not better, till Solomon built the temple 480 years after this, Kg1 6:1. God manifested his presence among them thus in a tabernacle, 1. In compliance with their present condition in the wilderness, that they might have him with them wherever they went. Note, God suits the tokens of his favour, and the gifts of his grace, to his people's wants and necessities, according as they are, accommodating his mercy to their state, prosperous or adverse, settled or unsettled. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, Isa 43:2. 2.…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Exodus 26:3
The five curtains shall be coupled together one to another, &c.--so as to form two grand divisions, each eleven yards wide.
Adam Clarke on Exodus 26:1
Thou shalt make the tabernacle - משכן mischan, from שכן shachan, to dwell, means simply a dwelling place or habitation of any kind, but here it means the dwelling place of Jehovah, who, as a king in his camp, had his dwelling or pavilion among his people, his table always spread, his lamps lighted, and the priests, etc., his attendants, always in waiting. From the minute and accurate description here given, a good workman, had he the same materials, might make a perfect facsimile of the ancient Jewish tabernacle. It was a movable building, and so constructed that it might be easily taken to pieces, for the greater convenience of carriage, as they were often obliged to transport it from place…
Read the whole note in the consoleJohn Gill on Exodus 26:4
And thou shall make loops of blue upon the edge of the one curtain,.... The first large curtain, consisting of five sewed together, at the edge of that:
from the selvedge in the coupling; where it was to be coupled with the other great curtain; "loops" or "eyelet holes" (h), were to be made: these were not wove with the curtains, for they were not to be upon all of them, only at the two outermost of the largest ones, and therefore were made afterwards, probably with the needle:
and likewise shall thou make in the uppermost edge of another curtain, in the coupling of the second; loops also were to be made on the outermost edge of another curtain belonging to the second great curtain, where…
