Matthew Henry on Leviticus 24:1-9
Care is here taken, and orders are given, for the decent furnishing of the candlestick and table in God's house.
I. The lamps must always be kept burning. The law for this we had before, Exo 27:20, Exo 27:21. It is here repeated, probably because it now began to be put in execution, when other things were settled. 1. The people were to provide oil (Lev 24:2), and this, as every thing else that was to be used in God's service, must be of the best, pure olive-oil, beaten, probably it was double-strained. This was to cause the lamps to burn; all our English copies read it lamps, but in the original it is singular in Lev 24:2 - to cause the lamp to burn; but plural in Lev 24:4 - he shall order t…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Leviticus 24:5
take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes--for the showbread, as previously appointed (Exo 25:30). Those cakes were baked by the Levites, the flour being furnished by the people (Ch1 9:32; Ch1 23:29), oil, wine, and salt being the other ingredients (Lev 2:13).
two tenth deals--that is, of an ephah--thirteen and a half pounds weight each; and on each row or pile of cakes some frankincense was strewed, which, being burnt, led to the showbread being called "an offering made by fire." Every Sabbath a fresh supply was furnished; hot loaves were placed on the altar instead of the stale ones, which, having lain a week, were removed, and eaten only by the priests, except in cases of necessity (Sa1 21…
Read the whole note in the consoleAdam Clarke on Leviticus 24:5
Bake twelve cakes - See the whole account of the shew-bread in the notes on Exo 25:30 (note); and relative to the table on which they stood, the golden candlestick and silver trumpets carried in triumph to Rome, see the note on Exo 25:31.
John Gill on Leviticus 24:6
And thou shalt set them in two rows,.... The twelve cakes:
six on a row; not by the side of each other, but six upon one another:
upon the pure table; the shewbread table, so called because overlaid with pure gold, and kept clean and bright, Exodus 25:24,
before the Lord; for this stood in the holy place, in the same place as the candlestick did, which has the same position, Leviticus 24:4; of the mystical and typical sense of these cakes; see Gill on Exodus 25:30.
