Monday, August 24, 2020

Exodus 36:14-34 comments: construction of the tabernacle


Exodus 36:14 ¶  And he made curtains of goats’ hair for the tent over the tabernacle: eleven curtains he made them. 15  The length of one curtain was thirty cubits, and four cubits was the breadth of one curtain: the eleven curtains were of one size. 16  And he coupled five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves. 17  And he made fifty loops upon the uttermost edge of the curtain in the coupling, and fifty loops made he upon the edge of the curtain which coupleth the second. 18  And he made fifty taches of brass to couple the tent together, that it might be one. 19  And he made a covering for the tent of rams’ skins dyed red, and a covering of badgers’ skins above that. 20  And he made boards for the tabernacle of shittim wood, standing up. 21  The length of a board was ten cubits, and the breadth of a board one cubit and a half. 22  One board had two tenons, equally distant one from another: thus did he make for all the boards of the tabernacle. 23  And he made boards for the tabernacle; twenty boards for the south side southward: 24  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 board for his two tenons. 25  And for the other side of the tabernacle, which is toward the north corner, he made twenty boards, 26  And their forty sockets of silver; two sockets under one board, and two sockets under another board. 27  And for the sides of the tabernacle westward he made six boards. 28  And two boards made he for the corners of the tabernacle in the two sides. 29  And they were coupled beneath, and coupled together at the head thereof, to one ring: thus he did to both of them in both the corners. 30  And there were eight boards; and their sockets were sixteen sockets of silver, under every board two sockets. 31  And he made bars of shittim wood; five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle, 32  And five bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the tabernacle for the sides westward. 33  And he made the middle bar to shoot through the boards from the one end to the other. 34  And he overlaid the boards with gold, and made their rings of gold to be places for the bars, and overlaid the bars with gold.

Notes made previously are relevant here. Goats’ hair will be used for the curtains for the tent over the tabernacle. Modern-day Bedouins have tents, tent-ropes, and rugs made from spun goats’ hair. It was used for pillows.
1Samuel 19:13  And Michal took an image, and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goats’ hair for his bolster, and covered it with a cloth.
Writers talk about the goat hair of Asia being very fine and long and how it feels like silk. It was combed off, they write, rather than sheared. Of course, there was coarser goats’ hair which was used in the clothing of the poor, according to some writers.
Rams’ skins dyed red and badgers’ skins taken together suggest that they were used for their being impervious to the infrequent rain. However, scientists who study ancient climate patterns say that there were periods of wet and dry and we are in a dry period now. There could have been much more frequent rain storms during the time of the Exodus. Their dating methods, often hinged to assumptions and variables that can be questioned and should be, should not be taken as absolute facts. Evidence is evidence, but remember, evidence is useless unless it is interpreted. The interpretation is where the vagaries of human viewpoints, worldviews, and culturally mandated assumptions interfere, not just education.[1]  Just remember that the world is drying out after the Flood of Noah’s time in a process that is still going on today.
Shittim wood, according to Strong’s dictionary, would come from the Acacia tree. The Ark of the Covenant will be made of this wood.


[1] Abdou Abouelmagd, Mohamed Sultan, Neil C. Sturchio, Farouk Soliman, Mohamed Rashed, Mohamed Ahmed, Alan E. Kehew, Adam Milewski, & Kyle Chouinard, “Paleoclimate record in the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer, Sinai Peninsula, Egypt,” Quaternary Research, 81 (2014) 158–167. http://wrrs.uga.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Abouelmagd-et-al_2014.pdf


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