that the hangings of this gate were of the same materials and workmanship with that of the inner covering of the tabernacle, and the outer and inner veil. See chap. xxvi. 36. Verse 19. All the vessels-shall be of brass.] It would have been improper to have used instruments made of the more precious metals about this altar, as they must have been soon worn out by the severity of the service. Verse 20. Pure oil olive beaten] That is, such oil as could easily be expressed from the olives after they had been bruised in a mortar; the mother drop, as it is called, which drops out of itself as soon as the olives are a little broken, and which is much purer than that which is obtained after the olives are put under the press. Columella, who is a legitimate evidence in all such matters, says that the oil which flowed out of the fruit either spontaneously, or with little application of the force of the press, was of a much finer flavour than that which was obtained otherwise. Quoniam longe melioris saporis est, quod minore vi preli, quasi _luxurians, defluxerit. COLUM., lib. xii., e. 50. To cause the lamp to burn always] They were to be kept burning through the whole of the night, and some think all the day besides; but there is a difference of sentiment upon this subject. See the note on the following verse. This oil and continual flame were not only emblematical of the unction and influences of the Holy Ghost, but also of that pure spirit of devotion which ever animates the hearts and minds of the genuine worshippers of the true God. The temple of VESTA, where a fire was kept perpetually burning, seems to have been formed on the model of the tabernacle; and from this the followers of Zeratusht, commonly called Zoroaster, appear to have derived their doctrine of the perpetual fire, which they still worship as an emblem of the Deity. Verse 21. The tabernacle of the congregation] The place where all the assembly of the people were to worship, where the God of that assembly was pleased to reside, and to which, as the habitation of their king and protector, they were ever to turn their faces in all their adorations. Before the testimony] That is, the ark where the Chapter xxvin. 43, xxix. 9, 28; Lev. iii. 17; xvi. 34;.xxiv. 9; Num. xviii. 23; xíx. 21; 1 Sam. xxx. 25. tables of the covenant were deposited. xxv. 16. See chap. Aaron and his sons] These and their descendants being the only legitimate priests, God having established the priesthood in this family. Shall order it from evening to morning] Josephus says the whole of the seven lamps burned all the night; in the morning four were extinguished, and three kept burning through the whole day. Others assert that the whole seven were kept lighted both day and night continually; but it appears sufficiently evident, from 1 Sam. iii. 3, that these lamps were extinguished ir. the morning: And ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep, &c. See also chap, Xxx. 8: And when Aaron LIGHTETH THE LAMPS AT EVEN. It appears therefore that the business of the priests was to light the lamps in the evening; and either to extinguish them in the morning, or permit them to burn out, having put in the night before as much oil as was necessary to last till day-light. A statule for ever] This ordering of the lamps night and morning, and attendance on the service of the tabernacle, was a statute that was to be in full force while the tabernacle and temple stood, and should have its spiritual accomplishment in the Christian Church to the end of time. Reader, the tabernacle and temple are both destroyed; the Church of Christ is established in their place. The seven golden candlesticks were typical of this Church and the glorious light it possesses, Rev. i. 12-20; and Jesus Christ, the Fountain and Dispenser of this true light, walks in the midst of them. Reader, hast thou that celestial flame to enlighten and animate thy heart in all those acts of devotion which thou professest to pay to him as thy Maker, Redeemer, and Preserver? What is thy profession, and what thy religious acts and services, without this? A sounding brass, a tinkling cymbal, TERTULLIAN asserts that all the ancient heathens borrowed their best notions from the sacred writings: "Which," says he, "of your poets, which of your sophists, have not drunk from the fountain of the prophets? It is from those sacred springs that your philosophers have refreshed their thirsty spirits; and if they found any thing in the Holy Scriptures which hit apart for the priest's office. their fancy, or which served their hypothesis, they took embroidered with purple, blue, &c. See chap. xxviii. and turned it to a compliance with their own curiosity, 15. They also ministered barefooted, their hair was not considering those writings to be sacred and unalter- trimmed or cut off, and they observed the strictest able, nor understanding their true sense, every one continency, and kept a perpetual fire burning on their altering them according to his own fancy.”—Apologet. | altars. And he farther adds that there was no image The reader's attention has already been called to or similitude of the gods to be seen in that saered this point several times in the preceding parts of this place. This is the substance of his description; but work, and the subject will frequently recur. At the as some of my readers may wish to see the original, conclusion of chap. xxv. we had occasion to observe I shall here subjoin it. that the heathens had imitated many things in that Divine worship prescribed by Moses; but in application to their own corrupt system every thing was in a certain measure falsified and distorted, yet not so far as to prevent the grand outlines of primitivé truth from being discerned One of the most complete imitations of the tabernacle and its whole service is found in the very ancient temple of Hercules, founded probably by the Phoenicians, at Gades, now Cadiz, in Spain, so minutely described by Silius Italicus from actual observation. He observes that though the temple was at that time very ancient, yet the beams were the same that had been placed there by the founders, and that they were generally supposed to be incorruptible; a quality ascribed to the shittim wood, termed §v2ov aoŋπTov, incorruptible wood, by the Septuagint. That women were not permitted to enter this temple, and that no swine were ever suffered to come near it, That the priests did not wear party-coloured vestments, but were always clothed in fine linen, and their bonnets made of the same. That they offered incense to their god, their clothes being ungirded; for the same reason doubtless given chap. xx. 26, that in going up to the altar nothing unseemly might appear, and therefore they permitted their long robes to fall down to their feet He adds, that by the laws of their forefathers they bore on their sacerdotal vestments the latus clavus, which was a round knob or stud of purple with which the robes of the Roman knights and senators were adorned, which these priests seem to have copied from the breastplate of judgment made of cunning work, Vulgatum (nec cassa fides) ab origine fani Punicor., lib. iii., ver. 17-31. This is such a remarkable case that I think myself · justified in quoting it at length, as an extraordinary monument, though corrupted, of the tabernacle and its service. It is probable that the original founders had consecrated this temple to the true God, under the name of EL, the strong God, or 1 EL GIBBOR, the sirong, prevailing, and victorious God, Isa. ix. 6, out of whom the Greeks and Romans made their Hercules, or god of strength; and, to make it agree with this appropriation, the labours of Hercules were sculptured on the doors of this temple at Gades. In foribus labor Alcidæ Lernæa recisis CHAPTER XXVIII. Aaron and his sons are set apart for the priest's office, 1. Garments to be provided for them, 2, 3. What these garments were, 4, and of what made, 5. The ephod, its shoulder-pieces and girdle, 6–8. The two obyx stones, on which the names of the twelve tribes were to be engraven, 9–14. The breastplate of judg・ment; its twelve precious stones, engraving, rings, chains, and its use, 15–29. The Urim and Thummim, 30. The robe of the ephod, its border, bells, pomegranates, &c., and their use, 31-35. The plate of pure gold and its motto, 36, to be placed on Aaron's mitre, 37, 38. The embroidered coat for Aaron, 39: Coats, girdles, and bonnets, 40. Aaron and his sons to be anointed for the priest's office, 41. Other articles of clothing and their use, 42, 43. A. M. 2513. B. C. 1491. An. Exod. Isr. 1. ~Sivan. A. M. 2513. AND take thou unto thee unto me in the priest's office, Aaron thy brother, and even Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, An. Exod. Isr. I. his sons with him, from among Eleazar, and Ithamar, Aaron's the children of Israel, that he may minister sons. Sivan. worship was to be confined to one place; and previously to this the eldest in every family officiated as priest, there being no settled place of worship. It has been Chap. xxix. 5, 29; xxxi. 10; xxxix. 1, 2; Lev. viii. 7, 30; Num. xx 26, 28; Ecclus. xlv. 7, 8.———— Chap. xxxi. 6; xxxv. very properly observed that, if Moses had not acted by the Divine appointment, he would not have passed by his own family, which continued in the condition of ordinary Levites, and established the priesthood, the only dignity in the nation, in the family of his brother Aaron. "The priests, however, had no power of a secular nature, nor does it appear from history that they ever arrived at any till the time of the Asmoneans or Maccabees." See the note on chap. xix. 22. Verse 2. For glory and for beauty.] Four articles of dress were prescribed for the priests in ordinary, and four more for the high-priest. Those for the priests in general were a coat, drawers, a girdle, and a bonnet. Besides these the high-priest had a robe, an ephod, a breastplate, and a plate or diadem of gold on his forehead. The garments, says the sacred historian, were for honour and for beauty. They were emblematical of the office in which they ministered. 1. It was honourable. They were the ministers of the Most High, and employed by him in transacting the most important concerns between God and his people, concerns in which all the attributes of the Divine Being were interested, as well as those which referred to the present. and eternal happiness of his creatures. 2. They were for beauty. They were emblematical of that holiness and purity which ever characterize the Divine nature and the worship which is worthy of him, and which are essentially necessary to all those who wish to serve him in the beauty of holiness here below, and without which none can ever see his face in the realms of glory. Should not the garments of all those who minister in holy things still be emblematical of the things in which they minister? Should they not be for glory and beauty, expressive of the dignity of the Gospel ministry, and that heauty of holiness without which none can see the Lord? As the high-priest's vestments, under the law, were emblematical of what was to come, should not the vestments of the ministers of the Gospel bear some resemblance of what is come? Is then the dismal black, now worn by almost all kinds of priests and ministers, for glory and for beauty? Is it emblematical of any thing that is good, glorious, or excellent How unbecoming the glad tidings announced by Christian ministers is a colour emblematical of nothing but mourning and wo, sin, desolation, and death! How inconsistent the habit and office of these men! Should it be said, "These are only shadows, and are useless because the substance is come." I ask, 'Why then is black almost universally worn? why is a particular colour preferred, if there be no signification in any? Is there not a danger that in our zeal against shadows, we shall destroy or essentially change the substance itself?. Would not the same sort of argumentation exclude water in baptism, and bread and wine in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper? The white surplice in the service of the Church is almost the only thing filled with the spirit of wisdom, An. Exod. Isr. 1. that they may make Aaron's garments to consecrate him, that he may. Chap. xxxi. 3; 31-35; xxxvi. 1, 2; Isa. xxviii. 24-29.xxxv. 30, 31; Deut. xxxiv. 9; James i. 17. that remains of those ancient and becoming vestments, which God commanded to be made for glory and beauty. Clothing, emblematical of office, is of more consequence than is generally imagined. Were the great officers of the crown, and the great officers of justice, to clothe themselves like the common people when they appear in their public capacity, both their persons and their decisions would be soon held in little estimation, Verse 3. Whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom] So we find that ingenuity in arts and sciences, even those of the ornamental kind, comes from God. It is not intimated here that these persons were filled with the spirit of wisdom for this purpose only; for the direction to Moses is, to select those whom he found to be expert artists, and those who were such, God shows by these words, had derived their knowledge from himself. Every man should be permitted as far as possible to follow the bent or direction of his own genius, when it evidently leads him to new inventions, and improvements on old plans. How much has both the labour of men and cattle been lessened by improvements in machinery! And can we say that the wisdom which found out these improvements did not come from God? No man, by course of reading or study, ever acquired a genius of this kind: we call it natural, and say it was born with the man. Moses teaches us to consider it as Divine. Who taught NEWTON to ascertain the laws by which God governs the universe, through which discovery a new source of profit and pleasure has been opened to mankind through every part of the civilized world? No reading, no study, no example, formed his genius. God, who made him, gave him that compass and bent of mind by which he made those discoveries, and-for which his name is celebrated in the earth. see NAPIER inventing the logarithms; COPERNICUs, DES CARTES, and KEPLER contributing to pull down the false systems of the universe, and NEWTON demonstrating the true one; and when I see the long list of PATENTEES of useful inventions, by whose industry and skill long and tedious processes in the necessary arts of life have been shortened, labour greatly lessened, and much time and expense saved; I then see, with Moses, men who are wise-hearted, whom God has filled with the spirit of wisdom for these very purposes; that he might help man by man, and that, as time rolls on, he might give to his intelligent creatures such proofs of his Being, infinitely varied wisdom, and gracious providence, as should cause them to depend on him, and give him that glory which is due to his name. When I How pointedly does the Prophet Isaiah refer to this sort of teaching as coming from God, even in the most common and less difficult arts of life! The whole passage is worthy of the reader's most serious attention. "Doth the ploughman plough all day to sow? doth he The garments which the A. M. 2513. EXODUS. h B. C. 1491. priests are to wear. minister unto me in the priest's an ephod,. and a robe, and A. M. 2513. office. a broidered coat, a mitre, and An. Exod. Isr.1 a girdle; and they shall make holy garments for Aaron thy brother, and his 4 And these are the garments which they shall make; a breastplate, and e Ver. 15.- f Ver. 6.- - Ver. 31. open and break the clods of his ground? When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat, and the appointed barley, and the rye, in their place? For HIS God doth INSTRUCT HIM to discretion, and doth teach him. For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing-instrument, neither is a cart-wheel turned about upon the eummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod. Bread corn is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen. This also cometh forth from the LORD of hosts, who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working," Isa. xxvii. 24-29. Sivan. factories, and inanimate, unfeeling NATURE caused to perform the work of all these better, more expeditiously, and to much more profit; shall we not say that the hand of GOD is in all this? Only I again say, let machinery aid man, and not render him useless. The nations of Europe are pushing mechanical power to a destructive extreme. He alone girded those eminent men, though many of them knew him not; he inspired them with wisdom and understanding; by his all-pervading and all-informing spirit he opened to them the entrance of the paths of the depths of science, guided them in their researches, opened to them successively more and more of his astonishing treasures, crowned their persevering industry with his blessing, and made them his ministers for good to mankind. The antiquary and the medalist are also his agents; their discernment and penetration come from him alone. By them,. how many dark ages of the been brought to light; how many names of men and places, how many customs and arts, that were lost, restored! And by their means a few busts, images, stones, bricks, coins, rings, and culinary utensils, the remaining wrecks of long-past numerous centuries, have supplied the place of written documents, and cast a profusion of light on the history of man, and the history of providence. And let me add, that the providence which preserved these materials, and raised up men to decipher and explain them, is itself gloriously illustrated by them. But let us take heed not to run into extremes here; machinery is to help man, not to render him useless. The human hand is the great and most perfect machine, let it not be laid aside. In our zeal for machineryworld have we are rendering all the lower classes useless; filling the land with beggary and vice, and the workhouses with paupers; and ruining the husbandman with oppressive poor-rates, Keep machinery as a help to the human hand, and to lighten the labour, but never let it supersede either. Of all those men (and the noble list might be greatly swelled) we may say the same that Moses said, of Bezaleel and Ahòliab: "GOD hath filled them with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge; and in all manner of workmanship, to devise cunning works; to work in gold and in silver, and in brass, in cutting of stones, carving of timber, "The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein;" Psa. cxi, 2. Verse 4. Breastplate] choshen. See on chap. xxv. 7. This principle, that God is the author of all arts and sciences, is too little regarded. Every good gift, and every perfect gift, says St. James, comes from above, from the FATHER of LIGHTS, Why has God constructed every part of nature with such a profusion of economy and skill, if he intended this skill should never be discovered by man; or that man should not attempt to examine his works in order to find them out? From the works of CREATION what proofs, astonishing and overwhelming proofs, both to believers and infidels, have been drawn both of the nature, being, attributes, and providence of God! What demonstrá- | and in all manner of workmanship ;" chap. xxxi. 3–6. tions of all these have the Archbishop of Cambray, Dr. Nieuwentyt, Dr. Derham, and Mr. Charles Bonnet, given in their philosophical works! And who gave those men this wisdom? GOD, from whom alone MIND, and all its attributes, proceed, While we see Count de Buffon and Swammerdam examining and tracing out all the curious relations, connections, and laws of the ANIMAL kingdom;—Tournefort, Ray, and Linne, those of the VEGETABLE ;-Theophrastus, Werner, Klaproth, Cronstedt, Morveau, Reamur, Kirwan, and a host of philosophical chemists, Boerhaave, Boyle, Stahl, Priestley, Lavoisier, Fourcroy, Black, and Davy, those of the MINERAL; the discoveries they have made, the latent and important properties of vegetables and minerals which they have developed, the powerful machines which, through their discoveries, have been constructed, by the operations of which the human slave is restored to his own place in society, the brute saved from his destructive toil in our manu Ephod] D, See the note on chap. xxv. 7.. Robe] meil, from alah, to go up, go upon; hence the meil may be considered as an upper coat, a surtout: It is described by Josephus as a garment that reaches down to the feet, not made of two distinct pieces, but was one entire long garment, woven throughout. This was immediately under the ephod. See on ver, 31, &c, Broidered coat] pawn nan kethoneth, tashbets, what Parkhurst translates a close, strait coat or garment; according to Josephus, "a tunic circumscribing or closely encompassing the body, and having tight sleeves for the arms." This was immediately under the meil or robe, and answered the same purpose to the priests that our shirts do to us. See on ver. 13, Directions for making the A. M. 2513. An. Exod. Isr. 1. me in the priest's office. Sivan. B. C. 1491. sons, that he may minister unto the other six names of the rest. A. M. 2513. 5 And they shall take gold, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen: ~6 And they shall make the ephod of gold, of blue, and of purple, of scarlet, and fine twined linen, with cunning work. 7 It shall have the two shoulder-pieces thereof joined at the two edges thereof; and so it shall be joined together. 8. And the curious girdle of the ephod, which is upon it, shall be of the same, according to the work thereof; even of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen. 9 And thou shalt take two onyx stones, and grave on them the names of the children of Israel: 10. Six of their names on one stone; and ¡ Chap. xxxix. 2, 4, 27, 29.— Or, embroidered; ch. xxxix, 20; Isa. xi. 5; Rev. i. 13. ,binden بندن Mitre] na milsnepheth. As this word comes from the root 8 isunaph, to roll or wrap round, it evidently means that covering of the head so universal in the eastern countries which we call turban or turband, corrupted from the Persian doolbend, which signifies what encompasses and binds the head or body; and hence is applied, not only to this covering of the head, but to a sash in general. As the Persian word is compounded of J dool or dawal, a revolution, vicissitude, wheel, &c., and to bind; it is very likely that the Hebrew words. 17 dur, to go round, and 1 benet, a band, may have been the original of doolbend and turband. It is sometimes called you serbend, from ser, the head, and binden, to bind. The turban consists generally of two parts: the cap, which goes on the head; and the long sash of muslin, linen, or silk, that is wrapped round the head. These sashes are generally several yards in length.. A girdle] abnet, a bell or girdle; see before This seems to have been the same kind of sash or girdle, so common in the eastern countries, that confined the loose garments about the waist; and in which their long skirts were tucked up when they were employed in work, or on a journey. After being tied round the waist, the two ends of it fell down before, to the skirts of their robes. Sivan. 11 1 With the work of an engraver in stone, like the engravings of a signet, shalt thou engrave the two stones with the names of the children of Israel: thou shalt make, them to be set in ouclies of gold. 12 And thou shalt put the two stones upon the shoulders of the ephod for stones of memorial unto the children of Israel and Aaron shall bear their names before the LORD, upon his two shoulders, " for a memorial. n 13 And thou shalt make ouches of gold; Verse 9. Two onyx stones] See on chap. xxv. 7. Verse 11. Like the engravings of a signet] So signets or seals were in use at this time, and engraving on precious stones was then an art, and this art, which was one of the most elegant and ornamental, was carried in ancient times to a very high pitch of perfection, and particularly among the ancient Greeks; such a pitch of perfection as has never been rivalled, and cannot now be even well imitated. And it is very likely that the Greeks themselves borrowed this art from the ancient Hebrews, as we know it flourished in Egypt and Palestine long before it was known in Greece. Verse 12. Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord] He was to consider that he was the represen tative of the children of Israel; and the stones on the ephod and the stones on the breastplate were for a memorial to put Aaron in remembrance that he was the priest and mediator of the twelve tribes; and, speaking after the manner of men, God was to be put in mind of the children of Israel, their wants, &c., as frequently as the high priest appeared before him with the breastplate and the ephod. See ver. 29. Verse 13. Ouches of gold] ya mishbetsoth, strait places, sockets to insert the stones in, from shabats, to close, inclose, straiten. Socket, in this place, would be a more proper translation, as ouch cannot be traced up to any legitimate authority. It appears sometimes to signify a hook, or some mode of attach ing things together, Verse 8. The curious girdle of the ephod] The 'word chesheb, rendered here curious girdle, signifies merely a kind of diaper, or embroidered work ;' (see the note on chap. xxvi. 1 ;) and it is widely different from abnet,, which is properly translated girdle ver. 4. The meaning therefore of the text, according Verse 15. The breastplate of judgment] DVD JUN to some, is this, that the two pieces, ver. 7, which con- choshen mishpat, the same as the on choshen, see nected the parts of the ephod at the shoulders where chap. xxv. 7, but here called the breastplate of judgthe onyx stones were set, should be of the same tex-ment, because the high priest wore it upon his breast ture with the ephod itself, i. e., of gold, blue, pur- when he went to ask counsel of the Lord, to give judg . |