TABERXACLE
132
TABERXACLE
on the white ground of s/tes/i (Knobcl, Kcil, etc.). In other words, the warp, or iouiiitudinal tlireads, was of white linen, wliile the icooj' made cross-bars (which would hauc; vertically) of brilliantly dyed wool in a treble thread. Tliey were merely spun and woven, without i^old or embroidered ligures.
The furniture of the court consisted of the altar of burnt-ottering and the laver. These are sufficiently described under their appropriate headings. See Al- TAK; Laveij. What concerns us is the position of them. In all probability, the tabernacle proper stood with its entrance exactly in the middle of the court, that is, fiftj' cubits from the entrance of the court ; and very possibly the altar of burnt -ottering stood, again, midway between the door of the court and that of the tabernacle, i. e. twenty-five cubits from each, and some- where in the twenty-five cubits between the altar and the tabernacle stood the laver (Josephus, Anf. iii, 6, 2).
'2. The Taberimcle itself. — Following the method pur- sued with the outer court, we begin witli the walls. These were built of boards, or, rather, planks (n^Il^'^p, Jcerashim), in close contact with each other. They were of shittim-wood, overlaid with gold on both sides, ten cubits high and one and a half cubit broad, their thickness being nowhere given. From the foot of each plank came out two "tenons" (niT^, ?/flfW//« = hands), which must not be conceived as connecting the planks with each other laterally, as if there corresponded to a tenon in one plank a mortise in another; the}^ were for connecting each particular plank with the ground, and must be conceived as two wedge-shaped or pointed pieces (probably of copper, or perhaps of silver), pro- jecting from the lower end of the plank. These tenons were thrust into silver sockets, of which two were pre- pared for each plank, each socket being the weight of a
MM
Sockeis of the Tabernacle Court, and their Position un- der the Boards.
talent of silver. Whether these sockets were wedge- shaped or pointed, and themselves went into the ground, or whether they were mere foot-plates for the plank, with holes for the tenons to pass through into the ground (the last more probable), is not intimated. Prof. Paine has ingeniously suggested the thickness of these sock- ets as one sixth of a cubit [see Metrology], and like- wise their form (half a cubit square), as in the adjoin- ing cut. He also calculates from this size of the sock- ets, or foot-plates, that the planks should be (as Jose- phus says) one third of a span, i. e. one sixth of a cu- bit thick (which is quite sufficient for strength), in order to turn the corners neat- ly.as illustrated in the subjoined cut. This might indeed have been effected on the T — j — supposition that the I I planks were one cubit thick.as the accompa- nying cut will show ; but we can hardly suppose that the jilanks overhung the
Bottom ofthe Corner Planks, shown ^''''''''* "''"'^'^ support- as resting ui)ou the Bases (accord- f'' them. These bases ing to Paiue). did not require to eu-
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1.
o
o
bi
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©
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e
Plauks ou theh' Bases (according to the common view).
ter deeply into the ground, as there was no lateral strain upon them, and the whole weight of the buikling kept them firmly in their place. Their only object was to keep the bottom of the planks level and even. The up- per ends of the planks, however, needed to be kept from separating, as they would certainly do under the trac- tion of the stay-cords fore and aft. Hence the tenons mentioned in Exod. xxvi, 17 are carefully distinguished from those (already described) referred to in ver. 19; and they are designated (without any sockets assigned to them) by a peculiar term, M^'sdtJ, meshulluboth, which occurs here only. It is regarded by Gesenius as radically signifying notched, but he understands it here as meaning ji'o/Hef/, a sense in which Fiirst and Miihlau emphatically concur, to the exclusion of that adopted by the Sept. (^avTnriTvrovTtc) and the A. A", ("set in order''). Prof. Paine refers the term to the ti>p of the planks, and renders it cldsped, understanding a separate plate with holes corre- sponding to pins or ten- ons (probably all of cop- per) in the upper end of the planks likewise, as in the annexed cut. This is an essential pro- vision for the stabilitv of
o
t=h
B
the structure, of which ^=]f*^'""F,/°f 111*' X."',' '''" '^"^
, ' ^ "Boards' of the laberuacle
no one else seems to (according to Paine),
have thought. Never- , , „ . v j , j
^ . A, a clasp. B, two boards clasped.
theless, as he privately
informs us, he has since abandoned this distinction be- tween the top and bottom tenons, and in his forthcom- ing second edition he will dispense with the clasps. Tlie long middle bar, if pinned to each end plank, would subserve a similar purpose. Something of this sort is perhaps intimated by the bolting (ni"1^"2, n"l33) of Exod. xxvi, 28 ; xxxvi, 33. The roof-curtains would likewise assist in holding the planks together.
Of these boards, which, being one and a half cubit, i.e. about two and a half feet broad, must have been form- ed of several smaller ones jointed together, there were twenty on the north and twenty on the south side, thus making each side the length of thirty cubits. For the west end were made six boards, yielding nine cubits, and in addition two boards for the corners (Exod. xxvi, 22 sq.), making in all eight boards and twelve cubits; and as the end is thought (so Josephus, A nt. iii, 6, 3) to have been ten cubits (proportionate to that in Solo- mon's Temple, 1 Kings vi, 2, 20), this would imply that each corner plank added half a cubit to the width, but nothing to the length, the measurements being taken inside. Were the planks supposed a cubit thick, which is the usual calculation (but an extravagant one on ac- count of the weight), the remaining cubit of the corner plank woidd exactly cover the thickness of the side plank. The description given of the corners is exceed- ingly perplexing, and the diversity of opinion is natiiral- lygreat. Thedifficultiesallliein Exod.xxiv,24. Itgoes on, " they shall be coupled together;" rather, they shall be "twins," or "twinned" (CwXn, f.oamim). "They" evidently refers to the corner planks; and, setting aside the idea that they make twins together, which cannot