boards and prevent any one from looking through the cracks from without. These curtains were suspended on tifty knobs or taches of gold by means of fifty loops of the same material as the curtains themselves; these fastenings may be arranged as in the case of the roof- canvas. It thus became "one tabernacle" (ver. 6, "ailio "inx, i. e. these curtains belonged to the upright [wood- en] part of the structure, in distinction from the sloping [canvas] or " tent" part above it). The material of these inner curtains was similar to that of the door of the outer court (xxvii, 16), but it was also to be em- broidered with cherubim, like the interior "vail" (xxvi, 31), which will be considered below.
(3.) A coat of "rams' skins dyed red and tachash (A. V. "badgers'," probably seal or some other fur) skins'" was furnished as an additional covering (xxvi, 14, n3"^b"0, milleindlah, from upward). This is usually regarded as a part of the roof; but to pile them there woidd have been sure to catch the rain, and so prove worse than useless. Paine places them on the outside of the "boards" to hide the cracks and prevent the wind and rain from driving in. Hence the number of skins is not specified ; they were to form a blanket suffi- ciently large to cover the walls, anil run up under the edge of the roof-canvas so as to catch the drip from the eaves. Doubtless the tachash fur was placed next the smooth gilding, and in its natural state, because hid- den ; and the rougher but more durable ram's-wool was exposed, the hair shingling downward to the weather, but dyed a brilliant color for effect. They would naturally be hung upon the copper taches, which served so many useful purposes in the " boards." They are called in ver. 14 "a covering {t^'DZ'Ci, mikseh, not necessarily a roof, for it is used only of this fur robe [or some similar one. Numb, iv, 8. 12] and of the screen [whatever that may have been] of Noah's ark [Gen.
The Inner Curtains ac- cordiu'' to Puiue.
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Face and Section of ilie "I'.oards"' of the Tabernacle, showing their varied Attachments. (After Paiue.)
TABERNACLE
136
TABERNACLE
viii, 13]) for the tenf (bilX5), apparently as completing the canvas or tent-like part of the structure.
SaalschiUz {Arcliiiol. iler lltbrair, ii, 321 sq.) repre- sents the hangings of the tabernacle as suspeiuletl in the form of a tent, but in a peculiar form, lie thinks the 12U."'2 was properly the space enclosed by the boards of acacia-wood ; and that these formed the outer wall, so to speak, within which the tabernacle, the PllX properly so called, was reared in the form of a peaketl tent. Of this the byssus curtains, he supposes, formed the internal draperj-, while the goats'-hair curtains, cov- ered with leather and tachash skins, formed the outer covering. The whole structure would thus present the appearance externally of a peaked tent, reared within a high palisade of wooil.and open at the front. This rep- resentation has the advantage of allowing the ornamen- tal curtain, and also the gilded boards with their gold- en rings and silver sockets, to be fidly visible. There seems, however, at least one fatal objection to it, viz. that it does not fulfil the condition that the joinings of the curtains shall be over the pillars that separate the holy from the most holy place — a condition of essential signiticance, as we shall see.
(4.) The doonra_i/s of the tabernacle were formed or rather closed in a manner altogether analogous to the entrance of the exterior court, namely, by a vertical screen or sheet of cloth made of heavy material, and (in one ease) still further stiffened by embroidery, simi- lar to the piece of tapestry that hangs at the portal of modern cathedrals in Italy, or (to speak more Oriental- ly) like the tlap at the opening of a modern tent and the carpet or camlet partition between the male and fe- male apartments of a Bedawin abode. Of these there were two, each of which is denoted by a distinctive term rarely varied.
(«.) The front opening (MHS, pelhach ; A. V. " door") was closed sufHciently high to prevent a passer-by from looking in, by a " hanging" (TtO'2, masdk, a sci-een, or "covering" from the sun [Psa. cv, 39] or from observa- tion [2 Sam. vii, 19; Isa. xxii, 8]) of materials exactly like that of the entrance to the court already described, suspended upon five copper-socketed and gilded pillars (C'^7''^?) of acacia-wood b}' means of golden hooks (□^11, pegs, spoken only of these and those at the outer entrance), the whole being probably of the same height, proportions, and stj'le in other respects as the exterior one just referred to. The number of these pillars is significant: as there wevejive of them, one must neces- sarily stand in the centre, and this one was probably carried up so as to support one end of the ridge-pole, which w'Q have above seen is presumable. A corre- sponding pillar in the rear of the tent may be inferred to sustain the other end, and possibly one or more in the middle of the building.
(h.) A "vail" {ViZT'.'B, parokeih, sepnratrix, used only of this particular thing, sometimes [Exod. xxxv, 12; xxxix, 34; xl, 21] with the addition of the previous term for emphasis) divided the interior into two apart- ments, called resijectivcly the "holy place" and the "most holy." This partition-cloth differed onl}' from the exterior ones in being ornamented (perhaps on both sides; comp. 1 Kings vi, 29) with figures of cherubim stitched (probably with gold thread, i. e. strips of gold- leaf rolled and twisted) upon it, apparently with the art of the embroiderer (~"^'n iTjyp, the work of an artif- icer; A. V. "cunning work"). It was suspended upon four pillars precisely like those of the door " hanging," except that their sockets were of silver. A special state- ment of the text (Exod. xxvi, 33), "And thou shalt hang up the vail under the taches" (nzHeriTX nnr;i d'iO"i;5il rnri), evidently meaning that the pillars to which its ends were to be attached were to be jjlaced directly beneath the golden knobs opposite in the walls,