--- title: "Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah" author: "Adam Clarke" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 121 of 914 url: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/121/ cite: "Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah, section 121. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/121/" --- # Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah *Adam Clarke* Clarke's learned notes on the Hebrew and Greek, verse by verse, from Genesis to Revelation: volume 1 of 2. ## 121. Exodus · 54 of 57 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/121/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/121/#p-N [¶0] 2. God could have erected his tabernacle without the help or skill of man; but he condescended to employ him. As all are interested in the worship of God, so all should bear a part in it; here God employs the whole congregation: every male and female, with even their sons and their daughters, and the very ornaments of their persons, are given to raise and adorn the house of God. The women who had not ornaments, and could neither give gold nor silver, could spin goat's hair, and the Lord graciously employs them in this work, and accepts what they can give and what they can do, for they did it with a willing mind; they were wise of heart - had learned a useful business, their hearts were lifted up in the work, [Exo 36:21], and all felt it a high privilege to be able to put only a nail in the holy place. By the free-will offerings of the people the tabernacle was erected, and all the costly utensils belonging to it provided. This was the primitive mode of providing proper places for Divine worship; and as it was the primitive, so it is the most rational mode. Taxes levied by law for building or repairing churches were not known in the ancient times of religious simplicity. It is an honor to be permitted to do any thing for the support of public worship; and he must have a strange, unfeeling, and ungodly heart, who does not esteem it a high privilege to have a stone of his own laying or procuring in the house of God. How easily might all the buildings necessary for the purpose of public worship be raised, if the money that is spent in needless self-indulgence by ourselves, our sons, and our daughters, were devoted to this purpose! By sacrifices of this kind the house of the Lord would be soon built, and the top-stone brought on with shouting, Grace, grace unto it! ### Introduction [¶2] Moses appoints Bezaleel, Aholiab, and their associates, to the work, and delivers to them the free-will offerings of the people, [Exo 36:1-3]. The people bring offerings more than are needed for the work, and are only restrained by the proclamation of Moses, [Exo 36:4-7]. The curtains, their loops, taches, etc., for the tabernacle, [Exo 36:8-18]. The covering for the tent, [Exo 36:19]. The boards, [Exo 36:20-30]. The bars, [Exo 36:31-34]. The veil and its pillars, [Exo 36:35], [Exo 36:36]. The hangings and their pillars, [Exo 36:37], [Exo 36:38]. ### Verse 1 [¶4] Then wrought, etc. - The first verse of this chapter should end the preceding chapter, and this should begin with verse the second; as it now stands, it does not make a very consistent sense. By reading the first word ועשה veasah, then wrought, in the future tense instead of the past, the proper connection will be preserved: for all grammarians know that the conjunction ו vau is often conversive, i.e., it turns the preterite tense of those verbs to which it is prefixed into the future, and the future into the preterite: this power it evidently has here; and joined with the last verse of the preceding chapter the connection will appear thus, [Exo 36:30-35], etc.: The Lord hath called by name Bezaleel and Aholiab; them hath he filled with wisdom of heart to work all manner of work. [Exo 36:1] : And Bezaleel and Aholiab Shall Work, and every wise-hearted man, in whom the Lord put wisdom. ### Verse 5 [¶6] The people bring much more than enough - With what a liberal spirit do these people bring their free-will offerings unto the Lords! Moses is obliged to make a proclamation to prevent them from bringing any more, as there was at present more than enough! Had Moses been intent upon gain, and had he not been perfectly disinterested, he would have encouraged them to continue their contributions, as thereby he might have multiplied to himself gold, silver, and precious stones. But he was doing the Lord's work, under the inspiration of the Divine Spirit, and therefore he sought no secular gain. Indeed, this one circumstance is an ample proof of it. Every thing necessary for the worship of God will be cheerfully provided by a people whose hearts are in that worship. In a state where all forms of religion and modes of worship are tolerated by the laws, it would be well to find out some less exceptionable way of providing for the national clergy than by tithes. Let them by all means have the provision allowed them by the law; but let them not be needlessly exposed to the resentment of the people by the mode in which this provision is made, as this often alienates the affections of their flocks from them, and exceedingly injures their usefulness. See Clarke's note on [Gen 28:22], in fine, where the subject is viewed on all sides. ### Verse 8 [¶8] Cherubims of cunning work - See on [Exo 25:18] (note). Probably the word means no more than figures of any kind wrought in the diaper fashion in the loom, or by the needle in embroidery, or by the chisel or graving tool in wood, stone, or metal; see Clarke on [Exo 25:18] (note). This meaning Houbigant and other excellent critics contend for. In some places the word seems to be restricted to express a particular figure then well known; but in many other places it seems to imply any kind of figure commonly formed by sculpture on stone, by carving on wood, by engraving upon brass, and by weaving in the loom, etc. ### Verse 9 [¶10] The length of one curtain - Concerning these curtains, see Clarke on [Exo 26:1] (note), etc. ### Verse 20 [¶12] And he made boards - See Clarke's note on [Exo 26:15], etc. ### Verse 31 [¶14] He made bars - See on [Exo 26:26] (note), etc. ### Verse 35 [¶16] He made a veil - See Clarke on [Exo 26:31] (note), etc. ### Verse 37 [¶18] Hanging for the - door - See Clarke on [Exo 26:36] (note), etc. ### Verse 38 [¶20] The five pillars of it with their hooks - Their capitals. See Clarke on [Exo 26:32] (note), etc. [¶21] There is scarcely any thing particular in this chapter that has not been touched on before; both it and the following to the end of the book being in general a repetition of what we have already met in detail in the preceding chapters from Exodus 25 to 31 inclusive, and to those the reader is requested to refer. God had before commanded this work to be done, and it was necessary to record the execution of it to show that all was done according to the pattern shown to Moses; without this detailed account we should not have known whether the work had ever been executed according to the directions given. [¶22] At the commencement of this chapter the reader will observe that I have advanced the dates a. m. and b.c. one year, without altering the year of the exodus, which at first view may appear an error; the reason is, that the above dates commenced at Tisri, but the years of the exodus are dated from Abib. ### Introduction [¶24] Bezaleel and Aholiab make the ark, [Exo 37:1-5]. The mercy-seat, [Exo 37:6]. The two cherubim, [Exo 37:7-9]. The table of the shew-bread, and its vessels, [Exo 37:10-16]. The candlestick, [Exo 37:17-24]. The golden altar of incense, [Exo 37:25-28]. The holy anointing oil and perfume, [Exo 37:29]. ### Verse 1 [¶26] And Bezaleel made the ark, etc. - For a description of the ark, see [Exo 25:10] (note), etc. ### Verse 6 [¶28] He made the mercy-seat - See this described [Exo 25:17] (note). ### Verse 10 [¶30] He made the table - See [Exo 25:23]. ### Verse 16 [¶32] He made the vessels - See all these particularly described in the notes on [Exo 25:29] (note). ### Verse 17 [¶34] He made the candlestick - See this described in the note on [Exo 25:31] (note). ### Verse 25 [¶36] He made the incense altar - See this described [Exo 30:1] (note). ### Verse 29 [¶38] He made the holy anointing oil - See this and the perfume, and the materials out of which they were made, described at large in the notes on [Exo 30:23-25] and [Exo 30:34-38]. As this chapter also is a repetition of what has been mentioned in preceding chapters, the reader is desired to refer to them. ### Introduction [¶40] Bezaleel makes the altar of burnt-offering, [Exo 38:1-7]. He makes the laver and its foot out of the mirrors given by the women, [Exo 38:8]. The court, its pillars, hangings, etc., [Exo 38:9-20]. The whole tabernacle and its work finished by Bezaleel, Aholiab, and their assistants, [Exo 38:21-23]. The amount of the gold contributed, [Exo 38:24]. The amount of the silver, and how it was expended, [Exo 38:25-28]. The amount of the brass, and how this was used, [Exo 38:29-31]. ### Verse 1 [¶42] The altar of burnt-offering - See Clarke's note on [Exo 27:1]; and for its horns, pots, shovels, basins, etc., see the meaning of the Hebrew terms explained, [Exo 27:3-5] (note). ### Verse 8 [¶44] He made the laver - See Clarke's note on [Exo 30:18], etc.