Exodus 26:32

And thou shalt hang it upon four pillars of shittim wood, overlaid with gold,.... For it was ten cubits long, and as many broad; and being of such a stiffness and thickness as it was, required so

And thou shalt make a vail of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen of cunning work: with cherubims shall it be made: A veil ... This veil, which was embroidered in the same way as the

The hooks were fastened to the tops of the pillars, as the veil was fastened to them.

(32) Four pillars.—These seem to have been true pillars or columns, and not tent-poles. They were probably of equal height, and equally spaced, and were perhaps connected at the top by a cornice or beam. Together with the vail they formed a screen, which shut off the “Holy of Holies” from the outer chamber. They were, doubtless, of the same height as the boards, i.e., fifteen feet (Exodus 26:16). Their hooks.—Each pillar was to have a hook near the top, whereto the vail was to be attached. Upon the four sockets.—Heb., upon four sockets.—Each pillar was to have its “socket,” into which it was to be inserted, and which was itself probably to be sunk into the ground.

Verse 32. Their hooks shall be of gold] וויהם vaveyhem, which we translate their hooks, is rendered κεφαλιδες, capitals, by the Septuagint, and capita by the Vulgate. As the word וו vav or vau, plural ווים vavim, occurs only in this book, Exodus 26:32, Exodus 26:37; Exodus 27:10-11, Exodus 27:17; Exodus 36:36, Exodus 36:38; Exodus 38:10-12, Exodus 38:17, Exodus 38:19, Exodus 38:28; and is used in these places in reference to the same subject, it is very difficult to ascertain its precise meaning. Most commentators and lexicographers think that the ideal meaning of the word is to connect, attach, join to, hook; and that the letter vau has its name from its hooklike form, and its use as a particle in the Hebrew language, because it serves to connect the words and members of a sentence, and the sentences of a discourse together, and that therefore hook must be the obvious meaning of the word in all the above texts. Calmet thinks this reason of no weight, because the vau of the present Hebrew alphabet is widely dissimilar from the vau of the primitive Hebrew alphabet, as may be seen on the ancient shekels; on these the characters appear as in the word JEHOVAH, Exodus 28:36. This form bears no resemblance to a hook; nor does the Samaritan [Samaritan] vau, which appears to have been copied from this ancient character. Calmet therefore contends, 1. That if Moses does not mean the capitals of the pillars by the ווים vavim of the text, he mentions them nowhere; and it would be strange that while he describes the pillars, their sockets, bases, fillets, c., c., with so much exactness, as will appear on consulting the preceding places, that he should make no mention of the capitals or that pillars, every way so correctly formed, should have been destitute of this very necessary ornament. 2. As Moses was commanded to make the hooks, ווים vavim, of the pillars and their fillets of silver, Exodus 27:10-11, and the hooks, vavim, of the pillars of the veil of gold, Exodus 36:36; and as one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five shekels were employed in making these hooks, vavim, overlaying their chapiters, rasheyhem, their heads, and filleting them, Exodus 38:28; it is more reasonable to suppose that all this is spoken of the capitals of the pillars than of any kind of hooks, especially as hooks are mentioned under the word taches or clasps in other places. On the whole it appears much more reasonable to translate the original by capitals than by hooks. After this verse the Samaritan Pentateuch introduces the ten first verses of chap. xxx., and this appears to be their proper place. Those ten verses are not repeated in the thirtieth chapter in the Samaritan, the chapter beginning with the 11th verse.

32. four bases of silver] such as the frames rested upon, v. 19 ff.

31, 32. A vail — ôøëú, a separation, a dividing curtain to separate the two inner apartments of the sanctuary. Exodus 26:33. The material and workmanship were to correspond exactly with those of the tabernacle curtains.