The ten curtains of the tabernacle, 1-6. The eleven curtains of goats' hair, and the coverings of rams' and badgers' skins, 7-14. The boards of the tabernacle with their sockets and bars, 15-30. The veil for the ark, 31-36. The hanging for the door, 36, 37.
1 "Moreover, you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen and blue, purple, and scarlet. With cherubim of skillful work you shall make them. 2 The length of one curtain shall be twenty-eight cubits and the breadth of one curtain four cubits, and each of the curtains shall have one measure. 3 Five curtains shall be coupled together to one another and the other five curtains shall be coupled to one another. 4 And you shall make loops of blue upon the edge of one curtain from the selvage in the coupling. And you shall do likewise in the uttermost edge of another curtain in the coupling of the second. 5 Fifty loops you shall make in the curtain and fifty loops you shall make in the edge of the curtain that is in the coupling of the second so that the loops may take hold one of another. 6 And you shall make fifty buttons of gold, and couple the curtains together with the buttons. And it shall be one tabernacle.
7 "And you shall make curtains of goats' hair to be a covering upon the tabernacle. Eleven curtains you shall make. 8 The length of one curtain shall be thirty cubits and the breadth of one curtain four cubits, and the eleven curtains shall be all of one measure. 9 And you shall couple five curtains by themselves and six curtains by themselves, and shall double the sixth curtain in the front of the tabernacle. 10 And you shall make fifty loops on the edge of the one curtain that is outermost in the coupling and fifty loops in the edge of the curtain which couples the second.
11 "And you shall make fifty buttons of brass, and put the buttons into the loops and couple the tent together so that it may be one. 12 And the remnant that remains of the curtains of the tent, the half curtain that remains, shall hang over the back of the tabernacle. 13 And a cubit on one side and a cubit on the other side of that which remains in the length of the curtains of the tent shall hang over the sides of the tabernacle on this side and on that side to cover it. 14 And you shall make a covering for the tent of rams' skins dyed red and a covering above of badgers' skins.
15 "And you shall make boards for the tabernacle of shittim wood standing up. 16 Ten cubits shall be the length of a board and a cubit and a half shall be the breadth of one board. 17 There shall be two tenons in one board, set in order one against another. You shall do likewise for all the boards of the tabernacle. 18 And you shall make the boards for the tabernacle: twenty boards on the south side southward, 19 And you shall make forty sockets of silver under the twenty boards, two sockets under one board for its two tenons and two sockets under another board for its two tenons; 20 And for the second side of the tabernacle on the north side there shall be twenty boards, 21 And their forty sockets of silver, two sockets under one board and two sockets under another board; 22 And for the sides of the tabernacle westward you shall make six boards. 23 And two boards you shall make for the corners of the tabernacle in the two sides. 24 And they shall be coupled together beneath, and they shall be coupled together above its head to one ring. Thus it shall be for them both. They shall be for the two corners. 25 And they shall be eight boards and their sockets of silver, sixteen sockets, two sockets under one board and two sockets under another board.
26 "And you shall make bars of shittim wood: five for the boards of one side of the tabernacle, 27 And five bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the side of the tabernacle for the two sides westward. 28 And the middle bar in the midst of the boards shall reach from end to end. 29 And you shall overlay the boards with gold and make their rings of gold for places for the bars, and you shall overlay the bars with gold. 30 And you shall rear up the tabernacle according to the fashion thereof which was shown to you on the mountain.
31 "And you shall make a veil of blue, purple, scarlet, and fine twined linen of skillful work. With cherubim it shall be made. 32 And you shall hang it upon four pillars of shittim wood overlaid with gold. Their hooks shall be of gold upon the four sockets of silver. 33 And you shall hang the veil under the buttons so that you may bring in there within the veil the ark of the testimony. And the veil shall be for you a separation between the holy place and the most holy. 34 And you shall put the mercy-seat upon the ark of the testimony in the most holy place. 35 And you shall set the table outside the veil, and the candlestick over against the table on the side of the tabernacle toward the south, and you shall put the table on the north side.
36 "And you shall make a hanging for the door of the tent of blue, purple, scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with needle work. 37 And you shall make for the hanging five pillars of shittim wood and overlay them with gold, and their hooks shall be of gold. And you shall cast five sockets of brass for them."
Matthew Henry Commentary - Exodus, Chapter 26[➚]
[v.1] - From Robert Hawker's Commentary: "I would have the Reader keep in view in this, and in every other place of scripture where mention is made of the Jewish tabernacle, the gospel signification of it. See Hebrews 9:1-12. There are several other particularities worthy of notice in the tabernacle. It was movable, intimating perhaps thereby, that the Church of God in this world is in an unsettled state, as best suited to a wilderness dispensation. Hebrews 13:14. Micah 2:10. The tabernacle was but a mean and humble building; and yet in it the Ark of God was placed. Intimating, perhaps, the mean and humble estate of our nature, when the Lord Jesus, whom the Ark represented, tabernacled among us. It is further remarkable, that the Ark had no better accommodation until the building of Solomon's temple, which was at least 480 years after this period. 1st Kings 6:1."
[v.30] - Reference, Exodus 25:40; Hebrews 8:5.
[v.31] - "a veil" - From John Gill's Exposition: "The use of this, as follows, was to divide the holy place from the most holy place in the tabernacle; it has its name from hardness, it being very stiff and strong, for it was made of thread six times doubled, and was four fingers thick, as the Jewish writers say: this veil may represent the sin of man, which separates between God and man, was removed by the death of Christ when the veil was rent, and so the way to heaven opened; or the obscurity of the legal dispensation, the Gospel being veiled under the shadows of the law, and the way into the holiest of all then not so manifest, and particularly the ceremonial law, which separated between Jew and Gentile, and is now abolished by the death of Christ; or rather it was typical of the human nature of Christ, his flesh, called in allusion to it the veil of his flesh (Hebrews 10:20)." Reference, Matthew 27:51; 2nd Corinthians 3:14-15; Hebrews 9:3-8, 10:19-21.
[v.33] - "the most holy" - Literally, the holy of holies. Reference, Hebrews 9:3.
[v.34] - Reference, Numbers 7:89.
[v.36] - "the door" - Christ is the door through which we enter into the peace and presence of God (Psalm 23:2-3; Isaiah 26:3; John 10:7, 9, 14:6; Philippians 4:7).