Exodus 25:28

25:23-30 A table was to be made of wood, overlaid with gold, to stand in the outer tabernacle, to be always furnished with the shew-bread. This table, with the articles on it, and its use, seems to typify the communion which the Lord holds with his redeemed people in his ordinances, the provisions of his house, the feasts they are favoured with. Also the food for their souls, which they always find when they hunger after it; and the delight he takes in their persons and services, as presented before him in Christ.

And thou shall make the staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold,.... In like manner as the staves for the ark, and which were made of the same wood: that the table may be borne with them; when moved from one place to another; these staves did not remain in the rings, as the staves for the ark did; but, as Josephus says (w), were taken out, because they otherwise would have been in the way of the priests, who came every week to it, to set the shewbread on; and these were put in only when they carried it from place to place, as appears from Numbers 4:8. (w) Antiqu. l. 3. c. 6. sect. 6.

The Table of Shew-Bread (cf. Exodus 37:10-16 ). - The table for the shew-bread ( Exodus 25:30 ) was to be made of acacia-wood, two cubits long, one broad, and one and a half high, and to be plated with pure gold, having a golden wreath round, and a "finish (מסגּרת) of a hand-breadth round about," i.e., a border of a hand-breadth in depth surrounding and enclosing the four sides, upon which the top of the table was laid, and into the four corners of which the feet of the table were inserted. A golden wreath was to be placed round this rim. As there is no article attached to זר־זהב in Exodus 25:25 (cf. Exodus 37:12 ), so as to connect it with the זר in Exodus 25:24 , we must conclude that there were two such ornamental wreaths, one round the slab of the table, the other round the rim which was under the slab. At the four corners of the four feet, near the point at which they joined the rim, four rings were to be fastened for בּתּים, i.e., to hold the poles with which the table was carried, as in the case of the ark.

To bind the choshen to the ephod there were to be two close, corded chains of pure gold, which are described here in precisely the same manner as in Exodus 28:14 ; so that Exodus 28:22 is to be regarded as a simple repetition of Exodus 28:14 , not merely because these chains are only mentioned once in the account of the execution of the work ( Exodus 39:15 ), but because, according to Exodus 28:25 , these chains were to be fastened upon the rosettes notice in Exodus 28:14 , exactly like those described in Exodus 28:13 . These chains, which are called cords or strings at Exodus 28:24 , were to be attached to two golden rings at the two (upper) ends of the choshen, and the two ends of the chains were to be put, i.e., bound firmly to the golden settings of the shoulder-pieces of the ephod ( Exodus 28:13 ), upon the front of it (see at Exodus 26:9 and Exodus 25:37 ).