- The length:
- Each of these boards, taking the cubit at nearly twenty-two inches, was about eighteen feet long, and two feet nine inches broad. As these boards are said to be standing up ("And he madeª°¹ boardsª for the tabernacleª [of] shittimª wood,ª standing up.ª°" {Exd 36:20}), their length was consequently the height of the tabernacle; and as the two sides were composed of twenty of these, standing up ("And he madeª°¹ boardsª for the tabernacle;ª twentyª boardsª for the southª sideª southward:ª" {Exd 36:23} and "And for the otherª sideª of the tabernacle,ª [which is] toward the northª corner,ª he madeª° twentyª boards,ª" {Exd 36:25}), and the west end of six, with two boards to project at the corners ("And for the sidesª of the tabernacleª westwardª he madeª° sixª boards.ª" {Exd 36:27} and "And twoª boardsª madeª° he for the cornersª of the tabernacleª in the two sides.ª" {Exd 36:28}), the tabernacle must therefore, have been thirty cubits, or fifty-five feet long, and about ten cubits, or eighteen feet broad. These boards were fastened at the bottom by two tenons in each board, which fitted into two mortices in the foundation, at the top by links or hasps, and on the sides by five wooden bars, which ran through rings or staples in each of the boards. The boards and bars were all overlaid with gold; and their rings for the staves, and their hasps at top, were of the same metal. The foundation on which they stood consisted of about ninety-six solid blocks of silver, two under each board, about eighteen inches long, and of a suitable thickness; and each weighing a talent, or about a hundred weight. Four blocks of silver formed the bases of the columns which supported the curtain that divided the inside of the tabernacle into two rooms.
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