Exodus 26:7-13 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

Bible Comments

2. THE GOATS’-HAIR TENT-CLOTH.

(7-13) An awning such as that described in Exodus 26:1-6 would have neither kept out sun nor rain. For this purpose an ordinary cloth of goats’-hair was requisite, and accordingly Moses was instructed to make a second covering, which was to be of this material, and to extend over the whole of the first, thus externally concealing it. This second covering was, like the first, to be in two portions (Exodus 26:9-11), each of them made up of several “breadths,” but the two portions were not to be of the same size. Both were to be thirty cubits in length, but the hinder portion was to contain five “breadths,” while the portion in front was to contain six. Thus the outer covering was six feet broader than the inner one. The object was the protection of the inner covering, which was overlapped at both ends by the outer one (Exodus 26:9; Exodus 26:12).

Exodus 26:7-13

7 And thou shalt make curtains of goats' hair to be a covering upon the tabernacle: eleven curtains shalt thou 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 thou shalt couple five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves, and shalt double the sixth curtain in the forefront of the tabernacle.

10 And thou shalt make fifty loops on the edge of the one curtain that is outmost in the coupling, and fifty loops in the edge of the curtain which coupleth the second.

11 And thou shalt make fifty taches of brass, and put the taches into the loops, and couple the tentb together, that it may be one.

12 And the remnant that remaineth of the curtains of the tent, the half curtain that remaineth, shall hang over the backside of the tabernacle.

13 And a cubit on the one side, and a cubit on the other side of that which remaineth in the length of the curtains of the tent, it shall hang over the sides of the tabernacle on this side and on that side, to cover it.