The Framework of the Dwelling-place (Exodus 26:15-25).
This can be analysed as follows:
a The frames are to be made standing up and the measurements are given in cubits (Exodus 26:15-16).
b Two tenons to be made for each frame to join them up (Exodus 26:17).
c Twenty frames to be made for the south side (Exodus 26:18).
d Forty sockets of silver to be made to support the frames, two per frame (Exodus 26:19).
e Twenty frames to be made for the north side (Exodus 26:20).
d Forty sockets of silver to be made to support the frames, two per frame (Exodus 26:21).
c Six frames to be made for the west side, the rear of the Dwellingplace (Exodus 26:22).
b Two frames to form the corners at the rear doubled up (Exodus 26:23-24).
a There are to be eight frames and sixteen sockets, two sockets to a frame (Exodus 26:25).
Again we see the clever way in which the writer uses his descriptions so as to form parallels by key words. In ‘a' the frames are to be made standing up, and in the parallel they way in which they stand up is described. In ‘b' there are two tenons for each frame and in the parallel there are two frames for each corner. In ‘c' the frames for the south side are described and in the parallel the frames for the rear, the west side. In ‘d' and its parallel the forty sockets of silver to be made to support the frames, two per frame, are described. And in the centre the twenty frames for the north side are described. While the twenty frames of the north side would have made a better parallel with the south side, the west side had to be described after the north side because of what subsequently followed.
“And you shall make upright frames for the Dwelling-place of acacia wood. The length of a frame shall be ten cubits and the breadth of each frame a cubit and a half. In each frame there will be two uprights (or tenons) joined to one another. You will make all the frames for the Dwelling-place in this way.”
“ Frames”. (Kerashim). Probably not planks or boards but upright frames which would be lighter to carry and provide firmness and strength. The ‘uprights joined together' probably referred to a ladder-like structure. The kerashim framework was paralleled at Ugarit, and similar frames were known from Egypt.
“And you will make the frames for the Dwelling-place, twenty frames for the south side southward, and you shall make forty sockets of silver under the twenty frames, two sockets under one frame for its two uprights and two sockets under another frame for its two uprights, and for the second side of the Dwelling-place, on the north side, twenty frames and their forty sockets of silver, two sockets under one frame and two sockets under another frame. And for the rear part of the Dwelling-place westward you will make six frames. And you shall make two frames for the corners of the rear part, and they shall be double beneath, and they shall be the same right to their top in the one ring. It shall be the same for both. They shall be for the two corners. And there will be eight frames, and their sockets of silver, sixteen sockets, two sockets under one frame and two sockets under the other frame.”
The general pattern was clear although we do not have sufficient knowledge of their technical language to be certain of the full meaning. Each side would be based on twenty frames at one and a half cubits a frame, and would therefore be thirty cubits. The rear would be based on six similar frames plus two specially designed corner frames which doubled up for strength. The frames were held up by sockets with connection across by bars. It is possible that the extra two frames doubled up under the final ones of the six frames. That would make the actual width nine cubits upwards. But this would depend on exactly how they were combined together.
The sockets were to be of silver. These prevented the pillars having contact with the ground. The gold which represented the holiness of God could not be allowed to touch ground other than that which was most holy. The gold of the Ark, the table and the lampstand appear to have been allowed to touch the ground. This suggests that the ground there was seen as most holy. But the sockets tended of course to be at the division between the most holy ground and the slightly less holy ground.
The veil was also on pillars with silver sockets. But the outer pillars of that would again be seen as coming at the border where the most holy met the less holy, and the variety of curtains (which themselves did not touch the ground), may have been seen as making the ground within them most holy, with the ground on which the pillars actually stood, less holy.