And thou shalt make curtains of goats' hair to be a covering upon the tabernacle: eleven curtains shalt thou make.
Thou shalt make curtains of goat's hair. This after being spun (Exodus 35:26) was woven into a coarse kind of stuff resembling camlet, and used in the East as a material of common tents. It differed somewhat from the former in dimensions, no less than in general quality and appearance. There were to be eleven pieces of this coarse cloth made, each 30 cubits long and 4 cubits broad, which were to be formed into two large curtains-one of five and the other of six parts; and these, when united by loops and taches of brass, were to be placed over the splendid curtain of the tabernacle, being so disposed that, as they were one more in number than the former, and, moreover, were 30 cubits long, while the linen curtains under them were only 28, the hair-cloth covering would extend considerably lower on each side, and be large enough to conceal the richer curtains, and protect them from the influences of the weather. The extra or sixth curtain was to hang down in a doubled form in 'the fore-front,' which was the entrance at the east end of the tabernacle. The design of making those curtains separated, and attachable by fastenings, was to facilitate the work of removal, transport, and re-erection.
Verse 14. A covering for the tent of rams' skins dyed red, and a covering above of badgers' skins - (see the note at Exodus 25:1-40.) These additional coverings were for the more effectual defense of the tabernacle from external injuries, especially from rain; because if the roof, which was flat, had been covered only with curtains of cloth, it would have been pervious to every shower, and hence, the necessity for those superincumbent coverings, the smooth, leather surface of which rain could not penetrate. But they were not intended to serve the purpose of tarpaulings merely-they contributed to the beauty and splendour of the tabernacle, the one being one entire sheet of red, the other, as many suppose, of azure or sky-blue skin.