¹tn Heb “and he made.”
²tn Heb “its horns were from it,” meaning from the same piece.
³tn Heb “and he cast.”
⁴tn Heb “it.”
⁵sn The word for “serve” is not the ordinary word to be used. It means “to serve in a host,” especially in a war. It appears that women were organized into bands and served at the tent of meeting. Driver thinks that this meant “no doubt” washing, cleaning, or repairing (p. 391). But there is no hint of that (see 1 Sam 2:22; and see Ps 68:11 (12 Hebrew text). They seem to have more to do than what Driver said.
⁶tn Heb “south side southward.”
⁷tn While this verse could be translated as an independent sentence, it is probably to be subordinated as a circumstantial clause in line with Exod 27:10-12, as well as v. 12 of this passage.
⁸tn “the hangings were” has been supplied.
⁹tn “there were” has been supplied.
¹⁰tn The text simply has “their posts ten and their bases ten”; this may be added here as a circumstantial clause with the main sentence in order to make sense out of the construction.
¹¹tn The text simply says “75 feet.”
¹²tn That is, on one side of the gateway.
¹³tn Many commentators consider “on this hand and on that hand” in this verse as a scribal gloss, for it makes no sense at all in the verse.
¹⁴tn Heb “and the bases.”
¹⁵tn Heb “they were banded with silver.”
¹⁶tn This word is different than the word for hangings; it has more of the idea of a screen, shielding or securing the area.
¹⁷tn The Hebrew word is yd@WqP= (p^equde), which in a slavishly literal way would be “visitations of” the tabernacle. But the word often has the idea of “numbering” or “appointing” as well. Here it is an accounting or enumeration of the materials that people brought, so the contemporary term “inventory” is a close approximation. By using this Hebrew word there is also the indication that whatever was given, i.e., appointed for the tabernacle, was changed forever in its use. This is consistent with this Hebrew root, which does have a sense of changing the destiny of someone (“God will surely visit you”). The list in this section will also be tied to the numbering of the people.
¹⁸tn The same verb is used here, but now in the Pual perfect tense, third masculine singular. A translation “was numbered” or “was counted” works. The verb is singular because it refers to the tabernacle as a unit. This section will list what made up the tabernacle.
¹⁹tn Heb “at/by the mouth of.”
²⁰tn The noun is “work” or “service.” Driver explains that the reckonings were not made for the Levites, but that they were the work of the Levites, done by them under the direction of Ithamar (Driver, 393).
²¹tn Heb “by the hand of.”
²²tn These words form the casus pendens, or independent nominative absolute, followed by the apodosis beginning with the vav (see Cassuto, 469).
²³tn Heb “and it was.”
²⁴sn There were 3000 shekels in a talent, and so the total weight here in shekels would be 87,730 shekels of gold. If the sanctuary shekel was 224 grs., then this was about 40,940 oz. troy. This is estimated to be a little over a ton, but there are some widely diverging estimates also given.
²⁵sn This would be a total of 301,775 shekels (about 140,828 oz), being a half shekel exacted per person from 605,550 male Israelites 20 years old or more (Num 1:46). The amount is estimated to be around 3.75 tons.
²⁶sn The weight would be about half an ounce.
²⁷tn Heb “upward.”
²⁸tn “a number of” has been supplied.
²⁹tn “shekels” understood; about 45 pounds.
³⁰sn The total shekels would have been 212,400 shekels, which would be about 108,749 oz. This would make about 2.5 to 3 tons.
³¹sn The bronze altar is, of course, the altar of the burnt offering; the bronze laver is not included here in the list.