Charles Ellicott Commentary Exodus 25

Speak unto the children of Israel that they bring me an offering.— God, being about to command the construction of a dwelling for Himself, such as the circumstances of the case allowed, prefaced His directions concerning its materials and form by instructing Moses to invite the people to contribute from their stores, as an offering to Himself, the various substances which were suitable for the dwelling and its appurtenances. The erection of sanctuaries is one of the fittest occasions for man to show his gratitude to God by giving to Him of His own, largely and liberally.

Of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart.—Heb., of every man whose heart impels him. Unless gifts come from the heart, they are an offence to God. He loveth a cheerful giver. When the time came, a noble and liberal spirit was not lacking. (Exodus 36:3–7.)

My offering.—Literally, my heave-offering. But the word seems to be intended in a generic sense.

Gold, and silver, and brass. —The Israelites had brought out of Egypt:

1. their ancestral wealth—the possessions of Abraham and the accumulations of Joseph;
2. and the rich gifts received from the Egyptians at the moment of their departure.

They had added to their wealth by the plunder of the Amalekites. Thus, they possessed a considerable store of the precious metals; and there is no difficulty in supposing that they furnished the gold needed for the tabernacle without seriously impoverishing themselves.

The silver, which was of small amount comparatively, appears ultimately to have been furnished in another way (Exodus 30:12–16; Exodus 38:25–28).

The brass, or rather bronze, for brass seems to have been unknown at this time, was small in amount (Exodus 38:29) and of no great value. It would have constituted no serious drain on the resources of the people.

And blue, and purple, and scarlet. —The colours intended are probably: a dark blue produced from indigo, which was the only blue known to the Egyptians; a purplish crimson derived from the murex trunculus, the main source of the “Tyrian dye” of the ancients; and a scarlet furnished by the coccus ilicis, or cochineal insect of the holm oak. This scarlet was largely employed in antiquity, though now superseded by the brighter tint obtained from the coccus cacti of Mexico. Linen yarn of the three colours mentioned seems to have been what the people were asked to furnish (Exodus 35:25; Exodus 39:1).

Fine linen —i.e., white thread spun from flax, which is found to be the material of almost all the Egyptian dresses, mummy cloths, and other undyed fabrics. It is yellowish-white, soft, and wonderfully fine and delicate. (See Wilkinson in Rawlinson’s Herodotus, vol. ii., p. 233).

Goats’ hair. —The covering of an Arab tent is to this day almost always of goats' hair. An excellent fabric is woven from the soft inner hair of the Syrian goat, and a coarse one from the outer coat of the animal. Yarn of goats' hair was to be offered, so that from it the first of the three outer coverings of the Tabernacle might be produced (Exodus 26:7–14).

Rams’ skins dyed red. North Africa has always been celebrated for the production of the best possible leather. Herodotus describes the manufacture of his own times (Hist. iv. 189). Even at the present day, we bind our best books in morocco. Brilliant colors always were, and still are, favored by the North African races, and their “red skins” have been famous in all ages. It is probable that the Israelites had brought with them many skins of this kind out of Egypt.

Badgers’ skins. The badger is not a native of North Africa, nor of the Arabian desert; and the translation of the Hebrew takhash by “badger” is a very improbable conjecture. In Arabic, tukhash or dukhash is the name of a marine animal resembling the seal; or, perhaps it should rather be said, is applied with some vagueness to a number of sea-animals, as seals, dugongs, dolphins, sharks, and dog-fish. The skins here spoken of are probably those of some one or more of these animals. They formed the outer covering of the Tabernacle (Exodus 26:14).

Shittim wood. That the shittah (plural, shittim) was a species of Acacia is now generally admitted.

It was certainly not the palm; and there are no trees in the Sinaitic region from which boards could be cut except the palm and the acacia. The Sinaitic acacia (A. Seyal) is a “gnarled and thorny tree, somewhat like a solitary hawthorn in its habit and manner of growth, but much larger” (Tristram). At present it does not, in the Sinaitic region, grow to such a size as would admit of planks, ten cubits long by one and a half wide, being cut from it; but, according to Canon Tristram (Nat. Hist. Of the Bible, p. 392), it attains such a size in Palestine, and therefore may formerly have done so in Arabia. The wood is “hard and close-grained, of an orange colour with a darker heart, well adapted for cabinetwork.”

Oil for the light. —It is assumed that the “sanctuary,” which is to be built (Exodus 25:8), will need to be lit. Oil therefore is to be provided for the lighting. Later on (Exodus 27:20), it is laid down that the oil must be pure olive oil beaten.

Spices for anointing oil. —Rather, for the anointing oil. Here, again, there is an assumption that anointing oil will be needed, and that spices will be a necessary ingredient in such oil. We find later that the Tabernacle itself, all its vessels, and the priests appointed to serve in it, had to be consecrated by anointing (Exodus 29:7; Exodus 29:36; Exodus 30:26–30). The particular spices to be mixed with the “anointing oil” are enumerated in Exodus 30:23-24.

And for sweet incense. —Rather, for the sweet incense—the incense, i.e., which would have to be burned. (and for the composition of the incense, Exodus 30:34.)