Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Hebrews 9:2

"For there was a tabernacle prepared, the first, wherein [were] the candlestick, and the table, and the showbread; which is called the Holy place." — Hebrews 9:2 (ASV)

The tabernacle was a tent with two compartments. The term rendered “was set up” (GK 2941) is not the usual word for the pitching of a tent but has rather the meaning of “prepare.” It may be used not only of the erection of a building but also of its furnishings and equipment. This is in mind here as is shown by the list of furnishings that follows. In the first tent there was “the lampstand,” i.e., the seven-branched lampstand (Exodus 25:31ff.; 37:17ff.). It also had “the table and the consecrated bread” (a hendiadys for “the table of the consecrated bread”). There were twelve loaves, each baked from two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour, arranged in two rows of six, pure frankincense being put with each row. Every Sabbath day Aaron had to set them up, and it was prescribed that they were to be eaten only by the priests (Leviticus 24:5–9). The loaves were called “the continual bread” (cf. Numbers 4:7), a name that brings out the fact that there were always to be such loaves in the Holy Place, put on a table specially constructed for the purpose (Exodus 25:23–30; Exodus 37:10–16). The tent in which these objects were placed was called “the Holy Place.” The Tabernacle Fulfilled in Jesus Christ According to the writer to the Hebrews, the Old Testament tabernacle was a shadow pointing to the real thing, Jesus Christ (8:6; 9:23; 10:1). This chart depicts in detail how the various parts of the tabernacle are fulfilled in Jesus Christ.