John Gill Commentary Exodus 25

And the Lord spoke to Moses
When on the mount, and in the midst of the cloud with him:

saying ;
as follows.

Speak unto the children of Israel
That is, when he should go down from the mountain to the camp:

that they bring me an offering ;
the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan call it a "separation": something separated from their substance, and devoted to the service of God, and for the use of the sanctuary afterwards to be built:

of every man that giveth it willingly, with his heart, you shall take my
offering ;
or take what was offered to him, be it more or less, and of whatsoever person, high and low, rich and poor, so be it it is freely given from the heart; not grudgingly or through force, as the Targum of Jonathan adds; and in such manner did David and his people many hundreds of years after this offer towards building of the temple, and the vessels belonging to that, see (1 Chronicles 29:6–14) according to the Jewish writers, none but the children of Israel were to offer to this service, and only such who knew what they did; for thus they criticize on the words,``speak unto the children of "Israel": this exempts an Heathen and an idolater; "of every man"; this excludes a little one; "that giveth it willingly with his heart"; this exempts a deaf and dumb man, and a fool, because they have no knowledge to offer freely ^F26 ''

however, this we may learn from hence, that whatever we do for the worship and service of God, we should do it freely, cheerfully, and cordially; for God loves a cheerful giver; and if this was required under the legal dispensation, it is much more necessary and obligatory under the Gospel dispensation, and more suitable to it where all things are done and given freely of God, and such large blessings of grace are liberally bestowed by him on persons undeserving.

FOOTNOTES:

• F26: Maimon. & Bartenora in Misn. Trumot, c. 1. sect. 1.

And this is the offering which you shall take of them
That is, some one or other of the following things were to be taken of each of them that had a heart, and it was in the power of their hands to give; it was not expected that something of each of these should be had of everyone, but every man was to give, and it was to be received of him, what of these would suit him best to bestow, some one thing, some another, as they were possessed of, and had a heart to give; and for which service many of them were abundantly supplied with what they had brought out of Egypt; and as it was the Lord that gave them favour in the eyes of the Egyptians to lend or give them the riches they had, they were under the greater obligation to part with somewhat of it freely for his service; and especially as it would be to the spiritual profit and advantage both of them and theirs:

gold and silver, and brass ;
"gold", for those things that were to he made of gold; as the mercy seat and cherubim, the candlestick or were covered with it, as the ark, the shewbread table, and other things; and silver, for those that were made of that, as the silver sockets to the boards of the tabernacle, the silver trumpets and "brass" for the altar of burnt offering, its pans, shovels, basins, rings, and staves, and other things: Aben Ezra rightly observes, that no mention is made of iron, there being no use of that for anything in the tabernacle to be made of it; as also there was not in the temple of Solomon, and where there was not so much as a tool of iron heard in it while it was building, (1 Kings 6:7) it may be, because instruments of war, slaughtering weapons, were made of iron; and to show that God is the God of peace in his sanctuary, and so in all the churches: gold and silver vessels the Israelites borrowed or begged of the Egyptians, and brought them with them when they came out of Egypt, (Exodus 11:2) (12:35) .

And blue, and purple, and scarlet
The Jewish doctors are much divided about the sense of the words so rendered by us; some will have one colour, and some another meant; but, according to those learned men, who have taken much pains in searching into the meaning of them, as Bochart and Braunius, it appears that our version of them is most correct: and by these we are not to understand the colours themselves, which could not be brought, nor even the materials for dying them are intended; but wool, or clothes, either silken or linen of those colours: of the former the apostle has taught us to expound them, (Hebrews 9:19) and so Jarchi interprets them of wool thus died, and Josephus ^F1 also; which was made up into yarn, and wove, and was much used in the garments of the priests, in the curtains of the tabernacle, and in the vail between the holy and the most holy place:

and fine linen ;
the best of which was made in Egypt only, as Aben Ezra says, and much wore there, especially by the priests; and they had such an abundance of it that they traded to other nations with it, see (Isaiah 19:9) (Ezekiel 27:7) and of which the Israelites might bring a considerable quantity with them out of Egypt; and

goats' [hair] ;
though the word hair is not in the text, it is rightly supplied, as it is by the Septuagint version, and others, for not goats themselves, but their hair must be meant; of this the curtains for the covering of the tabernacle were made; Jarchi interprets it the down of goats, the short, small, fine hair that grows under the other.

FOOTNOTES:

• F1: Antiqu. l. 3. c. 6. sect. 1.

And rams' skins died red
Of these were made a covering for the tent or tabernacle:

and badgers' skins ,
which were for the same use: the Septuagint version calls them hyacinth or blue skins; according to which, they seem to be the rams' skins died blue; and so Josephus ^F2 seems to have understood it; and it is much questionable whether the same creature is meant we call the badger, since that with the Israelites was an unclean creature; nor is its skin made use of for shoes, or well could be, as the skin of this creature is said to be, (Ezekiel 16:10) . Jarchi says it was a kind of beast only at that time; and Aben Ezra says, it was known in those days but not now: and

shittim wood ;
supposed by the Jewish writers, as Kimchi ^F3 , and Ben Melech from him, to be the best and most excellent kind of cedar: Aben Ezra conjectures, and he delivers it but as a conjecture, that there might be near Mount Sinai a forest of "shittim" trees; and while the Israelites were there they cut them down for booths, which they might carry with them when they removed from thence; for, he says, Moses did not speak of the tabernacle till after the day of atonement: and since Acacia is by much the largest and the most common tree of the deserts of Arabia, as Dr. Shaw ^F4 observes, he thinks there some reason to conjecture, that the "shittim wood", whereof the several utensils of the tabernacle were made, was the wood of Acacia:

and long ago it was the opinion of Cordus ^F5 that the "shittim wood" was the Acacia of Dioscorides; and it is the same with the Senton or Santon of the Arabians, which is the Egyptian thorn that grows in the wilderness, of which Herodotus ^F6 says, they cut wood of two cubits out of and make ships of burden of it: this is said to grow in the parts of Egypt at a distance from the sea; in the mountains of Sinai, at the Red sea, about Suez, in the barren wilderness; which circumstances seem to determine it to be the "shittim wood" ^F7 : some places where it might grow in plenty seem to have had their names from it, see (Numbers 25:1) (33:49) (Joel 3:18) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F2: Ut supra. (Antiq. l. 3. c. 6. sect. 1.)
• F3: Sepher Shorash. rad. (jwv)
• F4: Travels, p. 144. Ed. 2.
• F5: Apud Drus. Heb. Adag. Decur. 3. Adag. 4.
• F6: Euterpe, sive, l. 2. c. 96.
• F7: Vid. Scheuchzer. Physic. Sacr. vol. 2. p. 204.