Exodus 25:23

23 And you are to make a table of the same wood, two cubits long, a cubit wide and a cubit and a half high,

Exodus 25:23 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 25:23

Thou shalt also make a table of shittim wood
As the sanctuary or tabernacle was an house for God to dwell in, he would have the proper furniture of an house, as a table, candlestick This table was to be in the same place with the ark and mercy seat; they were set in the holy of holies, where there were nothing else; but this in the holy place, on the north side of it, ( Exodus 26:35 ) ( 40:22 ) its principal use was to set the shewbread on, as after mentioned, and was typical of Christ, and communion with him, both in this life, and that to come. There is the table of the Lord, to which his people are now admitted, where he sits down with them, and they with him, to have fellowship with him in the ministration of the word and ordinances, of which he is the sum and substance; and this is very desirable and delightful, and an instance of his condescending grace, ( Song of Solomon 1:12 ) , and he will have a table in his kingdom hereafter, where his saints shall eat and drink with him, in which their chief happiness will consist, ( Luke 22:30 ) This table may be considered as typical of Christ himself, for he is both table and provisions and everything to his people; and of him in both his natures; in his human nature, it being made of shittim wood, incorruptible; for though Christ died in, that nature, yet he saw no corruption, he rose again and lives for evermore; in his divine nature, by the gold it was covered with:

two cubits shall be the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth
thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof;
it was two Jewish square cubits in length, which are about six English square feet and above half, viz. ninety four inches, according to Bishop Cumberland {t}. It was neither so long nor so broad as the ark by half a cubit, but was of the same height with it, being about thirty two inches high and three quarters, according to the Jewish and Egyptian cubit, which was about twenty one inches and more and was a proper height for a table; and this measure, no doubt, takes in the thickness of the table, and the height of the seat, as Jarchi and Aben Ezra observe.


FOOTNOTES:

F20 Ut supra. (Of Scripture Weights and Measures, ch. 2. p. 34, 36.)

Exodus 25:23 In-Context

21 And put the cover over the ark, and in the ark the record which I will give you.
22 And there, between the two winged ones on the cover of the ark, I will come to you, face to face, and make clear to you all the orders I have to give you for the children of Israel.
23 And you are to make a table of the same wood, two cubits long, a cubit wide and a cubit and a half high,
24 Plated with the best gold, with a gold edge all round it;
25 And make a frame all round it, as wide as a man's hand, with a gold edge to the frame.
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