And thou shalt make an hanging for the door of the
tent,
&c.] At the east end of the tabernacle, which lay open and
exposed, and for which as yet there was no provision; the west
end of it, where stood the holy of holies, was enclosed with six
boards, and two corner ones, ( Exodus 26:22
Exodus
26:23 ) and the linen curtains hung down there to the silver
bases, and so did the curtains of goats' hair, even to the
ground, and half a curtain to spare, see ( Exodus 26:12
Exodus
26:33 ) but for the east end, or entrance into the
tabernacle, there was nothing till now ordered, only the sixth
curtain of the goats' hair curtains was there turned up double, (
Exodus 26:9 )
, but now here an "hanging" is ordered, or rather a "covering"
F26, as the word signifies; Jarchi
calls it a vail; and this was instead of a door to the
tabernacle, and divided the holy place, into which only the
priests might enter, from the place where the people stood and
worshipped: and this also was made
of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined
linen;
as was the vail between the holy and the holy of holies; only
with this difference, this was
wrought with needle work,
and that was of "cunning work": the difference between these two,
"Rokem" and "Chosheb", was, as Ben Melech from the Misnah
relates, that "Rokem" is the work of a needle, and therefore but
one face or figure is seen, that is, it is only seen on one side;
but "Chosheb" is the work of a weaver, and therefore two faces or
figures are seen, that is, they are seen on both sides; and with
this account Maimonides agrees, (See Gill on Exodus
26:1), besides this hanging, Josephus F1 tells
us there was another of linen, of the same size with this, and
which covered it, and preserved it from the weather, and which on
festival days was turned back, that the people might have a
prospect of the other; just as there were curtains of goats' hair
to preserve the linen ones.