Éxodo 27:20

20 Y tú mandarás a los hijos de Israel que te traigan aceite de olivas, claro, molido, para el alumbrado, para hacer arder continuamente las lámparas

Éxodo 27:20 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 27:20

And thou shall command the children of Israel
Here begins a new section of the law; an account being given of the tabernacle, and its parts, and the furniture thereof, next the several parts of service done in it are observed; and the account begins with that of the candlestick in the holy place, in order to which Moses is directed to command the people of Israel, whose business it was to provide for it:

that they bring thee pure oil olive beaten for the light;
for the light of the candlestick, to light up the several lamps in the several branches of it; and the oil to be brought and used there was not any sort of oil, as what is got out of fishes, as train oil, or out of nuts, as oil of almonds, but what comes from the olive tree; and this must be pure and free from lees and dregs, and must be beaten with a pestle in a mortar, and not ground in a mill, that so it might be quite clear; for being bruised and beaten, only the pulp or flesh of the olive was broken, but being ground in a mill, the stones were broken and ground, and so the oil not so pure.

Jarchi and Ben Melech, from their Rabbins, observe, that after the first drop was pressed out, they put them into mills and grind them; but then, though the oil was fit for offerings, it was not fit for the light of the candlestick. Ben Gersom says, they put the olives bruised into a basket, and the oil dropped from them without pressing at all; and this was the choicest and most excellent for the light. The quantity to be brought is not fixed; but the measure fixed by the wise men of Israel, as Jarchi says, was half a log, that is, for every lamp; and this was the measure for the longest nights, the nights of the month Tebet, and so the same for all other nights:

to cause the lamp to burn always
night and day, continually, as it was proper it should, that the house of God might not be at any time in darkness; as it would otherwise be, since there were no windows in it; and his servants minister in it in the dark, even in the daytime, at the altar of incense, and at the shewbread table, which is not reasonable to suppose; and though there are some passages of Scripture which seem to intimate as though the lamps only burnt till the morning, and then went out, and were lighted every evening; this difficulty may be solved, and the matter reconciled by what Josephus ^F12 relates, who must be an eyewitness of it, that three of the lamps burned before the Lord in the daytime, and the rest were lighted at the evening; and Hecataeus ^F13, an Heathen writer, speaking of the golden candlestick, says, its light was unextinguished day and night, particularly the lamp which was in the middle; also the candlestick is by the ancient Jews, and by Nachmanides, said to have been never extinct.

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FOOTNOTES:

F12 Antiqu. l. 3. c. 8. sect. 3.
F13 Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 4. p. 408.

Éxodo 27:20 In-Context

18 La longitud del atrio será de cien codos, y la anchura cincuenta por un lado y cincuenta por el otro, y la altura de cinco codos: sus cortinas de lino torcido, y sus basas de bronce

19 Todos los vasos del tabernáculo en todo su servicio, y todas sus estacas, y todas las estacas del atrio, serán de bronce

20 Y tú mandarás a los hijos de Israel que te traigan aceite de olivas, claro, molido, para el alumbrado, para hacer arder continuamente las lámparas

21 En el tabernáculo del testimonio, afuera del velo que estará delante del testimonio, las pondrá en orden Aarón y sus hijos, delante del SEÑOR desde la tarde hasta la mañana, por estatuto perpetuo de los hijos de Israel por sus generaciones