Numbers 4:8

8 "They shall spread over them a cloth of scarlet material, and cover the same with a covering of porpoise skin, and they shall insert its poles.

Numbers 4:8 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 4:8

And they shall spread upon them a cloth of scarlet
Upon the dishes and other vessels belonging to the shewbread table, and on the shewbread itself:

and cover the same with a covering of badgers' skins;
this was clearly the outward covering, and seems to confirm the observation made in ( Numbers 4:6 ) ; that the same sort of covering was the outermost covering of the ark:

and shall put in the staves thereof;
which belonged to the table, and were made to carry it with on occasion, from place to place; see ( Exodus 25:27 Exodus 25:28 ) ; and the same phrase being used as here of the staves of the ark in ( Numbers 4:6 ) ; seems to confirm the sense of them there, that they were taken out and put in upon this occasion, though otherwise fixed.

Numbers 4:8 In-Context

6 and they shall lay a covering of porpoise skin on it, and shall spread over it a cloth of pure blue, and shall insert its poles.

7 "Over the table of the bread of the Presence they shall also spread a cloth of blue and put on it the dishes and the pans and the sacrificial bowls and the jars for the drink offering, and the continual bread shall be on it.

8 "They shall spread over them a cloth of scarlet material, and cover the same with a covering of porpoise skin, and they shall insert its poles.

9 "Then they shall take a blue cloth and cover the lampstand for the light, along with its lamps and its snuffers, and its trays and all its oil vessels, by which they serve it;

10 and they shall put it and all its utensils in a covering of porpoise skin, and shall put it on the carrying bars.