Exodus 26:31

31 Thou shalt make also a veil of violet, and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, and fine twisted linen, wrought with embroidered work and goodly variety:

Exodus 26:31 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 26:31

And thou shalt make a vail
The use of this, as follows, was to divide the holy place from the most holy place in the tabernacle; it has its name from hardness, it being very stiff and strong, for it was made of thread six times doubled, and was four fingers thick, as the Jewish writers say: this vail may represent the sin of man, which separates between God and man, was removed by the death of Christ when the vail was rent, and so the way to heaven opened; or the obscurity of the legal dispensation, the Gospel being veiled under the shadows of the law, and the way into the holiest of all then not so manifest, and particularly the ceremonial law, which separated between Jew and Gentile, and is now abolished by the death of Christ; or rather it was typical of the human nature of Christ, his flesh, called in allusion to it the vail of his flesh, ( Hebrews 10:20 ) . This vail was made of

blue, and purple, and scarlet, of fine twined linen of cunning work;
it seems to have been made of the same materials, and in the same curious manner of workmanship with the curtains of the tabernacle, ( Exodus 26:1 ) , and was itself no other than a curtain, and so it is interpreted by some Jewish writers F24. It being made of "fine linen" denotes the purity of Christ, of his nature, life, and righteousness; of "twined linen", his strength, courage and steadiness; "of blue, purple, and scarlet", the several graces of the Spirit, with which his human nature was adorned, his flaming zeal for his Father's glory and the good of his people, his bloody wounds, sufferings, and death, the preciousness of his blood, the dignity of his person, and his glorious exaltation, purple and scarlet being the colours wore by kings:

with cherubim shall it be made;
signifying either the ministration of angels to him in his incarnate state, or the mission of Gospel ministers by him, see ( Psalms 139:15 Psalms 139:16 ) .


FOOTNOTES:

F24 Vid. R. Sol. Urbin. Ohel Moed, fol. 37. 2.

Exodus 26:31 In-Context

29 The boards also themselves thou shalt overlay with gold, and shalt cast rings of gold to be set upon them, for places for the bars to hold together the boardwork: which bars thou shalt cover with plates of gold.
30 And thou shalt rear up the tabernacle according to the pattern that was shewn thee in the mount.
31 Thou shalt make also a veil of violet, and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, and fine twisted linen, wrought with embroidered work and goodly variety:
32 And thou shalt hang it up before four pillars of setim wood, which themselves also shall be overlaid with gold, and shall have heads of gold, but sockets of silver.
33 And the veil shall be hanged on with rings, and within it thou shalt put the ark of the testimony, and the sanctuary and the holy of the holies shall be divided with it.
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