Exodus 26:31

31 Thou shalt make also a veil of jacinth, and purple, and of red silk twice-dyed, and of bis folded again, by embroidery work, and woven together by fair diversity; (And thou shalt make the Veil out of jacinth, and purple, red silk twice-dyed, and finely woven linen, and embroider it with cherubim;)

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 And thou shalt overgild those boards, and thou shalt set golden rings in them, by the which rings, the bars shall hold together the work of the boards, the which bars thou shalt cover with golden plates. (And thou shalt gild those boards with gold, and thou shalt fasten gold rings to them, by which rings the bars shall hold the boards together, and thou shalt cover those bars with gold plates.)
30 And thou shalt raise up the tabernacle, by the exemplar that was showed to thee in the hill. (And thou shalt set up the Tabernacle after the example that was shown to thee on the mountain.)
31 Thou shalt make also a veil of jacinth, and purple, and of red silk twice-dyed, and of bis folded again, by embroidery work, and woven together by fair diversity; (And thou shalt make the Veil out of jacinth, and purple, red silk twice-dyed, and finely woven linen, and embroider it with cherubim;)
32 which veil thou shalt hang before four pillars of the wood of shittim; and soothly those pillars shall be overgilt; and they shall have golden hooks , but the bases shall be silver. (which Veil thou shalt hang on four pillars made out of shittim wood; and those pillars shall be gilded with gold, and they shall have gold hooks, and silver bases.)
33 Forsooth the veil shall be set in by the rings, within which veil thou shalt set the ark of witnessing, whereby the saintuary, and the saintuary of saintuaries, shall be separated. (And the Veil shall be hung under the fasteners of the Tabernacle, and thou shalt put the Ark of the Witnessing behind the Veil; and the Veil shall separate the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place, or the Holy of Holies.)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.