EXPLANATIONS

Exodus 31

Historical chapter commentary

Exodus

Verse 2. By name. I have fixed upon and taken into my service, as Isaiah 43:1.

Exodus

Verse 3. Spirit. “God, our master, causeth our genius to shew itself.” Senec. Ben. iv. 4.

Exodus

Verse 4. Brass. Septuagint add, “and violet, and purple, and scarlet spun, and byssus twisted.”

Exodus

Verse 5. Marble and (or) precious stones. Marble was not used in the tabernacle. Calmet.

Exodus

Verse 6. Wisdom. Good artists deserve this title, provided they make things of real use. Orig. hom. 22. Num.

Exodus

Verse 7. Vessels. Tables, curtains, and so forth Calmet.

Exodus

Verse 8. Table and (all) the. The Sam. copy retains the word col, “all,” as well as the Sam. Septuagint Syr. and Arab. versions, and one Hebrew MS. though the printed editions have rejected it. In a Chaldaic MS. it is also found. The omission, probably was occasioned by the custom of the Jews, who always fill up their lines with the initial letters of the next line; and as coliu followed, the transcriber supposed that col was in that predicament. Ken. dis. 2.—Most pure gold, always giving light, or kept clean. Calmet. 39:37.

Exodus

Verse 13. Sabbath. Let not the workmen do any thing for the tabernacle on that day. Menochius.—God reiterates and insists particularly on this commandment, which begins with the word remember; because men are so apt to forget, or to transgress a precept, which seems to interfere with those worldly concerns and profits, which they love more than God and their own souls. Bible.

Exodus

Verse 18. Testimony, to inform men of their duty.—Written, not by Moses, or by any man, but by God himself, or by an angel. Calmet. 34:1. Galatians 3:19. Calmet.

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