The height five cubits.--This had not been previously either stated or implied. It has been noted that, with one exception, all the measurements of the tabernacle and the court, as distinct from the furniture, are either five cubits or some multiple of five. The one exception is the length of the inner covering (Exodus 26:2), which was determined by the pitch of the roof.
Verse 18. - The length and the breadth of the court had been already implied in what had been said of the external screen-work, or "hangings" (vers. 9 and 12). What this verse adds is the height of the pillars, which was five cubits, or seven feet six inches.
27:9-19 The tabernacle was enclosed in a court, about sixty yards long and thirty broad, formed by curtains hung upon brazen pillars, fixed in brazen sockets. Within this enclosure the priests and Levites offered the sacrifices, and thither the Jewish people were admitted. These distinctions represented the difference between the visible nominal church, and the true spiritual church, which alone has access to God, and communion with him.
The length of the court shall be one hundred cubits,.... And as may be concluded from the length of the hangings on each side:
and the breadth fifty everywhere; at both ends, and was the breadth of the hangings there, and which all around made the court:
and the height five cubits; or two yards and a half, and somewhat more; it was but half the height of the tabernacle, and hence that might be seen above it every way; so that, according to Bishop Cumberland, it contained one rood, twenty one perches, and twenty seven square feet, and was half an Egyptian aroura, which is the square of one hundred Jewish or Egyptian cubits: "of fine twined linen"; of which the hangings were made, and here called the court, as they properly were, for they made it:
and their sockets of brass; the bases on which all the pillars stood, upon which the hangings of fine twined linen were, were of brass; which seems to be repeated, that the foundation of this court might be observed to be different from that of the tabernacle; the foundation of that, or the sockets, into which the boards of it were put, being of silver.
The breadth fifty.--Comp. Exodus 27:12.
The height five cubits.--This had not been previously either stated or implied. It has been noted that, with one exception, all the measurements of the tabernacle and the court, as distinct from the furniture, are either five cubits or some multiple of five. The one exception is the length of the inner covering (Exodus 26:2), which was determined by the pitch of the roof.
CHAPTER 27:19
and the breadth fifty everywhere; at both ends, and was the breadth of the hangings there, and which all around made the court:
and the height five cubits; or two yards and a half, and somewhat more; it was but half the height of the tabernacle, and hence that might be seen above it every way; so that, according to Bishop Cumberland, it contained one rood, twenty one perches, and twenty seven square feet, and was half an Egyptian aroura, which is the square of one hundred Jewish or Egyptian cubits: "of fine twined linen"; of which the hangings were made, and here called the court, as they properly were, for they made it:
and their sockets of brass; the bases on which all the pillars stood, upon which the hangings of fine twined linen were, were of brass; which seems to be repeated, that the foundation of this court might be observed to be different from that of the tabernacle; the foundation of that, or the sockets, into which the boards of it were put, being of silver.