Exodus 25:25

And thou shalt make unto it a border of an hand breadth round about, and thou shalt make a golden crown to the border thereof round about.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(25) A border of a hand-breadth.—Rather, a band, or framing. The representation of the table of shewbread on the Arch of Titus at Rome gives the best idea of this “band” or framing. It was a flat bar about midway between the top of the table and its feet, connecting the four legs together, and so keeping them in place. Its “golden crown,” or “edging,” can have been only for ornament.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

25:23-30 A table was to be made of wood, overlaid with gold, to stand in the outer tabernacle, to be always furnished with the shew-bread. This table, with the articles on it, and its use, seems to typify the communion which the Lord holds with his redeemed people in his ordinances, the provisions of his house, the feasts they are favoured with. Also the food for their souls, which they always find when they hunger after it; and the delight he takes in their persons and services, as presented before him in Christ.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

A border - Rather a framing, which reached from leg to leg so as to make the table firm, as well as to adorn it with a second moulding of gold. Two fragments of such framing are still seen in the sculpture attached to the legs halfway down.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

24. crown—the moulding or ornamental rim, which is thought to have been raised above the level of the table, to prevent anything from falling off.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

A border, which encompassed and kept together the feet of the table, and seems to have been towards the bottom of it.

A golden crown; not the same mentioned before, Exodus 25:24, but another for further ornament to the table.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And thou shalt make unto it a border of art hand's breadth round about,.... Jarchi says, their wise men are divided about this; some say it was above, round about the table; others say it was below, fixed from foot to foot at the four corners of the table, and the board of the table lay upon the border:

and thou shalt make a golden crown to the border thereof round about; this was not the same spoke of in the former verse, but another; that was above, and upon the table, this below and under it; or rather that was, as it may be better expressed, a lip, rim, or border, that went round within the table (u); and this crown, surrounded that on the edge of it.

(u) So R. Sol. Urbin. Ohel Moed, fol. 61. 2.

Geneva Study Bible

And thou shalt make unto it a border of an hand breadth round about, and thou shalt make a golden crown to the border thereof round about.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

25. a border] a frame (Heb. enclosure), about 3 in. broad, running round the Table, either (as in modern tables) immediately below the top, or (to judge from what seem to be the remains of a ‘frame’ in the fig.) about half-way down the legs,—in either case helping to hold the legs firm in their places. This frame was also decorated with a moulding of gold, running round it.

The Table of Presence-bread, with incense-cups, and two silver trumpets (Numbers 10:2), as depicted on the Arch of Titus.

Reduced from Reland’s De spoliis Templi (1716), p. 70.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 25. - A border of a hand-breadth. Rather "a band" or "framing." This seems to have been a broad flat bar, placed about hallway down the legs, uniting them and holding them together. It was represented in the sculpture of the table which adorned the Arch of Titus. (See the Speaker's Commentary, vol. 1. p. 363.) A golden crown to the border - i.e., an edging at the top of the bar, which could be only for ornament. Exodus 25:25

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The Table of Shew-Bread (cf. Exodus 37:10-16). - The table for the shew-bread (Exodus 25:30) was to be made of acacia-wood, two cubits long, one broad, and one and a half high, and to be plated with pure gold, having a golden wreath round, and a "finish (מסגּרת) of a hand-breadth round about," i.e., a border of a hand-breadth in depth surrounding and enclosing the four sides, upon which the top of the table was laid, and into the four corners of which the feet of the table were inserted. A golden wreath was to be placed round this rim. As there is no article attached to זר־זהב in Exodus 25:25 (cf. Exodus 37:12), so as to connect it with the זר in Exodus 25:24, we must conclude that there were two such ornamental wreaths, one round the slab of the table, the other round the rim which was under the slab. At the four corners of the four feet, near the point at which they joined the rim, four rings were to be fastened for בּתּים, i.e., to hold the poles with which the table was carried, as in the case of the ark.