Exodus 25:27

Over against the border shall the rings be for places of the staves to bear the table.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(27) Over against the border shall the rings be.—Rather, opposite the band, or framing. The meaning is not very clear. If the framing had been at the bottom of the legs, we might have understood that the rings were attached to the table opposite the places where the “framing” was inserted into the legs. But the “framing” appears to have been halfway up the legs (see Note on Exodus 25:25), while the rings were at the bottom. They could therefore have only been “opposite the framing” in a loose and vague sense.

For places of the staves.—Rather, for places for staves.

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

Over against the border - Rather, Over against the framing; that is, the rings were to be placed not upon the framing itself, but at the extremities of the legs answering to each corner of it.

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

As much below the top as the border was above the bottom of the feet. of the table, which was a convenient place for the carriage. Others, near the border, in that part of the feet which is next to it.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Over against the border,.... Or "under" it, as the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions. Jarchi says the rings were fixed to the feet over against the top of the border:

shall the rings be for placing of the staves to bear the table; into these rings staves were to be put, to carry the table from place to place, when it was necessary, as while they were in the wilderness, and before the tabernacle had a fixed settled place for it; for wherever the tabernacle was carried, the ark and the table were also: where the church of Christ is, there he is, and there are the word and ordinances; and which are sometimes moved from place to place, as from the land of Judea into the Gentile world, from the eastern part of the world to the more northern; and that by the ministers of the word, who bear the name, and carry the Gospel of Christ into the several parts of the world, as this table was bore by the Levites, Numbers 4:7.

Geneva Study Bible

Over against the border shall the rings be for places of the staves to bear the table.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

27. The rings were close by the points at which the ‘frame’ (v. 25) met the legs, and where probably the legs began to be rounded, and to assume the character of ‘feet.’

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 27. - Over against the border. Rather "opposite the band" or "framing" - i.e., opposite the points at which the "band" or "framing" was inserted into the legs. Bishop Patrick supposes that the table "was not carried up as high as the ark was, but hung down between the priests, on whose shoulders the staves rested." But it is carried upright in the bas-relief on the Arch of Titus, and might have been as easily so carried as the ark. (See the comment on ver. 12.) Of the staves. Rather, "for staves." Staves for the table had not yet been mentioned; and naturally the word has no article. Exodus 25:27

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.