Exodus 25:34

And in the candlestick shall be four bowls made like unto almonds, with their knops and their flowers.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(34) In the candlestick.—By “the candlestick” in this place must be meant the central shaft or stem, which is viewed as that whereto all the rest is accessory. Here the triple series was to be repeated four times.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

25:31-40 The candlestick represents the light of God's word and Spirit, in and through Christ Jesus, afforded in this dark world to his believing people, to direct their worship and obedience, and to afford them consolations. The church is still dark, as the tabernacle was, in comparison with what it will be in heaven; but the word of God is a light shining in a dark place,

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Three bowls made like unto almonds - Three cups of almond flowers. These appear to be the cups in immediate contact with the knobs as shown in the sculpture.

A flower - A lily; and this rendering well agrees with the sculpture.

The candlestick - Here, and in the two following verses, the word appears to denote "the stem," as the essential part of the candlestick. It would seem from Exodus 25:33-35 that the ornamentation of the candlestick consisted of uniform members, each comprising a series of an almond flower, a knob and a lily; that the stem comprised four of these members; that each pair of branches was united to the stem at one of the knobs; and that each branch comprised three members. In comparing the description in the text with the sculptured figure, allowance must be made for some deviation in the sculptor's copy.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

33. knops—old spelling for "knobs"—bosses.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

In the candlestick, i.e. in the shaft or trunk of the candlestick, which is here distinguished from its branches, shall be four bowls, whereas there were but three in each of the branches.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And in the candlestick shall be four bowls,.... That is, in the trunk or body of it; the branches had but three apiece, but this being larger had four: and these were also

made like unto almonds, with their knops and their flowers; as the bowls on the branches had with them.

Geneva Study Bible

And in the candlesticks shall be four bowls made like unto almonds, with their knops and their flowers.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

34, 35. There were also four similar cups in the candlestick itself, i.e. in its central shaft. Vv. 34, 35 are commonly understood to mean that there were four cups altogether in the central shaft, one towards the top, and the other three so placed that the ‘knop’ was just below the points where the three pairs of branches diverged from the central shaft; but (observe ‘and’ at the beginning of v. 35) Kennedy (p. 664a) may be right in supposing the meaning to be that there were to be four ‘knops and flowers’ combined on the upper and lower parts of the shaft, and three ‘knops’ alone under the points where the three pairs of branches diverged from it.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 34. - In the candlestick: i.e., in the central shaft or stem, which is viewed as "the candlestick" par excellence. Here were to be twelve ornaments, the series of cup, pomegranate, and lily being repeated four times, once in connection with each pair of branches, and a fourth time at the summit. Exodus 25:34

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

On each of these branches (the repetition of the same words expresses the distributive sense) there were to be "three cups in the form of an almond-flower, (with) knob and flower," and on the shaft of the candlestick, or central stem, "four cups in the form of almond-flowers, its knobs and its flowers." As both ופרח כּפתּר (Exodus 25:33) and וּפרחיה כּפתּריה (Exodus 25:34) are connected with the previous words without a copula, Knobel and Thenius regard these words as standing in explanatory apposition to the preceding ones, and suppose the meaning to be that the flower-cups were to consist of knobs with flowers issuing from them. But apart from the singular idea of calling a knob or bulb with a flower bursting from it a flower-cup, Exodus 25:31 decidedly precludes any such explanation; for cups, knobs, and flowers are mentioned there in connection with the base and stem, as three separate things which were quite as distinct the one from the other as the base and the stem. The words in question are appended in both verses to משׁקּדים גּבעים in the sense of subordination; ו is generally used in such cases, but it is omitted here before כפתר, probably to avoid ambiguity, as the two words to be subordinated are brought into closer association as one idea by the use of this copula. And if כפתר and פרח are to be distinguished from נביע, the objection made by Thenius to our rendering משׁקּד "almond-blossom-shaped," namely, that neither the almond nor the almond-blossom has at all the shape of a basin, falls entirely to the ground; and there is all the less reason to question this rendering, on account of the unanimity with which it has been adopted in the ancient versions, whereas the rendering proposed by Thenius, "wakened up, i.e., a burst or opened calix," has neither foundation nor probability.