Numbers 4:10

And they shall put it and all the vessels thereof within a covering of badgers' skins, and shall put it upon a bar.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(10) Upon a bar.—Better, upon a pole, or frame made for bearing. (Comp. Numbers 13:23, where the same word mot is rendered “a staff.”)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

4:4-20 The Kohathites were to carry the holy things of the tabernacle. All the holy things were to be covered; not only for security and respect, but to keep them from being seen. This not only marked the reverence due to holy things, but the mystery of the things signified by those types, and the darkness of the dispensation. But now, through Christ, the case is altered, and we are encouraged to come boldly to the throne of grace.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

wholly of blue - Compare Exodus 25:4 note. The third and external covering of the ark only was to be of this color. The table of showbread had Numbers 4:8 an outer wrapping of scarlet; the altar Numbers 4:13 one of purple.

Put in the staves - Probably, "put the staves in order." These were never taken out of the golden rings by which the ark was to be borne (see Exodus 25:14-15), but would need adjustment.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

10. a bar—or bier, formed of two poles fastened by two cross pieces and borne by two men, after the fashion of a sedan chair.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

So contrived that this cloth containing the candlestick &c., might be either laid upon it, or some other way fastened to it.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And they shall put it, and all the vessels thereof, within a covering of badgers' skins,.... Which here also was the outermost covering; the ark and the shewbread table had three coverings, but the candlestick only two, they being more sacred than that, especially the ark:

and shall put it upon a bar; the word "mot" perhaps signifies a kind of mat or mattress, on which the candlestick and its vessels, bundled together in the covering of the badgers' skins, were laid and carried between men on staves; and so the Septuagint render the word "staves"; as does the Targum of Onkelos.

Geneva Study Bible

And they shall put it and all the vessels thereof within a covering of badgers' skins, and shall put it upon a {e} bar.

(e) The Hebrew word signifies an instrument made of two staves or bars.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 10. - Upon a bar - i.e., a bearing-frame. Απ ἀναφορέων, Septuagint; "upon a rest," Targum of Palestine. Numbers 4:10

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The candlestick, with its lamps, snuffers, extinguishers (Exodus 25:31-37), and all its oil-vessels (oil-cans), "wherewith they serve it," i.e., prepare it for the holy service, were to be covered with a hyacinth cloth, and then with a wrapper of sea-cow skin, and laid upon the carriage. מות (Numbers 4:10 and Numbers 4:12), bearing frame, in Numbers 13:23 bearing poles.