Exodus 25:26

And thou shalt make for it four rings of gold, and put the rings in the four corners that are on the four feet thereof.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(26) Four rings.—Compare Exodus 25:12. The table, like the ark, would have to be carried from place to place. Though it was less sacred than the ark, still provision was made for carrying it by means of staves and rings.

The four corners that are on the four feet.—Rather, that are at the four feet. Not the top corners of the table, i.e., but the bottom corners. The table, like the ark, was, when carried, to be elevated above the shoulders of the bearers. So we see it borne on the Arch of Titus.

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

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And thou shalt make for it four rings of gold,.... As the ark had, and for the same use as the rings of that were, though whether cast, as they were, is not said:

and put the rings in the four corners that are on the four feet thereof; as there were four feet at the four corners of the table, to each foot a ring was fastened; the use of these follows.

Geneva Study Bible

And thou shalt make for it four rings of gold, and put the rings in the four corners that are on the four feet thereof.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

26. on (or at) the four corners of the four feet] The word for ‘feet’ is the one which ordinarily denotes the foot of a man or animal. The legs, it is probable, terminated in claws.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 26. - The four corners that are on the four feet, is scarcely an intelligible expression. Pe'oth, the word translated "corners," means properly "ends;" and the direction seems to be, that the four rings should be affixed to the four "ends" of the table; those ends, namely, which are "at the four feet." It is a periphrasis, meaning no more than that they should be affixed to the feet, as Josephus tells us that they were. (Ant. Jud. 3:6, § 6.) Exodus 25:26

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.