HAYDOCK CATHOLIC BIBLE COMMENTARY ON THE OLD TESTAMENT

EXODUS 31

CHAPTER XXXI.

Ver. 2. By name. I have fixed upon and taken into my service, as Is. xliii. 1.

Ver. 3. Spirit. "God, our master, causeth our genius to shew itself." Senec. Ben. iv. 4.

Ver. 4. Brass. Sept. add, "and violet, and purple, and scarlet spun, and byssus twisted."

Ver. 5. Marble and (or) precious stones. Marble was not used in the tabernacle. C.

Ver. 6. Wisdom. Good artists deserve this title, provided they make things of real use. Orig. hom. 22. Num.

Ver. 7. Vessels. Tables, curtains, &c. C.

Ver. 8. Table and (all) the. The Sam. copy retains the word col, "all," as well as the Sam. Sept. Syr. and Arab. versions, and one Heb. MS. though the printed editions have rejected it. In a Chaldaic MS. it is also found. The omission, probably was occasioned by the custom of the Jews, who always fill up their lines with the initial letters of the next line; and as coliu followed, the transcriber supposed that col was in that predicament. Ken. dis. 2. --- Most pure gold, always giving light, or kept clean. C. xxxix. 37.

Ver. 13. Sabbath. Let not the workmen do any thing for the tabernacle on that day. M. --- God reiterates and insists particularly on this commandment, which begins with the word remember; because men are so apt to forget, or to transgress a precept, which seems to interfere with those worldly concerns and profits, which they love more than God and their own souls. H.

Ver. 18. Testimony, to inform men of their duty. --- Written, not by Moses, or by any man, but by God himself, or by an angel. C. xxxiv. 1. Gal. iii. 19. C.