_Mirrors. Formerly all sorts of metal, silver, copper, tin, &c., were used for mirrors, till the Europeans began to make them of glass. The best were made of a mixture of copper and tin. (Pliny, [Natural History?] xxxiii. 9.) --- Watched. Hebrew, served like soldiers: fasting and praying, according... [ Continue Reading ]
_Brass. The Hebrew does not say the pillars were of brass, but only the bases. The body was of wood, encircled with silver, ver. 12. See chap. xxvii. 10. (Calmet)_... [ Continue Reading ]
CHAPTER XXXVIII.... [ Continue Reading ]
_The, &c. Some render the Hebrew, "The bases of the pillars were of brass, the hooks of the pillars and circles were of silver, their chaptrels were covered with silver." Bonfrere supposes that the pillars were of the Ionic order, and that the chaptrels here designate the summit or abacus; while the... [ Continue Reading ]
_Ithamar, some time after this, (Numbers i. 50,) was appointed to deliver the necessary vessels to the Levites; part of whose duty it was to take down the tabernacle and set it up again, and to keep an account of all things. (Menochius)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Gifts, voluntarily. The following verse mentions what arose from the tax of half a sicle per head, chap xxx. 13._... [ Continue Reading ]
_And it, &c. Hebrew is rather more express, "And the silver given by those who were numbered, was a hundred talents, 1775 sicles of the weight of the sanctuary, ver. 26. They gave each half a sicle, paid by all those who were 20 years old and upwards, amounting to 603,550 men." Hence the talent woul... [ Continue Reading ]
_Seventy. Hebrew confines the number of talents to 70, and allows "two thousand and four hundred sicles." The Greek interpreters vary._... [ Continue Reading ]