Verse 1

If the repetition, which might appear to be superfluous in these chapters, should be wearisome to us, let us reflect on the intention of the Holy Spirit, who, in narrating the execution of the work, uses almost the identical words wherein He had previously set forth the commands of God, viz., that we may understand that Moses, and the artificers themselves, did not vary in the smallest point from the rule prescribed to them. God had commanded the Ark of the Covenant to be made, together with its cover; and Moses relates how it was completed, so that the artificers did not omit even its very minutest detail. He ordered a table to be made for the offering of bread, and not a single syllable is neglected. As to the candlestick there was the same scrupulous obedience, so that they did not alter it in any part. In the altar of incense there was no kind of dissimilarity between the command and the work; and, finally, the composition of the oil exactly corresponds with the command. There is no question, then, but that Moses commends obedience, as it is the foundation of true piety, and at the same time reminds us that there was no exercise of the imagination in the whole service of the tabernacle, because there is nothing more opposite to the purity of religion than to do anything which is not enjoined.