(26) Which is by the tabernacle and by the altar round about.--Or, which are . . . The curtains or hangings enclosed the whole of the court.

Verse 26. - And their cords, and all the instruments of their service. Taking this verse in connection with verse 37, we must understand the word "their" as applying to the things mentioned in the previous verse. The Merarites carried the cords, etc. of the hangings of the court.

4:21-33 We have here the charge of the other two families of the Levites, which, though not so honourable as the first, yet was necessary, and to be done regularly. All the things were delivered them by name. It intimates the care God takes of his church and every member of it. The death of the saints is represented as the taking down of the tabernacle, 2Co 5:1, and the putting it off, 2Pe 1:14. All shall be raised up in the great day, when these vile bodies shall be made like the glorious body of Jesus Christ, and so shall be for ever with the Lord.And the hangings of the court,.... Which made the great court that surrounded the tabernacle, Exodus 27:9,

and the hanging for the door of the gate of the court; the eastern gate that led into the court, an hanging of twenty cubits, Exodus 27:16,

which is by the tabernacle, and by the altar round about; that is, which hangings that formed the court, and were round about the tabernacle, and the altar of burnt offering; See Gill on Exodus 26:36,

and their cords; which fastened the hangings to pins or stakes fixed in the ground to keep them tight, that they might not be moved to and fro with the wind:

and all the instruments of their service; in the court, as the tables on which the sacrifices were laid, and the hooks, and cords, and pins, on which they were hung and fastened, as Aben Ezra; see Ezekiel 40:39,

and all that is made for them; for the vessels of service, or for the tabernacle, or the altar, as the same writer intimates:

so shall they serve; by bearing them and carrying them.