(16) And by weight he gave gold.--And the gold he gave (assigned in the schedule or written plan) a certain weight.

For the tables of shewbread.--Only one table of shewbread is spoken of in the Law. (See Exodus 25:23-30, and comp. 1Kings 7:48.) The chronicler was well aware of this, as appears from 2Chronicles 29:18; and as he states elsewhere that Solomon made ten golden tables, and put them five on the right and five on the left in the holy place (2Chronicles 4:8), those tables may be intended here. It may even be the case that the term "shewbread" (hamma'areketh) is a gloss which has displaced the word "gold" (hazz?h?b), and that the original text was "for the tables of gold." (Comp. "for the tables of silver," at the end of the verse.) The table of shewbread would then be included among the golden tables. (But comp. 1Chronicles 6:57; 2Chronicles 28:16.)

For the tables of silver.--The silver tables are not again spoken of in the Old Testament. The rabbis assert that they stood in the court of the Temple, and that the prepared flesh of the sacrificial victims was laid upon them.

Verse 16. - So tot, as regards the tables of shewbread, whether in sort of gold or of silver, he assigned the due weight of metal for either sort. We should have been at a loss to understand the plural here employed, showing more than one table (Exodus 25:23; 1 Kings 7:48; 2 Chronicles 29:18), but for 2 Chronicles 4:8, 19; in the former of which verses we read of "ten tables" being made and placed on "the right side and on the left, in the temple," and in the latter verse, yet more distinctly, of "tables, whereon the shewbread was set."

28:11-21 The temple must be a sacred thing, and a type of Christ; it must be framed by Divine teaching. Christ is the true temple, the church is the gospel temple, and heaven the everlasting temple; all are framed according to the Divine counsels, and the plan laid in the Divine wisdom, ordained before the world, for God's glory and our good. David gave this pattern to Solomon, that he might go by rule. Materials were provided for the most costly utensils of the temple. Directions were given which way to look for help in this great undertaking. Be not dismayed; God will help thee, and thou must look up to him in the first place. We may be sure that God, who owned our fathers, and carried them through the services of their day, will, in like manner, never leave us, while he has any work to do in us, or by us. Good work is likely to go on, when all concerned are hearty in furthering it. Let us hope in God's mercy; if we seek him, he will be found of us.And by weight he gave gold for the tables of shewbread, for every table,.... For though there were but one table for the shewbread in the tabernacle of Moses, there were ten in the temple of Solomon, 2 Chronicles 4:8 and each of them contained one hundred pounds in weight (u):

and likewise silver for the tables of silver; these were placed in the court, as Jarchi thinks, on which they flayed the sacrifices; or, as Kimchi, on which they slew them, and laid the flesh of the burnt offerings on them, which he gathers from Ezekiel 40:39.

(u) Jacob Leon, ibid. (Relation of Memorable Things in the Tabernacle and Temple, ch. 4. p. 20.)