Its tongs and its trays shall be of pure gold.
Parallel translations
- WEB Its snuffers and its snuff dishes shall be of pure gold.
- KJV And the tongs thereof, and the snuffdishes thereof, shall be of pure gold.
- BSB The wick trimmers and their trays must be of pure gold.
- NKJV And its wick-trimmers and their trays shall be of pure gold.
- NLT The lamp snuffers and trays must also be made of pure gold.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The lampstand's tools — snuffers (wick trimmers) and snuff dishes — were also to be made of pure gold. Even the maintenance implements of God's house shared in its holiness and value.
Overview
Tending the lamp required trimming wicks and removing the residue, so these tools too were fashioned of pure gold to match the lampstand. Nothing connected to the light that burned before the Lord was treated as common. This care reminds us that serving God is never trivial, and points forward to Christ, the true Light, whose ministry is wholly precious and holy.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- 1 Kgs 7:50the cups, the snuffers, the basins, the spoons, and the fire pans, of pure gold; and the hinges, both for the doors of the inner house, the most holy place, and for the doors of the house, of the temple, of gold.
- 2 Chr 4:21and the flowers, the lamps, and the tongs of gold that was perfect gold;
- 2 Kgs 25:14They took away the pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the spoons, and all the vessels of brass with which they ministered.
- Num 4:9“They shall take a blue cloth, and cover the lamp stand of the light, and its lamps, and its snuffers, and its snuff dishes, and all its oil vessels, with which they minister to it.
- Jer 52:18They also took away the pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the basins, the spoons, and all the vessels of brass with which they ministered.
- 2 Kgs 12:13But there were not made for Yahweh’s house cups of silver, snuffers, basins, trumpets, any vessels of gold, or vessels of silver, of the money that was brought into Yahweh’s house;
- Exod 37:23He made its seven lamps, and its snuffers, and its snuff dishes, of pure gold.
- Isa 6:6Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar.
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Christ at the center
The Passover lamb whose blood turns away death, the exodus through the sea, the manna, the rock, and the tabernacle where God dwells with his people all foreshadow Jesus — our Passover, our redemption, the bread from heaven, and God-with-us in the flesh.
How Exodus 25:38 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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