The Hundred Talents of Silver and the Sockets They Made

"And the silver of those numbered of the congregation was a hundred talents" (Exodus 38). A reckoning: a hundred people at half a shekel each is fifty selas; sixty times a hundred is six thousand. You find then six thousand to a talent, and six hundred thousand to a hundred talents. From them were made the sockets of the Tabernacle, "a hundred sockets to the hundred talents, a talent to a socket" (Exodus 38:27). A reckoning: forty on the north, forty on the south, sixteen to the west, four to the east. Those on the north, south, and west were set two beneath each board, while those on the east were not set so; rather there were four pillars of acacia arranged within ten cubits, like the entrance of the Hall, placed upon four sockets of silver, with a curtain spread over them. So from the reckoning of the hundred talents there remained one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five shekels; from them he made the hooks of the pillars and overlaid their tops and bound them (Exodus 38:28). "And the bronze of the offering was seventy talents." From it he made the hooks of the curtains of goats' hair, and overlaid the pillars of the court, and made the sockets of the pillars of the court, the pegs of the Tabernacle and of the court, and the bronze altar that belonged to it and all its vessels, and the laver and its base.