Anointing Oil Points Toward King Meshiha of Judah

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus 40:9 takes a small detail — anointing the tabernacle with the consecration oil — and reaches forward across centuries. Anoint the tent and everything in it, the meturgeman says, on account of the crown of the kingdom of the house of Jehudah, and of the King Meshiha, who is to redeem Israel at the end of the days.

Oil poured on furniture, crown placed on kings

The plain Hebrew of Exodus 40:9 commands Moshe to sanctify the Mishkan with oil. The meturgeman hears an echo. The same oil that consecrates the tabernacle will one day, in a different form, anoint kings. The words Mashiach and mashach (to anoint) share a root. The sanctuary oil that dripped on the wooden boards of the tent carries forward into the oil that will be poured on David, and eventually on the King Meshiha — the Messiah from the house of Judah.

The meturgeman is weaving the sanctuary and the monarchy into one story. When Moshe anointed the tabernacle in the wilderness, he was already beginning the anointing of a king whose name would not be spoken for generations. The oil on the golden altar was the same oil, spiritually, that would one day shine on David's forehead.

The redemption at the end of days

The targumist's phrase is precise: who is to redeem Israel at the end of the days. The end of days, in Aramaic, is sof yomaya — the time when exile gives way to return, when scattered tribes come home, when the Temple stands again. The meturgeman is not making a prediction for his own generation. He is pointing toward the long horizon of Jewish hope, and he is saying that the tabernacle was already dripping with it.

The crown of Judah's kingdom — the line from which David, Solomon, and Meshiha would come — was, in a sense, already resting on the Mishkan when Moshe lifted the flask of oil. The anointing was a small act. The promise it carried was enormous.

The takeaway: the first drop of sacred oil that touched the tabernacle was reaching, through centuries, toward the final redemption. Nothing in the sanctuary was only for its own moment.