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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comAdam Clarke Commentary - Exodus 31:6 - 31:6
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In the hearts of all that are wisehearted I have put wisdom - So every man that had a natural genius, as we term it, had an increase of wisdom by immediate inspiration from God, so that he knew how to execute the different works which Divine wisdom designed for the tabernacle and its furniture. Dark as were the heathens, yet they acknowledged that all talents, and the seeds of all arts, came from God. Hence Seneca: Insita nobis omnium artium semina, magisterque ex occulto Deus producit ingenia. In the same way Homer attributes such curious arts to Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, and Vulcan, the god of handicrafts.
Ὡς δ’ ὁτε τις χρυσον περιχευεται αργυρῳ ανηρ
Ιδρις, ὁν Ἡφαιστος δεδαεν και Παλλας Αθηνη
Τεχνην παντοιην, χαριεντα δε εργα τελειει.
Odyss., 1. vi., ver. 232.
As by some artist, to whom Vulcan gives
His skill divine, a breathing statue lives;
By Pallas taught, he frames the wondrous mould,
And o’er the silver pours the fusile gold.
- Pope.
And all this the wisest of men long before them declared; when speaking of the wisdom of God he says, I, Wisdom, dwell with Prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions; Pro 8:12. See Clarke’s note on Exo 28:3, to which the reader is particularly desired to refer. There is something remarkable in the name of this second superintendent, אהליאב Aholiab, the tabernacle of the father, or, the father is my tabernacle; a name nearly similar in its meaning to that of Bezaleel, see Clarke’s note on Exo 31:2.