badgers' skins: This was not the covering of badgers' skins made for the tabernacle, which was carried by the Gershonites (Num 4:24 and Num 4:25), but one made for the purpose of concealing and sheltering the ark when it was to be carried.
a cloth: Num 4:7-8, Num 4:11-13; Exo 35:19, Exo 39:1, Exo 39:41
and shall put: Wesamoo baddaiv, rather, "and adjust the staves thereof;" i.e., dispose them rightly under the covering, that they might be laid on their shoulders. For the staves were never taken out of the rings.