And they shall spread a scarlet cloth over them, cover them with fine leather, and insert the poles.
We have here a second muster of the tribe of Levi. As that tribe was taken out of all Israel to be God's peculiar, so the middle-aged men of that tribe were taken from among the rest to be actually employed in the service of the tabernacle. Now observe, I. Who were to be taken into this number. All the males from thirty years old to fifty.
Commenting on Numbers 4:1-20
And they shall spread upon them a cloth of scarlet,.... Upon the dishes and other vessels belonging to the shewbread table, and on the shewbread itself: and cover the same with a covering of badgers' skins; this was clearly the outward covering, and seems to confirm the observation made in Num 4:6; that the same sort of covering was the outermost covering of the ark...
Num 4:7-8 Over the table of shew-bread (Exo 25:23) they were to spread a hyacinth cloth, to place the plates, bowls, wine-pitchers, and drink-offering bowls (Exo 25:29) upon the top of this, and to lay shew-bread thereon; and then to spread a crimson cloth over these vessels and the shew-bread, and cover this with a sea-cow skin, and lastly to put the bearing poles in their places.
Commenting on Numbers 4:7-8