Socket

SOCKET [ISBE]

SOCKET - sok'-et ('edhen): The tabernacle in the wilderness being constructed as a portable building without permanent foundation, its stability was attained by the use of "sockets" into which the pillars and boards forming its walls were sunk. The word therefore is used solely in relation to the tabernacle, except in one poetic passage (Song 5:15), where the legs of the beloved are compared to "pillars of marble set upon sockets of fine gold." In all, the tabernacle with its court rested upon 165 bases or sockets, apportioned thus: (1) silver sockets, each a talent (circa 95 lbs.) in weight (Ex 38:27), namely, 96 to support the 48 boards of the tabernacle (Ex 26:19 ff); 4 for the pillars supporting the veil (Ex 26:32) = 100; (2) bronze sockets, weight not given, namely, 50 to support the 50 standards on which were hung the curtains of the tabernacle on North, South and West (Ex 27:10 ff), 10 to support 10 pillars on the E. (Ex 27:13 ff), and 5 to support the 5 pillars upholding the screen at the tabernacle entrance (Ex 26:27) = 65. The site for the tabernacle being chosen and leveled, these sockets would be "laid" upon it (Ex 40:18), and the tenons of the boards, or projecting base of the pillar, inserted into holes made for the purpose.

W. Shaw Caldecott