Clasps

CLASPS [ISBE]

CLASPS - klasps (qerec): The word occurs nine times in Ex 26; 36; and 39, which record the specifications for the erection of the tabernacle and their subsequent carrying out. In each of these passages the King James Version renders "taches"--an early English word of French origin now embodied in our "attachment." 50 clasps or taches of gold were ordered to be used in connecting together the two sets of inner tapestry curtains (10 in number) of the tabernacle (Ex 26:6), and 50 clasps of brass (bronze) were similarly to be used in joining the two sets of goats' hair curtains (11 in number) which formed the outer covering (Ex 26:11). See TABERNACLE. As to the nature of the clasp itself, it seems to have belonged to a double set of loops, opposite to each other, to one of which in each set, required to be of blue cord, a gold or brass button or pin was attached, which, being inserted into the loop opposite, kept the curtain in position (Ex 26:4-6).

A difficulty arises from the direction in Ex 26:33 that the veil which divided the "dwelling" into two parts--the holy place and the most holy--was to be suspended "under the clasps." If the clasps are supposed to be midway in the total length of the tabernacle, this would make the two holy places to be of equal size, contrary to the usual assumption that the outer was twice the length of the inner. The term "under" must therefore be used with some latitude, or the ordinary conception of the arrangement of the curtains, or of the size of the holy places will have to be revised (the dimensions are not actually given in the description).

W. Shaw Caldecott