Bible Dictionary

SOCKET

Temple & Tabernacle • Old Testament

Sockets were bases into which the boards and pillars of the wilderness tabernacle were fitted. Silver sockets supported the tabernacle boards and veil pillars, while bronze sockets supported the court pillars and entrance screen.

Definition

A socket was a base into which a board or pillar of the portable wilderness tabernacle was fitted. The sockets secured the structure because the tabernacle had no permanent foundation. Silver sockets supported the boards and veil pillars, while bronze sockets supported the court pillars and entrance screen.

Biblical Usage

The term is used chiefly of the tabernacle and its furnishings. The tabernacle and court rested on 165 sockets: 100 silver bases and 65 bronze bases. In a poetic passage, the legs of the beloved are compared with pillars set upon sockets of fine gold.

Historical Background

The leveled tabernacle site received the sockets, into which the projecting tenons of the boards and pillars were inserted. The silver sockets each weighed a talent; the weight of the bronze sockets is not given.

Historical Bible Dictionaries

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)

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 (So 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); 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), 10 to support 10 pillars on the E. (Ex 27:13), 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

Back to Dictionary Search