Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
The oil for the lamps of the tabernacle and the meal for the showbread were to be offerings from the Congregation, like the meal for the Pentecostal loaves, Leviticus 23:17. It appears that the responsibility of keeping up the lights rested on the high priest, but the actual service might be performed, on ordinary occasions, by the common priests. Compare margin reference.
Leviticus 24:5
Each cake or loaf of unleavened bread Leviticus 2:11 was to contain about six pounds and a quarter (see Exodus 29:40 note) of fine flour. The material was the same, both in quality and in quantity, with that of each one of the wave-loaves of Pentecost Leviticus 23:17. In the service of the temple the preparation and arrangement of the cakes was committed to the Levites I Chronicles 9:32; I Chronicles 23:29; II Chronicles 13:11.
Leviticus 24:6
Two rows, six on a row - Rather, two piles, six in a pile. On the table, see Exodus 25:23-30.
Leviticus 24:7
The frankincense as a memorial (like the handful of the meat-offering, Leviticus 2:2), was most likely cast upon the altar-fire as "an offering made by fire unto the Lord," when the bread was removed from the table on the Sabbath-day Leviticus 24:8; I Samuel 21:6. The frankincense was put into small gold cups, one of which was placed upon each pile of bread. (See Exodus 25:23-30 note.)
Leviticus 24:8
Being taken from the children of Israel - Each cake represented the offering of a tribe.
Leviticus 24:9
See Leviticus 2:3 note. It could have been only by a stretch of the law that Ahimelech gave a portion of the showbread to David and his men, on the ground that they were free from ceremonial defilement. I Samuel 21:4-6; Matthew 12:4.
The showbread was a true meat-offering (see Exodus 25:29). The special form in which it was offered, especially in its being brought into the tabernacle and in its consisting of twelve loaves, distinguish it as an offering made on behalf of the nation.
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