Exodus 25:17

25:10-22 The ark was a chest, overlaid with gold, in which the two tables of the law were to be kept. These tables are called the testimony; God in them testified his will. This law was a testimony to the Israelites, to direct them in their duty, and would be a testimony against them, if they transgressed. This ark was placed in the holy of holies; the blood of the sacrifices was sprinkled, and the incense burned, before it, by the high priest; and above it appeared the visible glory, which was the symbol of the Divine presence. This was a type of Christ in his sinless nature, which saw no corruption, in personal union with his Divine nature, atoning for our sins against it, by his death. The cherubim of gold looked one towards another, and both looked downward toward the ark. It denotes the angels' attendance on the Redeemer, their readiness to do his will, their presence in the assemblies of saints, and their desire to look into the mysteries of the gospel. It was covered with a covering of gold, called the mercy-seat. God is said to dwell, or sit between the cherubim, on the mercy-seat. There he would give his law, and hear supplicants, as a prince on his throne.

Exodus 25:17 . The mercy-seat was the covering of the ark, made exactly to fit the dimensions of it. This propitiatory covering, as it might well be translated, was a type of Christ the great propitiation, whose satisfaction covers our transgressions, and comes between us and the curse we deserve.

THE MERCY SEAT. (17) A mercy seat.—Those critics to whom the idea of expiation is unsatisfactory, as Knobel and Gesenius, render kapporeth, the word here used, by “lid” or “cover.” Kaphar, it may be Admitted, has the physical meaning of “to cover” (Genesis 6:14); but kipper, the Piel form of the same verb, has never any other meaning than that of “covering,” or “expiating sins.” And kapporeth is not formed from kaphar, but from kipper. Hence the ἱλαστήριον of the LXX., the propitiatorium of the Vulg., and the “mercy seat” of the Authorised Version are correct translations. (Comp. 1Chronicles 28:11, where the Holy of Holies is called beyth-hak-kapporeth, which is certainly not” the house of the cover,’ but “the house of expiation.”) Of pure gold.—Not of shittim wood, overlaid with a plating of gold, but a solid mass of the pure metal. It has been calculated that the weight would be 750 lbs. Troy, and the value above £25,000 of our money. It was intended to show by this lavish outlay, that the “mercy seat” was that object in which the accessories of worship culminated, the crowning glory of the material tabernacle.

Mercy-seat, or, propitiatory ; which seems from the sameness of dimensions to be nothing else but the covering of the ark, upon which God is said to sit, whence the ark is called God’s footstool. This covering is a manifest type of Christ, who is therefore called the propitiation , or propitiatory , Romans 3:25 1Jo 2:2 4:10 , because he interposeth himself between God our Judge, and the law, by which we all stand condemned and accursed, Galatians 3:10,13 ; that God may not deal rigorously with us according to that law, but mercifully for his sake who hath fulfilled the law, and therefore boldly presents himself to his Father on our behalf.

A mercy seat of pure gold - (Compare Exodus 37:6-9 .) In external form, the mercy-seat was a plate of gold with the cherubim standing on it, the whole beaten out of one solid piece of metal Exodus 37:7 ; it was placed upon the ark and so took the place of a cover. "mercy" seat expresses well the distinct significance and recognized designation of the Hebrew name.

Verse 17. - Thou shalt make a mercy seat. Modern exegesis has endeavoured to empty the word kapporeth of its true meaning, witnessed to by the Septuagint, as well as by the Epistle to the Hebrews ( Hebrews 9:5 ). It tells us that a kapporeth is simply a cover, "being derived from kaphar , to cover," - used in Genesis 5:14 , with respect to covering the ark with pitch. But the truth is that kapporeth is not derived from kaphar , but from kipper , the Piel form of the same verb, which has never any other sense than that of covering, or forgiving sins. In this sense it is used in the Old Testament some seventy times. Whether the mercy seat was the real cover of the ark of the covenant, or whether that had its own lid of acacia wood, as Kalisch supposes, is uncertain. At any rate, it was not called kipporeth because it was a cover, but because it was a seat of propitiation. On the importance of the mercy seat, as in some sort transcending the ark itself, see Leviticus 16:2 , and 1 Chronicles 28:11 . Atonement was made by sprinkling the blood of expiation upon it ( Leviticus 16:14, 15 ). Of pure gold , Not of wood, plated with metal, or richly gilt, but of solid gold - an oblong slab, three feet nine inches long, two feet three inches wide, and probably not less than an inch thick. The weight of such a slab would be above 750 lbs. troy, and its value above 25,000 l . of our money.

17 . a mercy-seat ] or, if the word could be revived, a propitiatory. This was a slab of gold, of the same length and breadth as the ark, and laid upon its top. The term mercy-seat was used first by Tindale (1530), being adopted by him from Luther’s Gnadenstuhl (1523). The Heb. is kappôreth , formed from kipper , to make propitiation (see on Exodus 30:10 ), and meaning properly a propitiating thing , or means of propitiation (LXX. mostly ἱλαστήριον [so in Philo, EB. iii. 3032, and Hebrews 9:5 ]; Vulg. propitiatorium , whence Wyclif’s rend. the ‘propitiatory’). It is true, the blood was the actual means of propitiation in the Lev. system ( Leviticus 17:11 ); but the term may have been applied to the ‘mercy-seat’ on account of its being the means of bringing the blood as near as possible to Jehovah on the Day of Atonement ( Leviticus 16:14 f.). Covering (RVm.), or cover , though adopted by many modern scholars (cf. LXX. here [not elsewhere] ἱλαστήριον ἐπίθεμα , a ‘propitiatory cover or lid ’), is a questionable rend.: for though kafara means to cover or conceal in Arabic, kâphar in Heb., if ‘cover’ is its primary meaning (which is very doubtful: see on Exodus 30:10 ), means to ‘cover’ not in a literal sense, but always in a metaph. sense (by a gift, offering, or rite). See further on the word (and also on its Greek rend. ἱλαστήριον , both in LXX. and in Romans 3:25 ) Deissmann’s full and interesting art. Mercy-seat in EB.

The special sanctity of the kappôreth was due naturally to the fact that Jehovah was regarded as speaking, or appearing, immediately above it ( v. 22, Leviticus 16:2 , Numbers 7:89 ); and so it is spoken of poetically as His footstool ( Psalm 99:5 ; Psalm 132:7 , 1 Chronicles 28:2 ). Outside P it is mentioned by name only in 1 Chronicles 28:11 . 17–22 . The mercy-seat and the two cherubim upon it.

17. thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold—to serve as a lid, covering it exactly. It was "the propitiatory cover," as the term may be rendered, denoting that Christ, our great propitiation [1Jo 2:2; 4:10], has fully answered all the demands of the law, covers our transgressions, and comes between us and the curse of a violated law.