Exodus 25:17

And thou shall make a mercy seat of pure gold,.... Or "covering" (n); so Jarchi and Aben Ezra; for so the word properly signifies; and what is meant was no more than a cover of the ark, which was

And thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof. Mercyseat - [ kaporet (H3727); Septuagint, hilasteerion (G2435), propitiatory (cf.

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, 4:10, because he interposeth himself between God our Judge, and the law, by which we all stand condemned and accursed, ,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.

Exodus 25:17 And thou shalt make a mercy seat [of] pure gold: two cubits and a half [shall be] the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof.Ver. 17. A mercy seat.] Heb., A covering; or covering up of men’ s sins; the appeasing of an angry God, by Christ who is our propitiation or mercy seat. Two cubits and a half, &c.] Just so big every way as the ark. Get into covenant with God, saith one, for as the mercy seat was no larger than the ark, so neither is the grace of God than the covenant. And as the ark and mercy seat were not asunder; so God is near to all that call upon him in truth.

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. 1 Chronicles 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.

Verse 17. A mercy-seat] כפרת capporeth, from כפר caphar, to cover or overspread; because by an act of pardon sins are represented as being covered, so that they no longer appear in the eye of Divine justice to displease, irritate, and call for punishment; and the person of the offender is covered or protected from the stroke of the broken law. In the Greek version of the Septuagint the word ιλαστηριον, hilasterion, is used, which signifies a propitiatory, and is the name used by the apostle, Hebrews 9:5. This mercy-seat or propitiatory was made of pure gold; it was properly the lid or covering of that vessel so well known by the name of the ark and ark of the covenant. On and before this, the high priest was to sprinkle the blood of the expiatory sacrifices on the great day of atonement: and it was in this place that God promised to meet the people, (see Exodus 25:22;) for there he dwelt, and there was the symbol of the Divine presence. At each end of this propitiatory was a cherub, between whom this glory was manifested; hence in Scripture it is so often said that he dwelleth between the cherubim. As the word ιλαστηριον, propitiatory or mercy-seat, is applied to Christ, Romans 3:25, whom God hath set forth to be a PROPITIATION (ιλαστηριον) through faith in his blood-for the remission of sins that are past; hence we learn that Christ was the true mercy-seat, the thing signified by the capporeth, to the ancient believers. And we learn farther that it was by his blood that an atonement was to be made for the sins of the world. And as God showed himself between the cherubim over this propitiatory or mercy-seat, so it is said, God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself; 2 Corinthians 5:19, &c. See Clarke on Leviticus 7:38.

17–22. The mercy-seat and the two cherubim upon it.

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

17. A mercy seat — Hebrew, capporeth; the cover or lid of precisely the same dimensions as the length and breadth of the ark. Exodus 25:10. On its symbolical significance see note at the end of chap. 40.