Leviticus 24:5

And thou shalt take fine flour,.... Of wheat, and the finest of it: and bake twelve cakes thereof; answerable to the twelve tribes, as the Targum of Jonathan, which were typical of the spiritual

And thou shalt take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes thereof: two tenth deals shall be in one cake. Take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes - for the showbread, as previously appointed (Exodus 25:30).

Thou shalt take; by the priests or Levites, whose work it was to prepare them, . Twelve cakes, representing the twelve tribes. Two tenth deals, i.e. two omers. See .

Leviticus 24:5 And thou shalt take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes thereof: two tenth deals shall be in one cake.Ver. 5. Twelve cakes.]

(5) And bake twelve cakes.—The next order is about the preparation of the shewbread, and the use to be made of it. It was made in the following manner. Twenty-four seahs of wheat, which were brought as a meat offering, were beaten and ground, and after passing through twelve different sieves each finer than the other, twenty-four tenth-deals of the finest flour were obtained. The dough was kneaded outside the court, and after it was put into a golden mould of a definite size and form to impart the prescribed size and shape to each cake, was brought into the court. Here it was taken out of the first golden mould, and put into a second of the same material and form, and baked in it. As soon as it was taken out of the oven the cake was put into a third mould of the like description, and when it was turned out of it the cake was ten handbreadths long, five broad, one finger thick, and square at each end. Each cake, therefore, was made of two omers of wheat, or, as it is here said, of two tenth-parts of anephah, which is the same thing. (See Leviticus 14:10.) As an omer is the quantity which, according to the Divine ordinance (Exodus 16:16-19), supplies the daily wants of a human being, each of these cakes represents the food of a man and his neighbour, whilst the twelve cakes answered to the twelve tribes of Israel. Hence the ancient Ohaldee version has, after the words “twelve cakes,” “according to the twelve tribes.” The baking of these cakes took place every Friday afternoon, or Thursday if a feast which required Sabbatical rest fell on Friday. According to the testimony of those who were eyewitnesses to the baking, these cakes were unleavened.

Verse 5. Bake twelve cakes] See the whole account of the shew-bread in Clarke's notes on "Exodus 25:30"; and relative to the table on which they stood, the golden candlestick and silver trumpets carried in triumph to Rome, See Clarke on Exodus 25:31.

5–9. The ordering of the shewbread Cp. Exodus 25:30; Exodus 37:10 ff.; Numbers 4:7. The ‘twelve cakes’ are not here given this name. For its origin and for parallels to the custom in other religions, see Driver, Exodus 25:30, and HDB. s.v. The undoubtedly correct rendering is presence-bread (lit. bread of the countenance [of God]), as in R.V. mg. there, i.e. bread which was placed as an offering in the presence of the Lord. Cp. the expression used of this bread in the story of 1 Samuel 21:6 [Matthew 7], ‘taken from before [from the presence of] the Lord.’ The LXX. mostly render by ἄρτοιτῆςπρθέσεως, loaves of the setting forth (or, before [God]).

5. Twelve cakes — The number of the tribes of Israel. Two tenth deals — See Leviticus 23:13. According to the lowest estimate, that of the rabbins, there would be ten and a half gallons required for the twelve loaves.