Leviticus 24:8

Every sabbath he shall set it in order before the Lord continually,.... That is, the priest or priests then ministering, who should bring new cakes and place them in the above order, having removed

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).

Before the Lord, whence it was called the shew-bread, Heb. the bread of faces, or of presence, i.e. the bread which was put upon the table in the Lord’ s presence. Being taken; such supplements are not unusual. Thus in the floor, , is put for sitting in the floor, ; and burdens, , for carrying burdens, . And these cakes are said to be received from or offered by the children of Israel, because they were bought with the money which they contributed, as may be seen ,33; as Judas is said to purchase the field, , which was purchased by his money, . By an everlasting covenant; by virtue of that compact made between me and them, by which they are obliged to keep this amongst other commands, and, they so doing, I am obliged to be their God, and to bless them. And this may be here called an everlasting covenant, not only because it was to endure as long as the Jewish religion and polity stood, but also because this was to stand there everlastingly, or continually, as is here said, and therefore the new cakes were first brought before the old were taken away.

Leviticus 24:8 Every sabbath he shall set it in order before the LORD continually, [being taken] from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant.Ver. 8. Every Sabbath.] So must the bread of life be every Sabbath at least set before the saints.

(8) Every sabbath he shall set it in order.—That is, Aaron is to carry out these instructions in the first instance, as we are told in Leviticus 24:3, and after him, or together with him, the priests are sacredly to attend to this duty every sabbath throughout the year. Of the manner in which the shewbread, or the “bread of His Presence,” was renewed every Sabbath during the second Temple, we have a minute account. “Four priests entered the holy place, two of them carried in their hands the two piles of the cakes, and two carried in their hands the two incense cups, four priests having gone in before them, two to take off the two old piles, and two to take off the two incense cups. Those who brought in the new stood at the north side with their faces to the south, and those who took away the old stood at the south side with their faces to the north. As soon as the one party lifted up the old, the others put down the new, so that their hands were exactly over against each other, because it is written, before my Presence continually” (Exodus 25:30). The authorities during the second Temple took the expression “continually” to denote that the cakes were not to be absent for one moment. Hence the simultaneous action of the two sets of priests, one lifting up the old, and the other at once putting down the new shewbread. Being taken from the children of Israel.—Like the daily sacrifices, the offerings for the congregation, the salt for the sacrifices, the wood for the altar, the incense, the omer (see Leviticus 23:10-11), the two wave-loaves (Leviticus 23:17), the scapegoat (Leviticus 16:5, &c.), the red heifer (Numbers 19:1-22), &c., the shewbread, or the “bread of His Presence,” according to the canon that obtained during the second Temple, were purchased with the people’s half-shekels, which every Israelite had to contribute annually toward the maintenance of the service in the sanctuary. (See Exodus 30:11-16.)

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]).

8. Every sabbath — The show-bread never waxed old; it was always fresh. Through eternity Jesus will be a theme ever new, and inspiring fresh interest — “a lamb as it had been slain.”