You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two and a half cubits shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its width.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 17. A propitiatory: a covering for the ark; called a propitiatory, or mercy-seat, because the Lord, who was supposed to sit there upon the wings of the cherubims, with the ark for his footstool, from thence shewed mercy. It is also called the oracle, ver. 18 and 20, because from thence, God gave his orders and his answers. Challoner.—It was the lid or covering of the ark, from kapha, “to cover, efface,” and so forth Calmet.—Here the hanan, or cloud representing God, rested, (Leviticus 16:2) and the divine oracles were audibly given: for which reason, God is said to sit upon the cherubims, the mercy-seat being his footstool. Psalms 79:2.