Keluaran 25:18

25:18 You are to make two cherubim ¹  of gold; you are to make them of hammered metal on the two ends of the atonement lid.

Keluaran 25:20

25:20 The cherubim are to be spreading their wings upward, overshadowing ²  the atonement lid with their wings, and the cherubim are to face each other, ³  looking ⁴  toward the atonement lid.

[25:18]  ¹ tn The evidence suggests that the cherubim were composite angelic creatures that always indicated the nearness of God. So here images of them were to be crafted and put on each end of the ark of the covenant to signify that they were there. Ezekiel 1 describes four cherubim as each having human faces, four wings, and parts of different animals for their bodies. Traditions of them appear in the other cultures as well. They serve to guard the holy places and to bear the throne of God. Here they were to be beaten out as part of the lid.

[25:20]  ² tn The verb means “overshadowing, screening” in the sense of guarding (see 1 Kgs 8:7; 1 Chr 28:18; see also the account in Gen 3:24). The cherubim then signify two things here: by their outstretched wings they form the throne of God who sits above the ark (with the Law under his feet), and by their overshadowing and guarding they signify this as the place of atonement where people must find propitiation to commune with God. Until then they are barred from his presence. See U. Cassuto, Exodus, 330-35.

[25:20]  ³ tn Heb “their faces a man to his brother.”

[25:20]  ⁴ tn Heb “the faces of the cherubim will be” (“the cherubim” was moved to the preceding clause for smoother English).