Keluaran 25:18-22

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. 25:19 Make ²  one cherub on one end ³  and one cherub on the other end; from the atonement lid ⁴  you are to make the cherubim on the two ends. 25:20 The cherubim are to be spreading their wings upward, overshadowing ⁵  the atonement lid with their wings, and the cherubim are to face each other, ⁶  looking ⁷  toward the atonement lid. 25:21 You are to put the atonement lid on top of the ark, and in the ark you are to put the testimony I am giving you. 25:22 I will meet with you there, ⁸  and ⁹  from above the atonement lid, from between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will command you for the Israelites.

Keluaran 25:1

The Materials for the Sanctuary

25:1 ¹⁰ The Lord spoke to Moses:

1 Samuel 4:4

4:4 So the army ¹¹  sent to Shiloh, and they took from there the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts who sits between the cherubim. Now the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.

1 Samuel 4:2

4:2 The Philistines arranged their forces to fight ¹²  Israel. As the battle spread out, ¹³  Israel was defeated by ¹⁴  the Philistines, who ¹⁵  killed about four thousand men in the battle line in the field.

1 Samuel 6:2

6:2 the Philistines called the priests and the omen readers, saying, “What should we do with the ark of the Lord? Advise us as to how we should send it back to its place.”

1 Samuel 22:11

22:11 Then the king arranged for a meeting with the priest Ahimelech son of Ahitub and all the priests of his father’s house who were at Nob. They all came to the king.

1 Samuel 22:1

David Goes to Adullam and Mizpah

22:1 So David left there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and the rest of his father’s family ¹⁶  learned about it, they went down there to him.

1 Raja-raja 6:27

6:27 He put the cherubs in the inner sanctuary of the temple. ¹⁷  Their wings were spread out. One of the first cherub’s wings touched one wall and one of the other cherub’s wings touched the opposite wall. The first cherub’s other wing touched the second cherub’s other wing in the middle of the room. ¹⁸ 

1 Raja-raja 8:6

8:6 The priests brought the ark of the Lord’s covenant to its assigned ¹⁹  place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, in the most holy place, under the wings of the cherubs.

1 Raja-raja 8:2

8:2 All the men of Israel assembled before King Solomon during the festival ²⁰  in the month Ethanim ²¹  (the seventh month).

1 Raja-raja 19:15

19:15 The Lord said to him, “Go back the way you came and then head for the Desert of Damascus. Go and anoint Hazael king over Syria.

1 Raja-raja 19:2

19:2 Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah with this warning, ²²  “May the gods judge me severely ²³  if by this time tomorrow I do not take your life as you did theirs!” ²⁴ 

1 Tawarikh 5:8

5:8 and Bela son of Azaz, son of Shema, son of Joel.

They lived in Aroer as far as Nebo and Baal Meon.

Mazmur 18:11

18:11 He shrouded himself in darkness, ²⁵ 

in thick rain clouds. ²⁶ 

Mazmur 80:2

80:2 In the sight of Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh reveal ²⁷  your power!

Come and deliver us! ²⁸ 

Mazmur 99:1

Psalm 99 ²⁹ 

99:1 The Lord reigns!

The nations tremble. ³⁰ 

He sits enthroned above the winged angels; ³¹ 

the earth shakes. ³² 

Yesaya 37:16

37:16 “O Lord who commands armies, O God of Israel, who is enthroned on the cherubim! ³³  You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the sky ³⁴  and the earth.

Yehezkiel 10:1

God’s Glory Leaves the Temple

10:1 As I watched, I saw ³⁵  on the platform ³⁶  above the top of the cherubim something like a sapphire, resembling the shape of a throne, appearing above them.

Yehezkiel 28:16

28:16 In the abundance of your trade you were filled with violence, ³⁷  and you sinned;

so I defiled you and banished you ³⁸  from the mountain of God –

the guardian cherub expelled you ³⁹  from the midst of the stones of fire.

[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.

[25:19]  ² tn The text now shifts to use an imperative with the vav (ו) conjunction.

[25:19]  ³ tn The use of זֶה (zeh) repeated here expresses the reciprocal ideas of “the one” and “the other” (see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 26, §132).

[25:19]  ⁴ sn The angels were to form one piece with the lid and not be separated. This could be translated “of one piece with” the lid, but it is likely the angels were simply fastened to it permanently.

[25:20]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “their faces a man to his brother.”

[25:20]  ⁷ tn Heb “the faces of the cherubim will be” (“the cherubim” was moved to the preceding clause for smoother English).

[25:22]  ⁸ sn Here then is the main point of the ark of the covenant, and the main point of all worship – meeting with God through atonement. The text makes it clear that here God would meet with Moses (“you” is singular) and then he would speak to the people – he is the mediator of the covenant. S. R. Driver (Exodus, 272) makes the point that the verb here is not the word that means “to meet by chance” (as in Exod 3:18), but “to meet” by appointment for a purpose (וְנוֹעַדְתִּי, vÿno’adti). The parallel in the NT is Jesus Christ and his work. The theology is that the Law condemns people as guilty of sin, but the sacrifice of Christ makes atonement. So he is the “place of propitiation (Rom 3:25) who gains communion with the Father for sinners. A major point that could be made from this section is this: At the center of worship must be the atoning work of Christ – a perpetual reminder of God’s righteous standard (the testimony in the ark) and God’s gracious provision (the atonement lid).

[25:22]  ⁹ tn The verb is placed here in the text: “and I will speak”; it has been moved in this translation to be closer to the direct object clause.

[25:1]  ¹⁰ sn Now begin the detailed instructions for constructing the tabernacle of Yahweh, with all its furnishings. The first paragraph introduces the issue of the heavenly pattern for the construction, calls for the people to make willing offerings (vv. 2-7), and explains the purpose for these offerings (vv. 8-9). The message here is that God calls his people to offer of their substance willingly so that his sanctuary may be made.

[4:4]  ¹¹ tn Or “people.”

[4:2]  ¹² tn Heb “to meet.”

[4:2]  ¹³ tn The MT has וַתִּטֹּשׁ (vattittosh), from the root נטשׁ (ntsh). This verb normally means “to leave,” “to forsake,” or “to permit,” but such an idea does not fit this context very well. Many scholars have suspected that the text originally read either וַתֵּט (vattet, “and it spread out”), from the root נטה (nth), or וַתִּקֶשׁ (vattiqesh, “and it grew fierce”), from the root קשׂה (qsh). The former suggestion is apparently supported by the LXX ἔκλινεν (eklinen, “it inclined”) and is adopted in the translation.

[4:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “before.”

[4:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the Philistines, and they killed.” The pronoun “they” has been translated as a relative pronoun (“who”) to make it clear to the English reader that the Philistines were the ones who did the killing.

[22:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “house.”

[6:27]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “in the midst of the inner house,” i.e., in the inner sanctuary.

[6:27]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and their wings were in the middle of the room, touching wing to wing.”

[8:6]  ¹⁹ tn The word “assigned” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[8:2]  ²⁰ sn The festival. This was the Feast of Tabernacles, see Lev 23:34.

[8:2]  ²¹ sn The month Ethanim. This would be September-October in modern reckoning.

[19:2]  ²² tn Heb “saying.”

[19:2]  ²³ tn Heb “So may the gods do to me, and so may they add.”

[19:2]  ²⁴ tn Heb “I do not make your life like the life of one of them.”

[18:11]  ²⁵ tc Heb “he made darkness his hiding place around him, his covering.” 2 Sam 22:12 reads, “he made darkness around him coverings,” omitting “his hiding place” and pluralizing “covering.” Ps 18:11 may include a conflation of synonyms (“his hiding place” and “his covering”) or 2 Sam 22:12 may be the result of haplography/homoioarcton. Note that three successive words in Ps 18:11 begin with the Hebrew letter samek: סִתְרוֹ סְבִיבוֹתָיו סֻכָּתוֹ (sitro sÿvivotayv sukkato).

[18:11]  ²⁶ tc Heb “darkness of water, clouds of clouds.” The noun “darkness” (חֶשְׁכַת, kheshkhat) is probably a corruption of an original reading חשׁרת, a form that is preserved in 2 Sam 22:12. The latter is a construct form of חַשְׁרָה (khashrah, “sieve”) which occurs only here in the OT. A cognate Ugaritic noun means “sieve,” and a related verb חָשַׁר (khashar, “to sift”) is attested in postbiblical Hebrew and Aramaic. The phrase חַשְׁרַת מַיִם (khashrat mayim) means literally “a sieve of water.” It pictures the rain clouds as a sieve through which the rain falls to the ground (see F. M. Cross and D. N. Freedman, Studies in Ancient Yahwistic Poetry [SBLDS], 146, n. 33).

[80:2]  ²⁷ tn Heb “stir up”; “arouse.”

[80:2]  ²⁸ tn Heb “come for our deliverance.”

[99:1]  ²⁹ sn Psalm 99. The psalmist celebrates the Lord’s just rule and recalls how he revealed himself to Israel’s leaders.

[99:1]  ³⁰ tn The prefixed verbal forms in v. 1 are understood here as indicating the nations’ characteristic response to the reality of the Lord’s kingship. Another option is to take them as jussives: “let the nations tremble…let the earth shake!”

[99:1]  ³¹ sn Winged angels (Heb “cherubs”). Cherubs, as depicted in the OT, possess both human and animal (lion, ox, and eagle) characteristics (see Ezek 1:10; 10:14, 21; 41:18). They are pictured as winged creatures (Exod 25:20; 37:9; 1 Kgs 6:24-27; Ezek 10:8, 19) and serve as the very throne of God when the ark of the covenant is in view (Ps 99:1; see Num 7:89; 1 Sam 4:4; 2 Sam 6:2; 2 Kgs 19:15). The picture of the Lord seated on the cherubs suggests they might be used by him as a vehicle, a function they carry out in Ezek 1:22-28 (the “living creatures” mentioned here are identified as cherubs in Ezek 10:20). In Ps 18:10 the image of a cherub serves to personify the wind.

[99:1]  ³² tn The Hebrew verb נוּט (nut) occurs only here in the OT, but the meaning can be determined on the basis of the parallelism with רָגַז (ragaz, “tremble”) and evidence from the cognate languages (see H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena [SBLDS], 121).

[37:16]  ³³ sn Cherubim (singular “cherub”) refers to the images of winged angelic creatures that were above the ark of the covenant.

[37:16]  ³⁴ tn Or “the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.

[10:1]  ³⁵ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.

[10:1]  ³⁶ tn Or “like a dome.” See 1:22-26.

[28:16]  ³⁷ tn Heb “they filled your midst with violence.”

[28:16]  ³⁸ tn Heb “I defiled you.” The presence of the preposition “from” following the verb indicates that a verb of motion is implied as well. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:91.

[28:16]  ³⁹ tn Heb “and I expelled you, O guardian cherub.” The Hebrew text takes the verb as first person and understands “guardian cherub” as a vocative, in apposition to the pronominal suffix on the verb. However, if the emendation in verse 14a is accepted (see the note above), then one may follow the LXX here as well and emend the verb to a third person perfect. In this case the subject of the verb is the guardian cherub. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:91.