And thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof.
Parallel translations
- WEB 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.
- BSB And you are to construct a mercy seat of pure gold, two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide.
- NKJV “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.
- NASB “And you shall make an atoning cover of pure gold, two and a half cubits long and one and a half cubits wide.
- NLT “Then make the Ark’s cover—the place of atonement—from pure gold. It must be 45 inches long and 27 inches wide.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
A mercy seat of pure gold was to be made to fit atop the ark. This was the place of atonement where God would meet His people.
Overview
The mercy seat, or place of atonement, formed the lid of the ark and was the most sacred spot, where blood was sprinkled on the Day of Atonement. Its pure gold marked it as the throne of the holy God among His people. Here justice and mercy met, as the law inside was covered by the blood-sprinkled lid. The New Testament presents Christ as the true mercy seat, the propitiation through whom God and sinners are reconciled.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Heb 9:5And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat; of which we cannot now speak particularly.
- Exod 37:6And he made the mercy seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half was the length thereof, and one cubit and a half the breadth thereof.
- Rom 3:25Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
- Heb 4:16Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
- Exod 40:20And he took and put the testimony into the ark, and set the staves on the ark, and put the mercy seat above upon the ark:
- Lev 16:12–15And he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the LORD, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the vail:
- 1 Chr 28:11Then David gave to Solomon his son the pattern of the porch, and of the houses thereof, and of the treasuries thereof, and of the upper chambers thereof, and of the inner parlours thereof, and of the place of the mercy seat,
- 1 Jn 2:2And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
- Exod 26:34And thou shalt put the mercy seat upon the ark of the testimony in the most holy place.
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Christ at the center
The Passover lamb whose blood turns away death, the exodus through the sea, the manna, the rock, and the tabernacle where God dwells with his people all foreshadow Jesus — our Passover, our redemption, the bread from heaven, and God-with-us in the flesh.
How Exodus 25:17 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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