“Then make the Ark’s cover—the place of atonement—from pure gold. It must be 45 inches long and 27 inches wide.
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.
- KJV 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.
- 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.
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 above it cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat, of which things we can’t speak now in detail.
- Exod 37:6He made a mercy seat of pure gold. Its length was two and a half cubits, and a cubit and a half its width.
- Rom 3:25whom God sent to be an atoning sacrifice, through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness through the passing over of prior sins, in God’s forbearance;
- Heb 4:16Let us therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace for help in time of need.
- Exod 40:20He took and put the testimony into the ark, and set the poles on the ark, and put the mercy seat above on the ark.
- Lev 16:12–15He shall take a censer full of coals of fire from off the altar before Yahweh, and two handfuls of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the veil:
- 1 Chr 28:11Then David gave to Solomon his son the plans for the porch of the temple, for its houses, for its treasuries, for its upper rooms, for its inner rooms, for the place of the mercy seat;
- 1 Jn 2:2And he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.
- Exod 26:34You shall put the mercy seat on 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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