He also made the mercy seat of pure gold; two and a half cubits was its length and a cubit and a half its width.
Parallel translations
- WEB He made a mercy seat of pure gold. Its length was two and a half cubits, and a cubit and a half its width.
- KJV And 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.
- BSB He constructed a mercy seat of pure gold, two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide.
- NASB He also made an atoning cover of pure gold, two and a half cubits long and one and a half cubits wide.
- NLT Then he made the Ark’s cover—the place of atonement—from pure gold. It was 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 made as the cover of the ark. It was the place where atonement was made and God met His people.
Overview
The 'mercy seat' (atonement cover) was sprinkled with blood on the Day of Atonement and was the very place of God's presence between the cherubim. The New Testament calls Christ our 'propitiation' (the same idea, Romans 3:25), making Him the true mercy seat where God's justice and mercy meet. The dimensions follow Exodus 25:17.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Heb 9:5and above it cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat, of which things we can’t speak now in detail.
- 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;
- Gal 4:4But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law,
- Titus 2:14who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works.
- 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;
- Exod 25:17–22You 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.
- 1 Jn 2:2And he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.
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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 37:6 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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