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Exodus 25:19-21
New English Translation
Exodus 25:19-21
New English Translation
19 Make[a] one cherub on one end[b] and one cherub on the other end; from the atonement lid[c] you are to make the cherubim on the two ends. 20 The cherubim are to be spreading their wings upward, overshadowing[d] the atonement lid with their wings, and the cherubim are to face each other,[e] looking[f] toward the atonement lid. 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.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Exodus 25:19 tn The text now shifts to use an imperative with the vav (ו) conjunction.
- Exodus 25:19 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).
- Exodus 25:19 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.
- Exodus 25:20 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.
- Exodus 25:20 tn Heb “their faces a man to his brother.”
- Exodus 25:20 tn Heb “the faces of the cherubim will be” (“the cherubim” was moved to the preceding clause for smoother English).
New English Translation (NET)
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