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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Exodus 25:17 - 25:17
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In addition to this, Moses was to make a capporeth (ἱλαστήριον ἐπίθεμα, lxx; propitiatorium, Vulg.), an atoning covering. The meaning operculum, lid (Ges.), cannot be sustained, notwithstanding the fact that the capporeth was placed upon the ark (Exo 25:21) and covered the tables laid within it; for the verb כפר has not the literal signification of covering or covering up either in Kal or Piel. In Kal it only occurs in Gen 6:14, where it means to pitch or tar; in Piel it is only used in the figurative sense of covering up sin or guilt, i.e., of making atonement. 1Ch 28:11 is decisive on this point, where the holy of holies, in which the capporeth was, is called הַכַּפֹּרֶת בֵּית, which cannot possibly mean the covering-house, but must signify the house of atonement. The force of this passage is not weakened by the remark made by Delitzsch and others, to the effect that it was only in the later usage of the language that the idea of covering gave place to that of the covering up or expiation of sin; for neither in the earlier nor earliest usage of the language can the supposed primary meaning of the word be anywhere discovered. Knobel's remark has still less force, viz., that the ark must have had a lid, and it must have been called a lid. For if from the very commencement this lid had a more important purpose than that of a simple covering, it might also have received its name from this special purpose, even though this was not fully explained to the Israelites till a later period in the giving of the law (Lev 16:15-16). It must, however, have been obvious to every one, that it was to be something more than the mere lid of the ark, from the simple fact that it was not to be made, like the ark, of wood plated with gold, but to be made of pure gold, and to have two golden cherubs upon the top. The cherubim were to be made of gold מִקְשָׁה (from קָשָׁה to turn), i.e., literally, turned work (cf. Isa 3:24), here, according to Onkelos, נְגִיד opus ductile, work beaten with the hammer and rounded, so that the figures were not solid but hollow (see Bähr, i. p. 380).