Exodus 25:19

And make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end: even of the mercy seat shall ye make the cherubims on the two ends thereof.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(19) Of the mercy seat shall ye make the cherubims.—The meaning seems to be that the cherubims were not to be detached images, made separately, and then fastened to the mercy seat, but to be formed out of the same mass of gold with the mercy seat, and so to be part and parcel of it.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

25:10-22 The ark was a chest, overlaid with gold, in which the two tables of the law were to be kept. These tables are called the testimony; God in them testified his will. This law was a testimony to the Israelites, to direct them in their duty, and would be a testimony against them, if they transgressed. This ark was placed in the holy of holies; the blood of the sacrifices was sprinkled, and the incense burned, before it, by the high priest; and above it appeared the visible glory, which was the symbol of the Divine presence. This was a type of Christ in his sinless nature, which saw no corruption, in personal union with his Divine nature, atoning for our sins against it, by his death. The cherubim of gold looked one towards another, and both looked downward toward the ark. It denotes the angels' attendance on the Redeemer, their readiness to do his will, their presence in the assemblies of saints, and their desire to look into the mysteries of the gospel. It was covered with a covering of gold, called the mercy-seat. God is said to dwell, or sit between the cherubim, on the mercy-seat. There he would give his law, and hear supplicants, as a prince on his throne.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Even of the mercy seat - See the margin. The sense appears to be that the cherubim and the mercy-seat were to be worked out of one mass of gold. (Compare Exodus 37:7.)

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

18. two cherubim—The real meaning of these figures, as well as the shape or form of them, is not known with certainty—probably similar to what was afterwards introduced into the temple, and described in Eze 10:8-22. They stretched out their wings, and their faces were turned towards the mercy seat [Ex 25:20], probably in a bowing attitude. The prevailing opinion now is, that those splendid figures were symbolical not of angelic but of earthly and human beings—the members of the Church of God interested in the dispensation of grace, the redeemed in every age—and that these hieroglyphic forms symbolized the qualities of the true people of God—courage, patience, intelligence, and activity.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

i.e. Of one and the same piece of massy gold, out of which the cherubims were made.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end,.... The situation of the cherubim is particularly explained, lest, as Jarchi observes, it should be thought that there were two at both ends of the mercy seat; whereas there were only one at one end, and another at the other, opposite to each other, and both pointing to the mercy seat; which may express the situation and office of the ministers of the word under each dispensation, who are so placed as to derive all their gifts and graces from Christ, and to point him out unto the sons of men as the only way of salvation, the only propitiation for sin, and through whom alone grace and mercy are to be had:

even of the mercy seat shall ye make the cherubim on the two ends thereof; this is not so much intended the more to inculcate and confirm the situation of the cherubim, as more fully to explain the matter of which they were made; for it was "of" or out of the mercy seat that they were made, at the two ends of it; that is, they were made not only of the same kind of metal with that, but out of the same mass or lump of gold that was; a lid of gold being made commensurate to the ark, what remained above that measure, at the ends of it, were beaten and formed into two cherubim.

Geneva Study Bible

And make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end: even of the mercy seat shall ye make the cherubim on the two ends thereof.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

19. of one piece with] Heb. out of: the same idiom, vv. 31, 35, Exodus 27:2, Exodus 28:8, Exodus 30:2. The meaning is, the cherubim were not to be removable, they were to be so securely soldered to the mercy-seat as to form a whole with it.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 19. - On the one end on the other end... on the two ends. The preposition used is in every case the same as that of the last clause of ver. 18 - viz., min, "from." The idea is that the figures rose from the two ends. Exodus 25:19

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

"Out of the capporeth shall ye make the cherubs at its two ends," i.e., so as to form one whole with the capporeth itself, and be inseparable from it.