What Does Exodus 25:19 Mean?
Make one cherub at the one end, and the other cherub at the other end; from the covering itself you make the cherubim at its two ends.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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.THE KEY
The cherubim at either end are made from the covering itself, so the frame and the surface belong to one whole.
THE MEANING
The meeting place takes shape with one cherub at each end, both made from the covering itself. The center between them is framed by the very surface that bears them, so what looks like a boundary also becomes a place of encounter.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that a covering only hides: here, the covering bears the figures that frame a meeting.
THE ROOT
כַּפֹּרֶת
kappōret
GROWS FROM
כפר
k-p-r
cover, cover over
Kappōret comes from כפר, a root whose concrete sense is covering. The same root names the coating of Noah’s ark and appears in כִּפֻּרִים, the coverings behind the phrase “day of atonement”; here, the covering itself bears cherubim at its two ends.
ALSO GROWS
kāphar: cover over; in Genesis 6:14, cover the ark with pitch
כָּפַר
This verb makes the covering sense concrete: the same root behind the mercy seat also describes a surface being covered.
kippurim: coverings; the word used in the phrase traditionally rendered “day of atonement”
כִּפֻּרִים
This branch keeps the covering connection visible, echoing the kappōret as a covering that bears the figures at its ends.
THE PATTERN
The space between the cherubim is where divine presence meets and speaks.
And there I meet with you, and I speak with you from above the covering, from between the two cherubim that are upon the ark of the witness, all that I command you to the children of Israel.To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim-eduth, A Psalm of Asaph. Tilt your ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock, you who sit between the cherubim, shine forth.Above it are the cherubim of weight, casting their shade over the covering, about which we cannot now speak piece by piece.THE THREAD
And there I meet with you, and I speak with you from above the covering, from between the two cherubim that are upon the ark of the witness, all that I command you to the children of Israel.The same kappōret, the covering, named here is where the meeting and speech occur in the next verse. The cherubim made from its ends frame the place from which the voice comes.
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