And you are to construct a mercy seat of pure gold, two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide.
17 And thou shalt make a mercy-seat. The primary root of the verb כפר, caphar, from whence this noun is derived, כפרת C. has not derived his explanation of the verb כפר from his usual guide in Hebrew, viz., S.M.; but his remark, that it signifies to smear over with bitumen, or pitch, agrees with its generally acknowledged meaning in Genesis 6:14.
The first thing which is here ordered to be made is the ark with its appurtenances, the furniture of the most holy place, and the special token of God's presence, for which the tabernacle was erected to be the receptacle. I.
Commenting on Exodus 25:10-22
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...