And he made a mercy seat of pure gold. Two cubits and a half was its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth.
I. It may be thought strange that Moses, when he had recorded so fully the instructions given him upon the mount for the making of all these things, should here record as particularly the making of them, when it might have sufficed only to have said, in a few words, that each of these things was made exactly according to the directions before recited.
Commenting on Exodus 37:1-9
made the mercy seat of pure gold--To construct a figure, whether the body of a beast or a man, with two extended wings, measuring from two to three feet from tip to tip, with the hammer, out of a solid piece of gold, was what few, if any, artisans of the present day could accomplish.
He made the mercy-seat - See this described Exo 25:17 (note).