Mercy-seat

The mercy-seat is the gold cover commanded for the ark of the testimony, and through the Pentateuch and beyond it functions less as a piece of furniture than as a regulated meeting-point: the place where Yahweh's Speech is heard from above the cherubim, where the high priest's blood is sprinkled on the Day of Atonement, and where the divine glory appears in cloud. The same vocabulary of cherubim-enthronement carries forward into the historical books, the Psalms, and Isaiah, and the New Testament reads the inner sanctuary back through this furniture in describing both the heavenly throne of grace and the chest under its overshadowing wings.

Description and Cherubim

The seat is commissioned in pure gold and given exact dimensions: "And you will make a mercy-seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half [will be] its length, and a cubit and a half its width" (Ex 25:17). Two cherubim of beaten gold are made of one piece with it, set at the two ends, with their wings spread on high and their faces turned toward the seat itself: "And the cherubim will spread out their wings on high, covering the mercy-seat with their wings, with their faces one to another; toward the mercy-seat will the faces of the cherubim be" (Ex 25:20). The seat is then set above on the ark, and the testimony placed inside: "And you will put the mercy-seat above on the ark; and in the ark you will put the testimony that I will give you" (Ex 25:21).

Materials as Freewill Offering

The gold for the seat is gathered as a willing-heart offering from the congregation. Moses tells the sons of Israel, "You⁺ take from among you⁺ an offering to Yahweh; whoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it, Yahweh's offering: gold, and silver, and bronze" (Ex 35:5), and the catalogue of items that must be made from these gifts lists, with the rest of the inner furniture, "the ark, and its poles, the mercy-seat, and the veil of the screen" (Ex 35:12).

Made by Bezalel

The fabrication is carried out by Bezalel. He first builds the chest itself: "And Bezalel made the ark of acacia wood: two cubits and a half was the length of it, and a cubit and a half the width of it, and a cubit and a half the height of it" (Ex 37:1). He then makes the cover to match: "And he made a mercy-seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half [was] its length, and a cubit and a half its width" (Ex 37:6). The cherubim are wrought of one piece with the seat at its two ends, with wings spread on high and faces turned inward (Ex 37:7-9). The summary commission to Bezalel had already named the seat among the items he was filled with the Spirit to make: "the tent of meeting, and the ark of the testimony, and the mercy-seat that is thereupon, and all the furniture of the Tent" (Ex 31:7).

Placed on the Ark in the Most Holy Place

The seat is placed on the ark within the innermost compartment of the sanctuary: "And you will put the mercy-seat on the ark of the testimony in the most holy place" (Ex 26:34). At the erection of the tabernacle this is exactly what is done: "And he took and put the testimony into the ark, and set the poles on the ark, and put the mercy-seat above on the ark" (Ex 40:20). The incense altar is positioned with reference to the same site: "And you will put it before the veil that is by the ark of the testimony where [my Speech] will meet with you" (Ex 30:6).

The Voice from Above the Mercy-seat

The seat is from the outset designated as the speaking-station from which Yahweh will address Moses. The promise is given at its commissioning: "And there [my Speech] will meet with you, and I will commune with you from above the mercy-seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give you in commandment to the sons of Israel" (Ex 25:22). The same meeting-locus formula recurs around the incense altar (Ex 30:6) and the holy incense (Ex 30:36) and again with Aaron's rod and the staffs of the tribes laid up before the testimony "where I meet with you⁺" (Nu 17:4). The promise is realized at the tent of meeting: "And when Moses went into the tent of meeting to speak with him, then he heard [the Speech] speaking to him from above the mercy-seat that was on the ark of the testimony, from between the two cherubim: and he spoke to him" (Nu 7:89).

The Cloud and the Approach Restriction

Access to the seat is regulated by a death-penalty restriction, because the divine appearance is located there in cloud. Yahweh tells Moses to warn Aaron "that he does not come at all times into the holy place inside the veil, before the mercy-seat which is on the ark; that he does not die: for [my Speech] will appear in the cloud on the mercy-seat" (Le 16:2). The mercy-seat is therefore not an object of free approach but an approach-restricted divine-appearance throne whose unrestricted entry is lethal.

Sprinkled with Blood on the Day of Atonement

On the one day of the year that the high priest does enter behind the veil, the mercy-seat is the focal surface of the rite. The blood of the bull is brought in for the priest's own house: "and he will take of the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy-seat on the east; and before the mercy-seat he will sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times" (Le 16:14). The same is done with the blood of the goat of the sin-offering for the people: "Then he will kill the goat of the sin-offering, that is for the people, and bring his blood inside the veil, and do with his blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy-seat, and before the mercy-seat" (Le 16:15).

Yahweh Enthroned upon the Cherubim

The cherubim-and-seat construction generates a standing formula by which Yahweh is named throughout the historical books, Psalms, and Isaiah. Israel sends to Shiloh "the ark of the covenant of Yahweh of hosts who sits [above] the cherubim" (1Sa 4:4). David, fetching the ark from Baale-judah, brings up "the ark of God, who is called by the name: Yahweh of hosts who sits above the cherubim" (2Sa 6:2); the Chronicler restates the same name at the same event: "the ark of God, who is called by the name: Yahweh who sits [above] the cherubim" (1Ch 13:6). Hezekiah prays in the temple "O Yahweh, the God of Israel, who sits [above] the cherubim, you are the God, even you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth" (2Ki 19:15), and Isaiah records the same address (Isa 37:16). Asaph's psalm cries, "You who sit [above] the cherubim, shine forth" (Ps 80:1), and another psalmist acclaims the kingship in identical terms: "Yahweh reigns; let the peoples tremble: He sits [above] the cherubim; let the earth be moved" (Ps 99:1).

In Solomon's Temple

When David hands over the temple plans to Solomon, the seat is named in the inventory of the design: "Then David gave to Solomon his son the pattern of the porch [of the temple], and of its houses, and of its treasuries, and of its upper rooms, and of its inner chambers, and of the place of the mercy-seat" (1Ch 28:11).

The Throne of Grace

The New Testament summarizes the inner sanctuary of the first covenant by naming the seat directly in the description of the holy of holies: "and above it cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy-seat; of which things we can't now speak severally" (Heb 9:5). The same letter, having argued that Christ is a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, draws out the access correlate that the old veil-restriction precluded: "Let us therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace to help [us] in time of need" (Heb 4:16).