Page:Keil and Delitzsch,Biblical commentary the old testament the pentateuch, trad James Martin, volume 1, 1885.djvu/686

 over the capporeth, with their faces turned towards one another, but inclining or stooping towards the capporeth. The reason for this is given in Exo 25:22. There - viz., above the capporeth that was placed upon the ark containing the testimony - Jehovah would present Himself to Moses (נועד, from יעד to appoint, to present one's self to a person at an appointed place, to meet with him), and talk with him “from above the capporeth, out from between the two cherubs upon the ark of testimony, all that I shall command thee for the sons of Israel” (cf. Exo 29:42). Through this divine promise and the fulfilment of it (Exo 40:35; Lev 1:1; Num 1:1; Num 16:19), the ark of the covenant together with the capporeth became the throne of Jehovah in the midst of His chosen people, the footstool of the God of Israel (1Ch 28:2, cf. Psa 132:7; Psa 99:5; Lam 2:1). The ark, with the tables of the covenant as the self-attestation of God, formed the foundation of this throne, to show that the kingdom of grace which was established in Israel through the medium of the covenant, was founded in justice and righteousness (Psa 89:15; Psa 97:2). The gold plate upon the ark formed the footstool of the throne for Him, who caused His name, i.e., the real presence of His being, to dwell in a cloud between the two cherubim above their outspread wings; and there He not only made known His will to His people in laws and commandments, but revealed Himself as the jealous God who visited sin and showed mercy (Exo 20:5-6; Exo 34:6-7), - the latter more especially on the great day of atonement, when, through the medium of the blood of the sin-offering sprinkled upon and in front of the capporeth, He granted reconciliation to His people for all their transgressions in all their sin (Lev 16:14.). Thus the footstool of God became a throne of grace (Heb 4:16, cf. Exo 9:5), which received its name capporeth or ἱλαστήριον from the fact that the highest and most perfect act of atonement under the Old Testament was performed upon it. Jehovah, who betrothed His people to Himself in grace and mercy for an everlasting covenant (Hos 2:2), was enthroned upon it, above the wings of the two cherubim, which stood on either side of His throne; and hence He is represented as “dwelling (between) the cherubim” הכּרבים ישׁב   (1Sa 4:4; 2Sa 6:2; Psa 80:2, etc.). The cherubs were not combinations of animal forms, taken from man, the lion, the ox, and the eagle, as many have inferred from Ezek 1 and 10,