And you shall make a mercy seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half shall be the length of it, and a cubit and a half the breadth of it.
All Commentaries on Exodus 25:17 Go To Exodus 25
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
A propitiatory: a covering for the ark; called a propitiatory, or mercy-seat, because the Lord, who was supposed to sit there upon the wings of the cherubims, with the ark for his footstool, from thence showed mercy. It is also called the oracle, ver. 18 and 20, because, from thence, God gave his orders and his answers. (Challoner)
It was the lid or covering of the ark, from kapha, "to cover, efface "(Calmet)
Here the hanan, or cloud representing God, rested, (Leviticus xvi. 2.) and the divine oracles were audibly given: for which reason, God is said to sit upon the cherubims, the mercy-seat being his footstool, Psalm lxxix. 2.
