And you shall make two cherubim of gold, of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat.
Read Chapter 25
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Cherubims, symbolic figures, which Moses does not perfectly describe, and therefore we cannot pretend to know their exact form. Some represent them as young men, with their wings joined over the propitiatory, in a contrary direction to those of birds, in order to form a throne for God, and bending towards Him, with profound respect. Others only admit their heads, with six wings: while many suppose, that they resembled those compounded figures mentioned, Ezechiel i. 5. and x. 20. They denote some extraordinary figure not found in nature, 3 Kings vii. 29. An order of angels is known by this name. Yet the four animals, or cherubims, represent the saints, Apocalypse v. 8, 10. The different forms under which they appear, set before us their various perfections. Their wings denote agility The Egyptians adored Anubis, under the form of a man, with a dog's head. Isis had the head of a cow, Apis that of a bull. They placed a sphinx at the entrance of their temples, to show that their theology w...
The two cherubim which covered the mercy seat beheld one another with their countenances turned toward it. The word cherubim means “fullness of knowledge.” What do the two cherubim signify but the two Testaments? And what does the mercy seat prefigure but the Lord become a man? John says of him, “For he is the expiation” for our sins.
