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 shewed mercy. It is also called the oracle, ver. 18 and 20; because from thence God gave his orders and his answers.
25:18. Thou shalt make also two cherubims of beaten gold, on the two sides of the oracle.
25:19. Let one cherub be on the one side, and the other on the other.
25:20. Let them cover both sides of the propitiatory, spreading their wings, and covering the oracle, and let them look one towards the other, their faces being turned towards the propitiatory wherewith the ark is to to be covered.
25:21. In which thou shalt put the testimony that I will give thee.
25:22. Thence will I give orders, and will speak to thee over the propitiatory, and from the midst of the two cherubims, which shall be upon the ark of the testimony, all things which I will command the children of Israel by thee.
25:23. Thou shalt make a table also of setim wood, of two cubits in length, and a cubit in breadth, and a cubit and a half in height.
A table… On which were to be placed the twelve loaves of proposition: or, as they are called in the Hebrew, the face bread, because they were always to stand before the face of the Lord in his temple: as a figure of the eucharistic sacrifice and sacrament, in the church of Christ.
25:24. And thou shalt overlay it with the purest gold: and thou shalt make to it a golden ledge round about.
25:25. And to the ledge itself a polished crown, four inches high; and over the same another little golden crown.