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Bible Encyclopedias
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Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or is the rendering. in the A.V. of the Heb. phrase לֶחֶ ם ה פָּנַי ם, lechem hap-panim, lit. bread of the face, i.e. of Jehovah (this is the usual form); or (in the later books) לֶחֶ ם הִמִּעֲרֶכֶת, lechem ham-maareketh, bread of the ordering (1 Chronicles 9:32; 1 Chronicles 23:29; 2 Chronicles 13:11; Nehemiah 10:33), or simply the latter word (1 Chronicles 28:16; 2 Chronicles 2:4; 2 Chronicles 29:18); also לֶחֶ ם הִתָּמַיד, lechem hat-tamid, the continual bread (Numbers 4:7), and לֶחֶ ם קֹדֵשׁ, lechem kodesh, holy bread (1 Samuel 21:5). Onkelos sometimes paraphrases it לח ם אפ, bread of the nostrils. The Sept. has, lit. ἄρτοι ἐνώπιοι ἄρτοι τοῦ προσώπου , sometimes ἄρτοι τῆς προσφορᾶς (1 Kings 7:48), or ἄρτοι τῆς προθέσεως (1 Chronicles 9:32, etc.), as in the New Test. (Matthew 12:4; Luke 6:4); but ἡ πρόθεσις τῶν ἄρτων in Hebrewa 9:2; Josephus directly ἄρτοι τοῦ θεοῦ (Ant. 8, 3, 7); the Vulg. panes propositionis. In the following account we bring together all the ancient and modern information on the subject.
I. The Table and its Accessories. — Within the ark it was directed that there should be a table of shittim wood, i.e. acacia, two cubits in length, a cubit in breadth, and a cubit and a half in height, overlaid with pure gold, and having "a golden crown to the border thereof round about," i.e. a border or list, in order, as we may suppose, to hinder that which was placed on it from by any accident falling off. The further description of this table will. be found in Exodus 25:23-30, and a representation of it as it existed in the Herodian Temple forms an interesting feature in the bas reliefs within the arch of Titus. The accuracy of this may, as is obvious, be trusted. It exhibits one striking correspondence with the prescriptions in Exodus. We there find the following words: "and thou shalt make unto it a border of a handbreadth round about." In the sculpture of the arch the hand of one of the slaves who is carrying the table, and the border, are of about equal breadth. This table is itself called שֻׁלְחִןהִפָּנַי ם, "the table of the face," in Numbers 4:7, and שֻׁלְהָןהִטָּחֹר, "the pure table" in Leviticus 24:6 and 2 Chronicles 13:11. This latter epithet is generally referred by commentators to the unalloyed gold with which so much of it was covered. It may, however, mean. somewhat more than this, and bear something of the spiritual force which it has in Malachi 1:11.
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