Essay zu Schemot 25:41

Kapporet here could indicate simply “cover,” yet its function goes beyond mere protection. The name of this central part of the above-cited central cult object may be a play on words. The Hebrew verb kapper, which occurs again later in these texts (see 29:33–37), often means “purge” or “purify”; earlier translators rendered it as “expiate” or even “propitiate,” and the kapporet as “mercy-seat” or “propitiatory.” The kapporet was apparently the holiest spot in the Israelite cult system, and it was there that God was said to speak his will to the people. This idea represents a remarkable shrinking and intimatizing process: the God who spoke to the assembled people, amid thunder, fire, and trembling earth at Sinai, now communicates with them from an area roughly the size of a small desk or table. In addition, there is a shift from a one-time event (Sinai) to the permanent fact of a sanctuary—a development which will later be repeated in Solomon’s Temple.

The table and its implements, like some of the other features of the Tabernacle, are holdovers from a more blatantly pagan model, where the gods were seen to be in need of nourishment. By thus using conventions of worship common throughout the ancient Near East, Israel expressed its desire to serve God, even while it was aware that he was not the sort of deity who requires food and drink. It might also be mentioned that another common object found in ancient sanctuaries, a bed, has intentionally been omitted from our structure.