Exodus 25:23-30 P. The Table of Shewbread (cf. Exodus 37:10-16). It was an ancient custom to spread tables with food and drink as oblations to the gods, who were supposed to need food and drink (Leviticus 24:5-9 *). And the custom persisted long after men's ideas had changed, coming to be an acknowledgment of God's gift of daily bread. It may well typify the sympathetic share that the Creator and Preserver of all mankind takes in the creaturely needs and interests of His children. The table was of gilded wood, 3 × 1½ × 2¼ feet, with a gold rim or bead (Exodus 25:23 f.), strengthened by a 3-inch beaded frame round the legs (Exodus 25:25), and with rings and poles for carrying (Exodus 25:26-28). There were to be broad gold dishes for the flat cakes, and cups for the frankincense (Leviticus 24:7); flagons and chalices also were needed for the libations of wine which completed the provision (Exodus 25:29). The term shewbread, through Tyndale and Luther from Jerome, fits better the wording of 1 Chronicles 9:32 (bread set out, i.e. exhibited or arranged) than Exodus 25:30 here, where render as mg. Presence-bread.
Exodus 25:23-30
23 Thou shalt also make a table of shittim wood: two cubits shall be the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof.
24 And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, and make thereto a crown of gold round about.
25 And thou shalt make unto it a border of an hand breadth round about, and thou shalt make a golden crown to the border thereof round about.
26 And thou shalt make for it four rings of gold, and put the rings in the four corners that are on the four feet thereof.
27 Over against the border shall the rings be for places of the staves to bear the table.
28 And thou shalt make the staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold, that the table may be borne with them.
29 And thou shalt make the dishes thereof, and spoons thereof, and covers thereof, and bowls thereof, to cover withal: of pure gold shalt thou make them.
30 And thou shalt set upon the table shewbread before me alway.