The Shewbread (P). First mentioned in 1 Samuel 21:1-7 (cf. Mark 2:25 ff.), also 1 Kings 7:48 (cf. Exodus 25:30 *, Numbers 4:7). Putting food before the gods (as distinct from offerings) is a not infrequent element in pagan rites; cf. the Roman lectisternia; twelve cakes of bread are offered in a Babylonian ritual (cf. Isaiah 65:11; Jeremiah 7:18). Each of the twelve cakes is to be one-fifth of an ephah (cf. Leviticus 23:17). By the later regulation the bread was to be unleavened (leaven coming to be looked on as a symbol of corruption, cf. Leviticus 2:4, Leviticus 6:9; Leviticus 7:12, etc.); the incense placed by the bread (Leviticus 24:7) is then burnt on the altar. The bread is offered on the Sabbath and then eaten by the priests.
Related Commentaries of Leviticus 24:5
Leviticus 24:5-9
5 And thou shalt take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes thereof: two tenth deals shall be in one cake.
6 And thou shalt set them in two rows, six on a row, upon the pure table before the LORD.
7 And thou shalt put pure frankincense upon each row, that it may be on the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire unto the LORD.
8 Every sabbath he shall set it in order before the LORD continually, being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant.
9 And it shall be Aaron's and his sons'; and they shall eat it in the holy place: for it is most holy unto him of the offerings of the LORD made by fire by a perpetual statute.