And he made the mercy seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half was the length thereof, and one cubit and a half the breadth thereof.
Made the mercyseat of pure gold. To construct a figure, whether the body of a beast or a man, with two extended wings, measuring from 2 Timothy 3 feet from tip to tip, with the hammer, out of a solid piece of gold, was what few, if any artisans of the present day, could accomplish. Neither the cherubims described here, nor the Edenic creatures called cherubims, were in any sense representations of actual existences, but mere symbols. This being admitted, we can account for the fact that cherubim were introduced into the most holy place-also on the walls of the temple (see the notes at Exodus 25:17-20; 1 Kings 6:23-29; 2 Chronicles 5:7-8). These were not images of actual beings; for among a people always inclined to idolatry they might thus have easily become objects of worship; but they were symbolic representations (Moses Stuart).