Exodus 26:34

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

You shall put the mercy seat on the ark of the testimony in the most holy place.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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הַכַּפֹּ֔רֶת

kappôreth

H3727

“the · mercy seat”

Particle, Definite Article + Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute

Appears 27× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Exodus 25:17

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H3722

TWOT: 1023c

mercy-seat, place of atonement - the golden plate of propitiation on which the High Priest sprinkled the seat 7 times on the Day of Atonement symbolically reconciling Jehovah and His chosen people - the slab of gold on top of the ark of the covenant which measured 2.5 by 1.5 cubits; on it and part of it were the two golden cherubim facing each other whose outstretched wings came together above and constituted the throne of God

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

8: words
7: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Shared distinctive vocabulary

הַכַּפֹּ֔רֶת mercy seat H3727 occurs in 22 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

1 verb
5 nouns
1 preposition
1 particle

Verb forms

וְנָתַתָּ֙ Qal · Sequential Perfect

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

בְּקֹ֖דֶשׁ holiness H6944 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 17 words from the Hebrew and 17 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — the same length.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 8 Hebrew tokens and 13 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Exodus 26:34 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Exodus 25:21 You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I will give you.
Exodus 40:20 He took and put the testimony into the ark, and set the poles on the ark, and put the mercy seat above on the ark.
Hebrews 9:5 and above it cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat, of which things we can't now speak in detail.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Exodus 26:34 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וְנָתַתָּ֙ אֶת הַכַּפֹּ֔רֶת עַ֖ל אֲר֣וֹן הָעֵדֻ֑ת בְּקֹ֖דֶשׁ הַקֳּדָשִֽׁים

You shall put the mercy seat on the ark of the testimony in the most holy place.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Exodus 26:34 Septuagint · lemma form

καί κατακαλύπτω ὁ καταπέτασμα ὁ κιβωτός ὁ μαρτύριον ἐν ὁ ἅγιος ὁ ἅγιος

And you shall screen with the veil the ark of the testimony in the holy of holies.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וְתִתֵּן יָת כַּפֻּרְתָּא עַל אֲרוֹנָא דְסַהֲדוּתָא בְּקֹדֶשׁ קוּדְשַׁיָא:

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וְתִתֵּן יַת כַּפּוּרְתָּא בַּהֲדֵי כְּרוּבַיָא דְּנַפְקִין נְגִיד מִינָהּ בַּקּדֶשׁ קוּדְשַׁיָא

And thou shalt place the mercy-seat with the kerubaia produced of beaten work for it in the Holy of Holies.

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Exodus 26:34 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

6. THE POSITION OF THE FURNITURE.

(34, 35) The sole furniture of the most holy place, or “Holy of Holies,” was to be the ark, with its covering of the mercy-seat. In the “Holy Place” without the vail were to be the “table of shewbread” against the north wall, and the “golden candlestick” opposite to it, against the south wall. Intermediate between them, but advanced nearer the vail, was to be the “golden altar of incense” (Exo_30:6; Exo_40:26), which, however, is not here mentioned.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And thou shalt make for the hanging five pillars of shittim wood,.... One at each corner of the entrance into the tabernacle, and the other three at a proper distance from each other, so as to make four ways for the priests to enter in at; as there might very well be, since there was a breadth of ten cubits, or five yards or more:

and overlay them with gold; with plates of gold, for a gild would soon wear off by continual use in passing and repassing. This is to be understood not of the whole pillars, but of the chapiters, heads, tops, or knobs of them, and of their fillets or girdles; in some parts of them the wood appearing, as is plain from Exo 36:38,

and their hooks shall be of gold; on which the hanging, covering, or vail was hung:

and thou shalt cast five sockets of brass for them; for the pillars to stand upon them, and were of a meaner metal than those on which the pillars for the vail before mentioned; that being the entrance into the holy of holies, where the divine Majesty dwelt, this into the holy place where the priests did their service.

Next: Exodus Chapter 27

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

unfoldingWord translationNotes

Door43 World Missions Community

General Information:

Yahweh continues to tell Moses what the people must do.

atonement lid

This is the lid that sits on top of the ark where the atonement offering was made. See how you translated this in Exodus 25:17.

on the ark of the testimony

"on the chest that contains the commandments"

The table must be on the north side

This is the table that holds the bread that represents the presence of God. This can be stated in active form. AT: "Place the table for the bread of God's presence on the north side" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information and Active or Passive)

translationWords

atonement

ark of the covenant

holy place

lampstand

tabernacle

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Exodus, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 8 words (7 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is kappôreth (“mercy seat”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word kappôreth carries the sense “mercy seat.” How does it shape the verse?
How does Exodus 25:17, which shares the word «mercy seat», read alongside this verse?
What does the repetition of “holiness” (2× in this one verse) do in this verse?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
«וְנָתַתָּ֙» is a Qal Sequential Perfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers and John Gill's Exposition read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 8 Hebrew ↔ 13 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 12 words in this verse.
“holiness” occurs 2× in this single verse.
7 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 8 words in this verse.