The cherubim spread out their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, with their faces toward one another. The faces of the cherubim were toward the mercy seat.
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The same verse in 3 English versions, stacked beneath the original-language interlinear above. Click any original word for its lexicon entry.
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The cherubim spread out their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, with their faces toward one another. The faces of the cherubim were toward the mercy seat.
And the cherubim spread out their wings on high, and covered with their wings over the mercy seat, with their faces one to another; even to the mercy seatward were the faces of the cherubim.
And the cherubim were spreading out their wings upward, covering over the atonement lid with their wings, and their faces each toward his brother. The faces of the cherubim were toward the atonement lid.
unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult).
Every available English version of this verse, each an independent rendering of the whole verse.
The cherubim spread out their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, with their faces toward one another. The faces of the cherubim were toward the mercy seat.
And the cherubim had wings that spread upward, overshadowing the mercy seat. The cherubim faced each other, looking toward the mercy seat.
And the cherubim had wings that spread upward, overshadowing the mercy seat. The cherubim faced each other, looking toward the mercy seat.
And the cherubim spread out their wings on high, and covered with their wings over the mercy seat, with their faces one to another; even to the mercy seatward were the faces of the cherubim.
And the cherubim spread out their wings on high, covering the mercy-seat with their wings, with their faces one to another; toward the mercy-seat were the faces of the cherubim.
And the cherubim spread out their wings on high, covering the mercy-seat with their wings, with their faces one to another; toward the mercy-seat were the faces of the cherubim.
And the Cherubims spread out their wings on hie, and couered the Merciseat with their wings, and their faces were one towards another: towarde the Merciseat were the faces of the Cherubims.
Spreading their wings, and covering the propitiatory, and looking one towards the other, and towards it.
and the cherubs are spreading out wings on high, covering over the mercy-seat with their wings, and their faces `are' one towards another; towards the mercy-seat have the faces of the cherubs been.
and the cherubim are spreading out wings on high, covering over the propitiatory covering with their wings, and their faces [are] toward one another; the faces of the cherubim have been toward the propitiatory covering.
The cherubim spread out their wings upward and overshadowed the atonement lid with them. The cherubim faced one another and looked toward the center of the atonement lid.
And the cherubim were spreading out their wings upward, covering over the atonement lid with their wings, and their faces each toward his brother. The faces of the cherubim were toward the atonement lid.
And the cherubim spread out [their] wings over it, covering over with their wings the mercy-seat; and their faces were opposite to one another: the faces of the cherubim were [turned] toward the mercy-seat.
The cherubim spread out their wings above, covering the mercy seat with their wings, with their faces toward one another. The faces of the cherubim were toward the mercy seat.
And the cherubim spread out their wings on high, and covered with their wings over the mercy-seat, with their faces one to another; even towards the mercy-seat were the faces of the cherubim.
The cherubim were designed with spread wings pointing upward, covering the atonement cover. The cherubim were placed facing each other, looking down towards the atonement cover.
And their wings were stretched out over the cover; the faces of the winged ones were opposite one another and facing the cover.
And the cherubim spread out their wings on high, screening the ark-cover with their wings, with their faces one to another; toward the ark-cover were the faces of the cherubim.
Literal Standard Version (2020), Covenant Press — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). Unlocked Literal Bible (unfoldingWord) — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult). Free Bible Version, Dr. Jonathan Gallagher — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org).
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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 →
Notable vocabulary
The rarest word here is סֹֽכְכִ֤ים to cover H5526 — appearing just 24 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.
Shared distinctive vocabulary
סֹֽכְכִ֤ים to cover H5526 occurs in 24 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:
Grammatical profile
Verb forms
Repetition
Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:
Hebrew & Septuagint length
In English translation the verse runs 31 words from the Hebrew and 26 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.
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 18 Hebrew tokens and 19 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.
Topical passages linked to Exodus 37:9 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.
Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).
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.
וַיִּהְי֣וּ הַכְּרֻבִים֩ פֹּרְשֵׂ֨י כְנָפַ֜יִם לְמַ֗עְלָה סֹֽכְכִ֤ים בְּכַנְפֵיהֶם֙ עַל הַכַּפֹּ֔רֶת וּפְנֵיהֶ֖ם אִ֣ישׁ אֶל אָחִ֑יו אֶל הַכַּפֹּ֔רֶת הָי֖וּ פְּנֵ֥י הַכְּרֻבִֽים
The cherubim spread out their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, with their faces toward one another. The faces of the cherubim were toward the mercy seat.
World English Bible · Public Domain
καί ὁ κλίτος ὁ πρός βορέας ἑκατόν ἐπί ἑκατόν καί ὁ στῦλος αὐτός εἴκοσι καί ὁ βάσις αὐτός εἴκοσι
and on the north side one hundred every way, and on the south side one hundred every way, and their posts twenty and their sockets twenty.
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 →
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.
וַהֲווֹ כְרוּבַיָא פְּרִיסָן גַדְפֵיהוֹן לְעֵלָא נָטְלִין בְּגַדְפֵיהוֹן עַל כַּפֻּרְתָּא וְאַפֵּיהוֹן חַד לָקֳבֵל חַד לָקֳבֵל כַּפֻּרְתָּא הֲווֹ אַפֵּי כְרוּבַיָא:
(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.
וַהֲווֹן כְּרוּבַיָא פְּרִיסִין גַּדְפֵיהוֹן בַּהֲדֵי רֵישֵׁיהוֹן לְעֵילָא מְטַלְלִין בְּגַדְפֵיהוֹן עַל כַּפּוּרְתָּא וְאַפֵּיהוֹן חַד לִקְבֵיל חָד כָּל קֳבֵיל כַּפּוּרְתָּא הֲווֹן אַנְפֵּי כְּרוּבַיָא
And the kerubaia spread forth their wings, with their heads upward, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces were toward each other, over against the mercy seat were the faces of the kerubaia.
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.
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 18 words (12 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is çâkak (“to cover”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.
Commentary
Notes on Exodus 37:9 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 →
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).