2 Chronicles 3:13 - Exposition

Their faces were inward ; Hebrew, "were to the house, " viz. to the holy place. The position of these cherubim, both as to wings and faces, was clearly different from that of those for the tabernacle of Moses. There they "cover the mercy-seat with their wings, and their faces are one to another … toward the mercy-seat were the faces of the cherubim" ( Exodus 25:20 ; Exodus 37:9 ). May this alteration in the time of Solomon indicate possibly one more advance in the developing outlook of Divine mercy to a whole world? Neither this place nor the parallel makes it certain whether the cherubim, that are here said to stand on their feet, stood on the ground, as some say they did. As regards those of the tabernacle, the prepositions used in Exodus 25:18 , Exodus 25:19 and Exodus 37:7 , Exodus 37:8 appear to lay stress on their position being a fixture at and on each extremity of the mercy-seat.