Leviticus 16:2

2. Come not at all times Many of the ancient pagan shrines were inaccessible, and hence they were called adytum and abaton, “not to be approached.” This seclusion of the idol within the penetralia of the temple was requisite in order to preserve the veneration of the people, through the operation of that law of the human mind by which the mysterious is clothed by the imagination with extraordinary qualities. But no such reason is the ground of this prohibition. Jehovah’s majesty needs no imaginary splendours. The old covenant says, “Obey and live, disobey and die;” the new one says, “Believe and be saved, believe not and be damned.” Both covenants are essentially the same, inasmuch as faith is the root of obedience, and unbelief and disobedience are in the New Testament expressed by the same word απειθεια .

In the cloud Not the cloud of incense required to soften the insufferable splendours of the shekinah, but the shekinah itself. Hence the Targum of Jonathan, “The glory of my shekinah shall be revealed.” A resplendence beamed forth from between the cherubim; but to make the vision supportable to mortal eyes God hid himself while revealing himself. The cloud is the same as that mentioned in Exodus xl, which appeared over the mercy seat whenever the high priest came before it. The rabbins postulate a cloud continually hanging over the cherubim. Luther, on the contrary, says that “over the propitiatory and cherubim there was nothing located which might be seen, but by faith only was God believed to be seated there.” In the Scriptures the manifested glory of the Son of Man, the Jehovah of the Old Testament, is often associated with a cloud. Daniel 7:13; Revelation 1:7.

The mercy seat We are required by the truth to say that this expression, so poetical and so consolatory to the God-fearing soul, is not a literal translation of the original Hebrew, capporeth, the cover of the ark, in which were enshrined the tables of the law. This cover was underneath the luminous cloud, and hence was the footstool or throne of Jehovah, as the sanctuary in which it was placed is called “the place for thee to dwell in.” Exodus 15:17. The capporeth was a massive gold plate equal to the ark in length and breadth, at either end of which was a solid golden cherub. We find no scripture to sustain Ewald’s assertion that the ark had a cover distinct from this plate, yet it is usually mentioned separately. Exodus 25:17. The word capporeth may be derived from the Piel form of the verb caphar, to cover, in which form it signifies to make atonement; it is very doubtful whether the noun ever signifies an instrument of propitiation ( propitiatorium, Vulgate, ιλαστηριον , the Seventy) in the Pentateuch. Yet it is more probable that in later Hebrew, as in 1 Chronicles 28:11, it acquired the additional meaning of an atonement for sin. This relieves the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews of the imputation made by Furst, that he adopted a gloss in Hebrews 9:5. In Hebrews 4:16 the capporeth is very beautifully styled “the throne of grace,” to which we may come, not with trembling and overwhelming awe, as did the high priest, but “boldly.”