Exodus 25:18
Thou shalt make also two cherubims of beaten gold, on the two sides of the oracle.
Open Exodus 25:18 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Duos quoque cherubim aureos et productiles facies, ex utraque parte oraculi.
- Septuagint (Swete) shown from Exodus 25:17
- καὶ ποιήσεις δύο χερουβεὶμ χρυσοτορευτά, καὶ ἐπιθήσεις αὐτὰ ἐξ ἀμφοτέρων τῶν κλιτῶν τοῦ ἱλαστηρίου·
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וְעָשִׂ֛יתָ שְׁנַ֥יִם כְּרֻבִ֖ים זָהָ֑ב מִקְשָׁה֙ תַּעֲשֶׂ֣ה אֹתָ֔ם מִשְּׁנֵ֖י קְצ֥וֹת הַכַּפֹּֽרֶת
Haydock's commentary
Cherubims, symbolic figures, which Moses does not perfectly describe, and therefore we cannot pretend to know their exact form. Some represent them as young men, with their wings joined over the propitiatory, in a contrary direction to those of birds, in order to form a throne for God, and bending towards Him, with profound respect. Others only admit their heads, with six wings: while many suppose, that they resembled those compounded figures mentioned, Ezechiel i. 5. and x. 20. They denote some extraordinary figure not found in nature, 3 Kings vii. 29. An order of angels is known by this name. Yet the four animals, or cherubims, represent the saints, Apocalypse v. 8, 10. The different forms under which they appear, set before us their various perfections. Their wings denote agility, &c. The Egyptians adored Anubis, under the form of a man, with a dog's head. Isis had the head of a cow, Apis that of a bull. They placed a sphinx at the entrance of their temples, to shew that their theology was enigmatical. God condescended perhaps to satisfy the inclinations of his people, by representing the mysteries of religion under similar forms, Wisdom xviii. 24. (Calmet)
Would he have allowed such things, if they were so dangerous, as to be inseparable from idolatry! (Haydock)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St John Damascene An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Concerning Images
But since some find fault with us for worshipping and honouring the image of our Saviour and that of our Lady, and those, too, of the rest of the saints and servants of Christ, let them remember that in the beginning God created man after His own image. On what grounds, then, do we shew reverence to each other unless because we are made after God’s image? For as Basil, that much-versed expounder of divine things, says, the honour given to the image passes over to the prototype. Now a prototype is that which is imaged, from which the derivative is obtained. Why was it that the Mosaic people honoured on all hands the tabernacle which bore an image and type of heavenly things, or rather of the whole creation? God indeed said to Moses, Look that thou make them after their pattern which was shewed thee in the mount . …