Exodus 25:30

25:30 You are to set the Bread of the Presence ¹  on the table before me continually.

Leviticus 24:5-8

24:5 “You must take choice wheat flour ²  and bake twelve loaves; ³  there must be two tenths of an ephah of flour in ⁴  each loaf, 24:6 and you must set them in two rows, six in a row, ⁵  on the ceremonially pure table before the Lord. 24:7 You must put pure frankincense ⁶  on each row, ⁷  and it will become a memorial portion ⁸  for the bread, a gift ⁹  to the Lord. 24:8 Each Sabbath day ¹⁰  Aaron ¹¹  must arrange it before the Lord continually; this portion ¹²  is from the Israelites as a perpetual covenant.

[25:30]  ¹ sn The name basically means that the bread is to be set out in the presence of Yahweh. The custom of presenting bread on a table as a thank offering is common in other cultures as well. The bread here would be placed on the table as a symbol of the divine provision for the twelve tribes – continually, because they were to express their thanksgiving continually. Priests could eat the bread after certain times. Fresh bread would be put there regularly.

[24:5]  ² sn See the note on Lev 2:1.

[24:5]  ³ tn Heb “and bake it twelve loaves”; KJV, NAB, NASB “cakes.”

[24:5]  ⁴ tn The words “of flour” are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[24:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “six of the row.”

[24:7]  ⁶ tn This is not just any “incense” (קְטֹרֶת, qÿtoret; R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 3:913-16), but specifically “frankincense” (לְבֹנָה, lÿvonah; R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 2:756-57).

[24:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “on [עַל, ’al] the row,” probably used distributively, “on each row” (J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 395-96). Perhaps the frankincense was placed “with” or “along side of” each row, not actually on the bread itself, and was actually burned as incense to the Lord (cf. NIV “Along [Alongside CEV] each row”; NRSV “with each row”; NLT “near each row”; B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 165). This particular preposition can have such a meaning.

[24:7]  ⁸ sn The “memorial portion” (אַזְכָרָה, ’azkharah) was normally the part of the grain offering that was burnt on the altar (see Lev 2:2 and the notes there), as opposed to the remainder, which was normally consumed by the priests (Lev 2:3; see the full regulations in Lev 6:14-23 [6:7-16 HT]).

[24:7]  ⁹ sn See the note on Lev 1:9 regarding the term “gift.”

[24:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “In the day of the Sabbath, in the day of the Sabbath.” The repetition is distributive. A few medieval Hebrew mss, the LXX, and the Syriac delete the second occurrence of the expression.

[24:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Aaron) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[24:8]  ¹² tn The word “portion” is supplied in the translation here for clarity, to specify what “this” refers to.