The works of the Reverend and learned John Lightfoot D. D., late Master of Katherine Hall in Cambridge such as were, and such as never before were printed : in two volumes : with the authors life and large and useful tables to each volume : also three maps : one of the temple drawn by the author himself, the others of Jervsalem and the Holy Land drawn according to the author's chorography, with a description collected out of his writings.

SECT. V. The Shew-bread Table.

ON the North-side of the House which was on the right Hand, stood the Shew-bread Table of two cubits long, and a cubit and a half broad, a 1.1 in the Tabernacle of Mo∣ses, b 1.2 but wanting that half cubit in breadth in the second Temple (the reason of the fal∣ling short not given by them that give the relation.) It stood length ways in its place, that is East and West, and had a Crown of Gold round about it, toward the upmost edge of it, which c 1.3 the Jews resemble to the Crown of the Kingdom.

Upon this Table there stood continually twelve Loaves, which because they stood be∣fore the Lord, they were called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 d 1.4 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, The bread of setting before, for which our English hath found a very sit word, calling it the Shew-bread: The manner of making and placing of which Loaves was thus.

e 1.5 Out of four and twenty 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Sata (three of which went to an Ephah) that is, out of eight bushel of Wheat being ground, they sifted out f 1.6 four and twenty tenth Deals g 1.7 or Omers of the purest Flower; and that they made into twelve Cakes, two Omers in a Cake; or the fifth part of an Ephah of Corn in every Cake: They made the Cakes square, namely ten Hand breadth long, and five broad, and seven Fingers thick: They were made and baked in a room that was in the great building Beth mokadh, on the North-side of the Court, as we shall shew anon, and they were baked on the day before the Sabbath.

On the Sabbath they set them on the Table in this manner: Four Priests went first in, to fetch away the Loaves that had stood all the week, and other four went in after them to bring in new ones in their stead; Two of the four last, carried the two rows of the Cakes, namely six a piece: and the other two carried either of them a golden dish,

in which the Frankincense was to be put to be set upon the Loaves, and so those four that went to fetch out the old Bread, two of them were to carry the cakes, and the other two the dishes: these four that came to fetch the old Bread out, stood before the Table with their Faces towards the North, and the other four that brought in the new stood betwixt the Table and the Wall, with their Faces toward the South; those drew off the old cakes, and these as the other went off slipt on the new, so that the Table was never without Bread upon it, because it is said, that they should stand before the Lord con∣tinually.

They set the cakes in two rows, six and six, one upon another, and they set them, the length of the cakes cross over the breadth of the Table (by which it appears that the Crown of Gold about the Table, rose not above the surface of it, but was a border be∣low edging even with the plain of it, b 1.8 (as is well held by Rabbi Solomon) and so the cakes lay two hand breadths over the Table on either side; for the Table was but six hand breadth broad, and the cakes were ten hand breadth long: Now as for the preventing that, that which so lay over should not break off, if they had no other way to prevent it (which yet they had, but I confess that the description of it in their Authors I do not un∣derstand, yet their manner of laying the cakes one upon another, was such, as that the weight rested upon the Table, and not upon the points that hung over.

The lowest cake of either row they laid upon the plain Table: and upon that cake they laid three golden Canes at distance one from another, and upon those they laid the next cake; and then three golden Canes again, and upon them another cake, and so of the rest; save only that they laid but two such Canes upon the fifth cake, because there was but one cake more to be laid upon. Now these which I call golden Canes (and the Hebrews call them so also) were not like Reeds or Canes, perfectly round and hallow thorow, but they were like Canes or Kexes slit up the middle, and the reason of laying them thus betwixt cake and cake, was, that by their hollowness Air might come to every cake, and all might thereby be kept the better from moldiness and corrupting; and thus did the cake lie hollow, and one not touching another, and all the golden Canes being laid so, as that they lay within the compass of the breadth of the Table, the ends of the cakes that lay over the Table on either side, bare no burden but their own weight.

On the top of either row was set a golden dish with a handful of Frankincense, which when the Bread was taken away, was burnt as Incense to the Lord, Lev. XXIV. 7. and the bread went to Aaron and his sons, or to the Priests as their portions to be eaten.

What these Loaves did represent and signifie, is variously guessed: the number of twelve in two rows seem to refer to the Twelve Tribes, whose names were so divided into six, and six in the two Stones on the High Priests shoulders: And as Bread is the chief subsistence and staff of our mortal life, so the offering of these might denote an acknow∣ledgment of the people, of their receiving of all their subsistence from the Lord, to whom they presented these as their Tribute: and these aswell as the Lamps standing before the Lord, might shew, that their Spiritual and Temporal support were both before him. But our pursuit is to look after the things themselves, leaving the allegorizing of them unto others: for in such things men are most commonly more ready to give satisfaction to them∣selves, than to take it from others, for as much as the things themselves may be bended and swayed to various application.

Notes

• a 1.1

  Exod XXV. 23.
• b 1.2

  Maym. ubi sup.
• c 1.3

  Vid. Baal hatturim in Exod. XXV.
• d 1.4

  Mark XII. 4.
• e 1.5

  Maym. in Tamid••n. per. 5.
• f 1.6

  Lev. XXIV. 5.
• g 1.7

  Exod. XVI. 36
• b 1.8

  R. Sol. in Exod. XXV.