Verse 17 informs us that on top of the ark was a cover, which the ESV calls ‘a mercy seat’. The mercy seat, literally translated, means ‘atonement covering’. In the Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint), the word used is the same as that which is rendered by the English term, ‘propitiation’. For this reason the cover of the ark, or the mercy seat, has also been called propitiatory because of its connections with the Day of Atonement. The mercy seat was the primary place where the
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