Passage

Hebrews 9.5

Book: Hebrews · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

3. And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holy of holies; 4. having a golden altar of incense, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was a golden pot holding the manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant;

5. and above it cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy-seat; of which things we cannot now speak severally.

Now these things having been thus prepared, the priests go in continually into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the services; 7. but into the second the high priest alone, once in the year, not without blood, which he offereth for himself, and for the errors of the people: (Hebrews 9:3-7, ASV)

WEB

3. After the second veil was the tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies, 4. having a golden altar of incense, and the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which was a golden pot holding the manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant;

5. and above it cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat, of which things we can’t speak now in detail.

Now these things having been thus prepared, the priests go in continually into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the services, 7. but into the second the high priest alone, once in the year, not without blood, which he offers for himself, and for the errors of the people. (Hebrews 9:3-7, WEB)

KJV

3. And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all; 4. Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant;

5. And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat; of which we cannot now speak particularly.

Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. 7. But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people: (Hebrews 9:3-7, KJV)

YLT

3. and after the second vail a tabernacle that is called 'Holy of holies,' 4. having a golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid all round about with gold, in which [is] the golden pot having the manna, and the rod of Aaron that budded, and the tables of the covenant,

5. and over it cherubim of the glory, overshadowing the mercy-seat, concerning which we are not now to speak particularly.

And these things having been thus prepared, into the first tabernacle, indeed, at all times the priests do go in, performing the services, 7. and into the second, once in the year, only the chief priest, not apart from blood, which he doth offer for himself and the errors of the people, (Hebrews 9:3-7, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: the anonymous author of Hebrews. Pauline authorship was doubted in antiquity and Origen concluded that who wrote it, God knows
Audience: Jewish believers under pressure to fall back from Christ into the older covenant observances
Location: unknown; the closing greeting from those of Italy (13:24) points in two directions at once
Time period: most likely before AD 70, since the sacrificial system is discussed as still operating

Theological reading

And above it cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy-seat; of which things we cannot now speak severally.

The verse ends the letter's inventory of the tabernacle furnishings, and its final clause is one of the more tantalising sentences in the New Testament. The author has more to say about the cherubim and the mercy seat and declines to say it, because the argument he is making runs elsewhere.

Mercy-seat is hilasterion, the Septuagint's term for the kapporeth, the gold cover of the ark where blood was applied on the Day of Atonement. It is the same word Paul uses of Christ at Romans 3:25, which is why the translation dispute there between propitiation and expiation cannot be settled without this background. Here the object is a piece of furniture; there it is a person.

The cherubim of glory overshadowing it locates the place where God was said to dwell between the cherubim, as at Exodus 25:22 and 1 Samuel 4:4. What the author establishes by listing all this is the elaborate apparatus of restricted access, which is the setup for verse 8: the way into the holy place was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was standing.

The whole inventory exists to be contrasted, and the contrast lands at 10:19-20 with boldness to enter by a new and living way. See Penal Substitutionary Atonement and Atonement.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

G2435 - hilasterion, hilasterion, Strong's G2435
G1391 - doxa, doxa, Strong's G1391
G3004 - lego, lego, Strong's G3004

Quoted in

Lexicon:

Passages:

Romans 3.25

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.