Reference: Shewbread
Easton
Ex 25:30 (R.V. marg., "presence bread"); 1Ch 9:32 (marg., "bread of ordering"); Nu 4:7: called "hallowed bread" (R.V., "holy bread") in 1Sa 21:1-6.
This bread consisted of twelve loaves made of the finest flour. They were flat and thin, and were placed in two rows of six each on a table in the holy place before the Lord. They were renewed every Sabbath (Le 24:5-9), and those that were removed to give place to the new ones were to be eaten by the priests only in the holy place (see 1Sa 21:3-6; comp. Mt 12:3-4).
The number of the loaves represented the twelve tribes of Israel, and also the entire spiritual Israel, "the true Israel;" and the placing of them on the table symbolized the entire consecration of Israel to the Lord, and their acceptance of God as their God. The table for the bread was made of acacia wood, 3 feet long, 18 inches broad, and 2 feet 3 inches high. It was plated with pure gold. Two staves, plated with gold, passed through golden rings, were used for carrying it.
Illustration: Table of Shewbread
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And you will put on the table [the] bread of presence [to be] before me continually.
"And you shall take finely milled flour, and you shall bake [with] it twelve ring-shaped bread cakes: each one [shall be] two-tenths [of an ephah]. And you shall place them [in] two rows, six [to the] row, on the pure [gold] table {before} Yahweh. read more. And you shall put pure frankincense on each row so that it shall be for the bread as a memorial offering, an offering made by fire for Yahweh. {On every Sabbath} he shall arrange it in rows {before} Yahweh continually; [they are] from the {Israelites} [as] an everlasting covenant. And it shall be for Aaron and for his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place, because it [is] {a most holy thing} for him from Yahweh's offerings made by fire--a {lasting rule}."
And over the table of the presence they will spread [out] a blue cloth and put on it the plates, dishes, and libation bowls, and the pitchers of the libation; and the bread of continuity will be on it.
Now David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came trembling to meet David, and he said to him, "Why are you alone and there are no men with you?" So David said to Ahimelech the priest, "The king charged me [with] a matter and said to me, 'No one must know anything about this matter [on] which I am sending you, [with] which I have charged you and the servants.'" So {I have arranged to meet with my servants at a certain place}. read more. Now then, {what do you have at hand}? Give me five [loaves] of bread or {whatever is here}."
Now then, {what do you have at hand}? Give me five [loaves] of bread or {whatever is here}." The priest answered David and said, "There is no ordinary bread {here at hand}; there is only holy bread, [but] only if the young men have kept themselves from women."
The priest answered David and said, "There is no ordinary bread {here at hand}; there is only holy bread, [but] only if the young men have kept themselves from women." David answered the priest and said to him, "Indeed, women [were] held back from us {as it has been when I've gone out before}. And the things of the young men are holy when it [is] an ordinary journey. {How much more} {today} will the things be holy?"
David answered the priest and said to him, "Indeed, women [were] held back from us {as it has been when I've gone out before}. And the things of the young men are holy when it [is] an ordinary journey. {How much more} {today} will the things be holy?" So the priest gave him [the] holy [bread], for there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence, which was removed from before Yahweh, in order to set hot bread [there] on the day when it was taken away.
So the priest gave him [the] holy [bread], for there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence, which was removed from before Yahweh, in order to set hot bread [there] on the day when it was taken away.
And from the sons of the Kohathites, some of their kinsmen [were] over the {showbread} to prepare [it] {every Sabbath}.
So he said to them, "Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those with him, how he entered into the house of God and ate the bread of the presentation, which it was not permitted for him or for those with him to eat, but only for the priests?
Fausets
Bread of the faces or "presence" of God (Ex 25:30). "Bread of ordering" (1Ch 9:32). "The continual bread" (Nu 4:7). "Hallowed bread" (1Sa 21:4-6; Mt 12:4; Heb 9:2 "the shewbread," Greek "bread of setting forth".) The table was of acacia or "shittim wood," two cubits long, one broad, one and a half high, overlaid with pure gold, with a golden crown to the border round about, to hinder any bread falling off (but see below); Ex 25:23-30. The border was to be "of a handbreadth"; so in the sculpture on Titus' Arch the slave's hand that holds the table is just the breadth of the border. "The pure table" (Le 24:6), both because of its unalloyed gold and because of the "pure offering" on it (Mal 1:11). The table stood in the holy place on the N. side (Ex 26:35). The 12 cakes of unleavened bread, arranged in two piles, with a golden cup of frankincense on each (Josephus Ant. 3:10, section 7), were renewed every sabbath, and the stale loaves given to the priests.
They represented the 12 tribes before Jehovah perpetually, (see Re 21:12) in token that He was always graciously accepting His people and their good works, for whom atonement had been made by the victims on the altar outside. They were the national meat offering (Le 24:5-9). Each cake contained two tenths of an ephah, about six pounds and a quarter, of fine flour. The frankincense as a memorial was probably cast upon the altar fire as "an offering made by fire unto the Lord," when the bread was removed from the table on the Sabbath. Ahimelech stretched the law in giving the stale loaves to David's men, as free from ceremonial defilement (1Sa 21:4-6; Mt 12:4), for they should have been eaten by the priests, in the holy place (Le 24:5-9). Bahr thinks the loaves symbolized the Holy One in His sanctuary as the Bread of life to His people (Joh 6:35,47-51; Mt 4:4; De 8:3).
But the loaves were taken from Israel, not presented by God to them; and one loaf would suit his view rather than twelve (1Co 10:17). Still, on their presenting themselves before Him in the bread symbol, He feeds them represented by their priests. As they are a bread offering to Him, so He gives Himself as the bread to feed them. In 2Ch 4:8,19, ten tables are mentioned "whereon the shewbread was set," i.e., Solomon made a number of tables, and one great golden one on which they set the loaves. In the parallel passage, 1Ki 7:48, "the table of gold" alone is mentioned, as in 2Ch 29:18. "Ten" is the number also of the candlesticks. The tables were probably made of cedarwood overlaid with gold (see Josephus Ant. 8:3, section 7). As it is omitted in the list of articles restored from Babylon (Ezr 1:9-11), it was doubtless remade by Zerubbabel. Antiochus Epiphanes carried away the table of the second temple (2Ma 1:22). Anew one was made at the restoration of the temple by Judas Maccabeus (1Ma 4:49).
Afterward Ptolemy Philadelphus presented a splendid table (Josephus Ant. 12:2, section 8-9). In the Arch of Titus, the sculptor in defiance of perspective exhibits the two ends. Speaker's Commentary (Ex 25:23-30) for "crown of gold" translated "moulding of gold"; for "border," "a framing" which reached from leg to leg, to make the table firm, as well as to adorn it with a second moulding of gold; two fragments of such a framing appear half way clown the legs in the Titus' Arch sculpture. "Over against the framing" the rings were "upon the four extremities (KJV "corners") that were at the four (clawlike) feet," answering to each corner of it. The staves were never taken out of the golden rings by which the ark was to be borne; so translated Nu 4:5-6, "put the staves thereof in order," not "put in," they would need merely adjustment after motion (Ex 25:14-15).
The "dishes" or bowls were probably the measures for the meal used in the loaves. For "spoons" translated "cups" filled with frankincense, represented on Titus' Arch. For "covers" and "bowls" and "to cover withal" translated "flagons and chalices, to pour out withal." These were for the drink offering which accompanied every meat offering, for the shewbread was a true meat offering. In Nu 4:7 the Hebrew means "the shew table" or "table of the faces" or presence, namely, of God manifested. Similar is the phrase "the Angel of His presence" (Isa 63:9; Ex 33:14-15; 23:20; De 4:37, "in His sight".) The "face" stands for the Person. "The bread of the face" on the table in the sanctuary symbolizes that man is admitted to God's holy table and presence, seeing and being nourished by God in the person of Christ, the Bread of life.
The priests, Israel's representatives, alone ate this sacramental pledge in the Old Testament. The whole church as "priests unto God" offer themselves before God and are fed at the Lord's table with the sacramental symbol of Christ's body, our true food (Ps 23:5; Lu 22:30; 1Co 11:26). The continued renewal every Sabbath testified to the design of that holy day to renew men afresh to self dedication as in God's immediate presence; as Israel by the candlestick appeared as a people of enlightenment, and by the incense altar as a people of prayer. The frankincense always on the shewbread, and consumed when the bread was to be eaten, symbolized that prayer must ever accompany self dedication, and that the fame of love must kindle prayer when we are about to hold communion with and to be nourished by Him.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
" 'Look, I [am about to] send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared.
And you will put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark with them. In the rings of the ark will be the poles; they will not be removed from it.
"And you will make a table of acacia wood, two cubits its length and a cubit its width and a cubit and a half its height.
"And you will make a table of acacia wood, two cubits its length and a cubit its width and a cubit and a half its height. And you will overlay it [with] pure gold, and you will make for it a gold molding all around.
And you will overlay it [with] pure gold, and you will make for it a gold molding all around. And you will make for it a handbreadth rim all around, and you will make a gold molding for its rim all around.
And you will make for it a handbreadth rim all around, and you will make a gold molding for its rim all around. And you will make four gold rings for it, and you will put the rings on the four corners where its four {legs} [are].
And you will make four gold rings for it, and you will put the rings on the four corners where its four {legs} [are]. The rings will be near the rim as {holders} for poles to carry the table.
The rings will be near the rim as {holders} for poles to carry the table. And you will make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them [with] gold, and the table will be carried with them.
And you will make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them [with] gold, and the table will be carried with them. And you will make its plates and its ladles and its pitchers and its bowls with which [libations] will be poured; of pure gold you will make them.
And you will make its plates and its ladles and its pitchers and its bowls with which [libations] will be poured; of pure gold you will make them. And you will put on the table [the] bread of presence [to be] before me continually.
And you will put on the table [the] bread of presence [to be] before me continually.
And you will put on the table [the] bread of presence [to be] before me continually.
And you will place the table outside the curtain and the lampstand opposite the table on the south side of the tabernacle, and you will put the table on the north side.
And he said, "My presence will go, and I will give you rest." And he said to him, "If your presence [is] not going, do not bring us up from here.
"And you shall take finely milled flour, and you shall bake [with] it twelve ring-shaped bread cakes: each one [shall be] two-tenths [of an ephah].
"And you shall take finely milled flour, and you shall bake [with] it twelve ring-shaped bread cakes: each one [shall be] two-tenths [of an ephah]. And you shall place them [in] two rows, six [to the] row, on the pure [gold] table {before} Yahweh.
And you shall place them [in] two rows, six [to the] row, on the pure [gold] table {before} Yahweh.
And you shall place them [in] two rows, six [to the] row, on the pure [gold] table {before} Yahweh. And you shall put pure frankincense on each row so that it shall be for the bread as a memorial offering, an offering made by fire for Yahweh.
And you shall put pure frankincense on each row so that it shall be for the bread as a memorial offering, an offering made by fire for Yahweh. {On every Sabbath} he shall arrange it in rows {before} Yahweh continually; [they are] from the {Israelites} [as] an everlasting covenant.
{On every Sabbath} he shall arrange it in rows {before} Yahweh continually; [they are] from the {Israelites} [as] an everlasting covenant. And it shall be for Aaron and for his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place, because it [is] {a most holy thing} for him from Yahweh's offerings made by fire--a {lasting rule}."
And it shall be for Aaron and for his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place, because it [is] {a most holy thing} for him from Yahweh's offerings made by fire--a {lasting rule}."
When setting out the camp, Aaron and his sons will go and lower the curtain of the covering and cover with it the ark of the testimony. They will put on it a covering of {fine leather}, and they will spread a cloth of perfect blue over it, and they will place its poles. read more. And over the table of the presence they will spread [out] a blue cloth and put on it the plates, dishes, and libation bowls, and the pitchers of the libation; and the bread of continuity will be on it.
And over the table of the presence they will spread [out] a blue cloth and put on it the plates, dishes, and libation bowls, and the pitchers of the libation; and the bread of continuity will be on it.
And because he loved your ancestors he chose their {descendants} after them. And he brought you forth from Egypt {with his own presence}, by his great strength,
And he humbled you and let you go hungry, and [then] he fed you with that which you did not know nor did your ancestors know, in order to make you know that not by bread alone but by all [that] goes out of the mouth of Yahweh humankind shall live.
The priest answered David and said, "There is no ordinary bread {here at hand}; there is only holy bread, [but] only if the young men have kept themselves from women."
The priest answered David and said, "There is no ordinary bread {here at hand}; there is only holy bread, [but] only if the young men have kept themselves from women." David answered the priest and said to him, "Indeed, women [were] held back from us {as it has been when I've gone out before}. And the things of the young men are holy when it [is] an ordinary journey. {How much more} {today} will the things be holy?"
David answered the priest and said to him, "Indeed, women [were] held back from us {as it has been when I've gone out before}. And the things of the young men are holy when it [is] an ordinary journey. {How much more} {today} will the things be holy?" So the priest gave him [the] holy [bread], for there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence, which was removed from before Yahweh, in order to set hot bread [there] on the day when it was taken away.
So the priest gave him [the] holy [bread], for there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence, which was removed from before Yahweh, in order to set hot bread [there] on the day when it was taken away.
Solomon also made all of the vessels which [were] in the house of Yahweh: the golden altar and the golden table on which [was] the bread of the presence;
And from the sons of the Kohathites, some of their kinsmen [were] over the {showbread} to prepare [it] {every Sabbath}.
And he made ten tables and placed them in the temple, five on the south and five on the north. And he made a hundred drinking bowls of gold.
So Solomon made all the objects that [were in] the house of God: the altar of gold; the tables upon which [was] the bread of the presence;
And they went into the inner [part] to King Hezekiah and said, "We have cleansed all the house of Yahweh: the altar of burnt offering, all its objects, the table of the rows [of bread] and all its objects,
Now these were the inventories: thirty gold metal dishes, one thousand silver metal dishes, twenty-nine vessels, thirty bowls of gold, four hundred and ten matching silver metal bowls, and one thousand other objects. read more. All of the objects of gold and silver metal [were] five thousand four hundred. All this Sheshbazzar brought up along with the exiles from Babylonia to Jerusalem.
You prepare before me a table in the presence of my oppressors. You anoint my head with oil; my cup [is] overflowing.
In all their distress, {there was no distress}, and the messenger of his {presence} saved them, in his love and compassion he himself redeemed them, and he lifted them up, and he supported them all [the] days of old.
From the rising of the sun to its setting, my name [is] great among the nations, and in every place incense [is] being presented to my name, and a pure offering. For my name [is] great among the nations," says Yahweh of hosts.
But he answered [and] said, "It is written, 'Man will not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes out of the mouth of God."
how he entered into the house of God and ate the bread of the presentation, which it was not permitted for him or for those with him to eat, but only for the priests?
how he entered into the house of God and ate the bread of the presentation, which it was not permitted for him or for those with him to eat, but only for the priests?
that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. The one who comes to me will never be hungry, and the one who believes in me will never be thirsty again.
Truly, truly I say to you, the one who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. read more. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that someone may eat from it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats from this bread, he will live {forever}. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."
Because [there is] one bread, [we] who [are] many are one body, for [we] all share from the one bread.
For a tent was prepared, the first [one], in which [were] the lampstand and the table and the presentation of the loaves, which is called the holy place.
It has a great and high wall that has twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written on [the gates] which are of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel--
Hastings
In one of the oldest historical documents preserved in the OT we find, in a passage telling of David's flight from Saul, the first mention of an offering in the shape of 'holy bread,' which was presented to Jahweh in the sanctuary at Nob (1Sa 21:1-6). Here this holy bread is also termed 'the bread of the presence' (1Sa 21:6), i.e. of Jahweh, which appears in English Version as 'shewbread'
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And you will make its plates and its ladles and its pitchers and its bowls with which [libations] will be poured; of pure gold you will make them.
"And you shall take finely milled flour, and you shall bake [with] it twelve ring-shaped bread cakes: each one [shall be] two-tenths [of an ephah]. And you shall place them [in] two rows, six [to the] row, on the pure [gold] table {before} Yahweh. read more. And you shall put pure frankincense on each row so that it shall be for the bread as a memorial offering, an offering made by fire for Yahweh. {On every Sabbath} he shall arrange it in rows {before} Yahweh continually; [they are] from the {Israelites} [as] an everlasting covenant.
{On every Sabbath} he shall arrange it in rows {before} Yahweh continually; [they are] from the {Israelites} [as] an everlasting covenant.
{On every Sabbath} he shall arrange it in rows {before} Yahweh continually; [they are] from the {Israelites} [as] an everlasting covenant. And it shall be for Aaron and for his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place, because it [is] {a most holy thing} for him from Yahweh's offerings made by fire--a {lasting rule}."
And it shall be for Aaron and for his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place, because it [is] {a most holy thing} for him from Yahweh's offerings made by fire--a {lasting rule}."
And over the table of the presence they will spread [out] a blue cloth and put on it the plates, dishes, and libation bowls, and the pitchers of the libation; and the bread of continuity will be on it.
And over the table of the presence they will spread [out] a blue cloth and put on it the plates, dishes, and libation bowls, and the pitchers of the libation; and the bread of continuity will be on it.
Now David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came trembling to meet David, and he said to him, "Why are you alone and there are no men with you?" So David said to Ahimelech the priest, "The king charged me [with] a matter and said to me, 'No one must know anything about this matter [on] which I am sending you, [with] which I have charged you and the servants.'" So {I have arranged to meet with my servants at a certain place}. read more. Now then, {what do you have at hand}? Give me five [loaves] of bread or {whatever is here}." The priest answered David and said, "There is no ordinary bread {here at hand}; there is only holy bread, [but] only if the young men have kept themselves from women." David answered the priest and said to him, "Indeed, women [were] held back from us {as it has been when I've gone out before}. And the things of the young men are holy when it [is] an ordinary journey. {How much more} {today} will the things be holy?" So the priest gave him [the] holy [bread], for there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence, which was removed from before Yahweh, in order to set hot bread [there] on the day when it was taken away.
So the priest gave him [the] holy [bread], for there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence, which was removed from before Yahweh, in order to set hot bread [there] on the day when it was taken away.
So the priest gave him [the] holy [bread], for there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence, which was removed from before Yahweh, in order to set hot bread [there] on the day when it was taken away.
In front, the inner sanctuary [was] twenty cubits long and twenty cubits wide and twenty cubits high, and he overlaid it [with] pure gold and covered the altar [with] cedar.
Solomon also made all of the vessels which [were] in the house of Yahweh: the golden altar and the golden table on which [was] the bread of the presence;
And from the sons of the Kohathites, some of their kinsmen [were] over the {showbread} to prepare [it] {every Sabbath}.
And from the sons of the Kohathites, some of their kinsmen [were] over the {showbread} to prepare [it] {every Sabbath}.
and with the rows of bread, the flour, the grain offering, the wafers of unleavened bread, the baked offering, the offering mixed with oil, and for all the amounts and measurements.
Look, I am building a house for the name of Yahweh my God to dedicate to him, to offer sweet spices of incense before him, and [for] the regular rows [of bread], and burnt offerings for mornings, evenings, Sabbaths, and new moon festivals, and for appointed feasts of Yahweh our God which [are] everlasting for Israel.
{a wooden altar} [that] [was] three cubits high, and its length [was] two cubits, and its corners for it and its length and its walls [were of] wood. And he spoke to me, "This [is] the table that [is] {before} Yahweh."
Smith
Shew-bread,
etc. literally "bread of the face" or "faces." Shew-bread was unleavened bread placed upon a table which stood in the sanctuary together with the seven-branched candlestick and the altar of incense. See
for description of this table. Every Sabbath twelve newly baked loaves, representing the twelve tribes of Israel, were put on it in two rows, six in each, and sprinkled with incense, where they remained till the following Sabbath. Then they were replaced by twelve new ones, the incense was burned, and they were eaten by the priests in the holy place, out of which they might not be removed, The title "bread of the face" seems to indicate that bread through which God is seen, that is, with the participation of which the seeing of God is bound up, or through the participation of which man attains the sight of God whence it follows that we have not to think of bread merely as such as the means of nourishing the bodily life, but as spiritual food as a means of appropriating and retaining that life which consists In seeing the face of God.