Description
The construction of this table is described in EXO 25:23–EXO 25:28. The table was made of acacia wood and overlaid with gold. It was about one meter (40 inches) long, 50 centimeters (20 inches) wide, and 75 centimeters (30 inches) high. The instructions for Tabernacle furniture specify only one table for the showbread. When Solomon built the Temple, he increased the number of tables to ten, like he did with the lampstands and the washbasins. Since the instructions given to Moses on Mount Sinai were for one of each of these items, it is possible that there was only one official table with the others as a kind of decoration. In any case, the word shulchan is used for all of them, and the same word that was used in EXO 25:0 should be used to translate both the singular and the plural occurrences of the word in 2CH 4:0. In 1CH 28:16 there is reference to “silver tables.” These are mentioned nowhere else in the Bible, and their purpose is not given. A good rendering for these tables is “tables covered with silver.”
Translation
LEV 24:6: This verse has the literal phrase “the pure table” (so NJB, NJPSV). The problem here is identical with “the pure lampstand” in verse 4. “Pure” may refer to the gold, or it may speak of ritual purity. NEB translates “the table, ritually clean.” The two problems should be solved in the same manner. If the “pure gold” solution is followed, it will be better to say “the table covered with pure gold” (GNT) rather than “the table made of pure gold” (see EXO 25:24 and EXO 37:11).
The showbread table was carried by poles inserted through rings attached to its sides. Unlike the poles used to carry the Covenant Box, the poles for other objects, such as this table, were removed after the piece of furniture was set in its appointed place. See the discussion at Covenant Box, Ark of the Covenant.
See the discussion also at Table for eating.