Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Dear Kevin,

> == Who says it was a giant chair?
>
> The Bible.
>
> == Well, YHWH was certainly metaphorically 
> enthroned, although in English "enthroned" does 
> not mean that the monarch is literally sitting 
> on the throne at that time, and a suitable 
> symbol for that was a throne. Anyway, the "mercy 
> seat" was not all that giant, so your hypothesis 
> suffers from uncertainties of scale.
>
> Scholars have noted that, “Isaiah 6:1 renders 
> Yahweh after the fashion of an enthroned human 
> king,” and according to 1 Kings 6:23-28, “the 
> throne built for Yahweh in the Temple’s ‘Holy of 
> Holies’ or ‘backroom’ was 10 cubits high and 10 
> cubits wide (5.3 square meters). Only a deity 
> superhuman in scale could take a seat in such a 
> throne.” (Smith, OBM, 85)

HH: Have you checked 1 Kings 6:23-28? There is no 
description of a throne 10 cubits by 10 cubits. 
The 10 cubits describes an image of a cherub and 
its wing span.

                                        Yours,
                                        Harold Holmyard