The table of shewbread has likewise in Hebrew a twofold nomenclature : in P cijn jnSc* ' the pres- ence-table ' (Nu 4'), but in Chronicles r;"iv,'SC "'=' (2 Ch 29") ; in both we also find ^^^5;n "d ' the pure table' (Lv 24", 2 Ch 13"), proljably because over- laid with pure cold. For other designations now disguised in M'T see next section.
ii. The Shewbread in the Pre-exilic Period. — The earliest historical mention of the shewbread occurs in the account of David's flight from Saul, in which he secures for his young men, under conditions that are somewhat obscure, the use of the shewbread from the sanctuary at NoB (1 S SI"-). It is here described, as we have seen, both as 'presence-bread' (v.'l^)) and as ' holy ' or 'sacred bread' (vv.*- 'I'-l), in opposition to ordi-
• Codox BeziB (D) has w^trhewt, with which comp. rfio^riOtim for wg*t,6. In some MSS of the LXX (paMim), See for I)"b read- ing. Nestle, Introd, to Text, Criticiim of Or, JVr(lOOl), 287.
nary or unconsecratcd bread (Sin). The incident appears to have happened on the day on which the loaves were removed to be replaced by fresli or ' hot bread ' (en cnV v." PI).
It must not be inferred from this narrative that the regu- lation of the Priests' Code, by which the stale shewbread was the exclusive perquisite of the priests, was already in force, although this, naturally, is the standpoint of NT times (see Mt 12* and paralls.). Ahimelech, in requiring and receiving the assurance that David's young men were ceremonially ' clean ' (see art. Uncleanxess), seems to have taken all the precautions then deemed necessary. The narrative is further of value as giving us a clear indication of the meaning originally attaching to the expression ' presence-bread,' for the loaves are here e> pressly said to have been ' removed frojn tfte presence c/ J'' (" -jdV? onyisn MT, v.7 ; cf. the similar expression Ex 2530).
We next meet with the rite in connexion witli Solomon's temple, among the furniture of which ia mentioned in our present text ' the table where- upon the shewbread was' (1 K 7** RV). This table is here further said to have been ' of gold,' by which we are to understand from the context ' of solid gold' (cf. Ex 25-* in LXX, and .Josephus' [Ant. Vlll. iii. 7] description of the temple). But it is well known that in this section of the Book of Kings the original narrative has been overlaid with accretions of all sorts, mostly, if not entirely, post-exilic ; these are due to the idea of this later time, that the interior decoration of Solomon's temple, and the materials of its furniture, could in no respect have been inferior to those of the tabernacle of P. See Stade's classical essay, ' Der Text des Berichtes ueber SaJomo's Bauten,' in ZATW, 1883, 129-177, reproduced in his Akacl. Reden u, Abhandlungen (1899), 143fl'. Stade's results have been accepted in the main by all recent scholars. Thus he .shows that the original of 1 K e^""- -' i)robiibly read somewhat as is still given in the middle clause of the better Gr. text of A {^iroiTjaev dvaiatrrripLOv KiSpov , . , Kara Trpuffwirov rod Sa^lp), viz. T3in '}t^ i-jk n;ip fvn 'and he ) Solomon] made an altar of cedar-wood (to stand) in front of the sanctuary (the 'Holy of Holies' o'f P).' Whether we should retain or discard the words ' and overlaid it with gold,' is of minor import- ance.*
The altar, therefore, of v.20b {s not to be understood of the altar of incense, which first appears in the latest stratum of P (see Tabernacli'.), but, as in the passage of Ezekiel presently to be considered, of the table of sliewbread. The express mention of the latter by name in 1 K 7*3'' is also part of an admitte<lly Ute addition to the original text (see authorities cited in foot- note). The same desire to enhance the glory of the Solomonic temple is usually assigned as the ground for the tradition fol- lowed by the Chronicler, who states that Solomon provided the necessary gold for ten tables of shewbread (I Ch 2816; cf. 2 Ch 48. 16), This writer, however, is not consistent, for elsewhere we read of 'the ordering of the shewbread upori the pure table (2 Oh 1311),' In his account, further, of the cleansmg of the temple under Hczckiah, only * the tablf of shewbread, with all the vessels thereof ' is mentioned (ib. '^iOi"^),— a view of the case which is undoubtedly to be regarded as alone In accordance with the facte of history.
This table fell a prey to the (lames which con- sumed the temple in the 19th year of Nebu- chadrezzar (2 K 25", Jer 52"). The tale related by the Byzantine chronicler (Synccllus, 409), that it was among the furniture concealed by Jeremiah on Mount Pisgah, is but a later addition to the earlier form of the same fable, which we already find in 2 Mac 2'"-. Notwithstanding these un- certainties, the continuance of the rite under the monarchy is sullicicntly assured.
iii. The Post-kxilic Period. — Ezekiel in his sketch of the ideal sanctuary likewise contem- plates the perpetuation of the rite, for in a passage of his booK, which on all hands is regarded as