Keluaran 15:27

15:27 Then they came to Elim, ¹  where there were twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees, and they camped there by the water.

Keluaran 25:20

25:20 The cherubim are to be spreading their wings upward, overshadowing ²  the atonement lid with their wings, and the cherubim are to face each other, ³  looking ⁴  toward the atonement lid.

[15:27]  ¹ sn Judging from the way the story is told they were not far from the oasis. But God had other plans for them, to see if they would trust him wholeheartedly and obey. They did not do very well this first time, and they will have to learn how to obey. The lesson is clear: God uses adversity to test his people’s loyalty. The response to adversity must be prayer to God, for he can turn the bitter into the sweet, the bad into the good, and the prospect of death into life.

[25:20]  ² tn The verb means “overshadowing, screening” in the sense of guarding (see 1 Kgs 8:7; 1 Chr 28:18; see also the account in Gen 3:24). The cherubim then signify two things here: by their outstretched wings they form the throne of God who sits above the ark (with the Law under his feet), and by their overshadowing and guarding they signify this as the place of atonement where people must find propitiation to commune with God. Until then they are barred from his presence. See U. Cassuto, Exodus, 330-35.

[25:20]  ³ tn Heb “their faces a man to his brother.”

[25:20]  ⁴ tn Heb “the faces of the cherubim will be” (“the cherubim” was moved to the preceding clause for smoother English).