You shall put the mercy seat upon the ark of the testimony is similar to the instruction given in 25.21, except the word meaning “down from above it” is not used here, and ark of the testimony is the same as in verse 33. In the most holy place is literally “in holy of the holies.”

This verse shows that the “lid” of the “Covenant Box” was distinguished from the box itself. (See the discussion on mercy seat at 25.17, and on ark at 25.10.) The sequence of hanging the veil and placing the ark is reversed in the instructions given in 40.3, where the ark is to be placed first, and then the veil is to be hung. Good News Translation is unusually brief here, assuming that the additional information in Revised Standard Version is already understood. Translators must decide how much to include here.

An alternative translation model, restructuring verses 31-34, is the following:

• Have them make a curtain of fine linen to separate the holy place from the most holy place. They must use blue, purple, and red thread, and they must embroider it with figures of cherubs. Make five acacia posts and cover them with gold. Set each of these on a silver stand. Then fasten gold hooks to the post and hang the curtain on them. Place the curtain under the row of hooks in the roof of the sacred tent. Inside the most holy place, behind the curtain, place the sacred box containing the stone tablets. Place the lid on the box.

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .