SHEWBREAD, the. – Twelve ritual loaves offered to God every Sabbath on a special table in the Holy Place, where they remained for the entire week.
They are called *leḥem pānīm* “bread of the face” or “of the presence” (Ex. 25:30; 1 Sam. 21:7, etc.), because they were placed before God; *leḥem tāmīdh* “perpetual bread” (Num. 4:7); *leḥem qōdēš* “holy bread” (1 Sam. 21:5, 7); after the exile, also *leḥem ham-ma‘arēkhēth* “bread of the arrangement” (1 Chron. 9:32; 23:29; Neh. 10:33), on account of their arrangement on the table. The Greek versions render them variously: ἄρτον τοῦ προσώπου (1 Sam. 21:6; Neh. 10:33; Aquila more literally: προσώπου), ἄρτον ἐνώπιον (Ex. 25:30), οἱ ἄρτον οἱ προσώπιον (ibid. 39:18 [36]), more often ἄρτον τῆς προσώσεως (ibid. 40:21; 1 Sam. 21:6; 1 Chron. 9:32; 23:29, etc.; cf. Matt. 12:4, etc.; *panes propositionis* in the Vulgate, with inversion of terms in Heb. 9:2).
The shewbread was, at least in later times, unleavened (Flavius Josephus, *Antiquitates Judaicae*, III, 6, 6; *Mēnaḥōth*, V, 1). For each loaf, two-tenths of an ephah (about seven and a half liters) of fine flour were used (Lev. 24:5; sifted eleven times, according to *Mēnaḥōth*, VI, 7). After the exile, they were prepared at the expense of the Temple treasury (Neh. 10:33), in a special chamber (*Tāmīdh*, III, 3; *Middōth*, I, 6), by designated Levites (1 Chron. 9:32), in the form of flat cakes one finger thick, turned up at the sides. They were arranged on the table (Ex. 25:23–30) in two stacks of six, separated from one another by a kind of golden lattice. Along with the loaves, pure incense was also offered (Lev. 24:7; *Siphrā*, fol. 263, 1; the Septuagint adds: “salt”). The loaves from the previous week had to be eaten by the priests in the holy place. The exception in 1 Sam. 21:1–6, made on account of David’s and his companions’ urgent need (cf. Matt. 12:4; Mark 2:26; Luke 6:4), required only a minimal legal purity from Ahimelech. The shewbread was not (contrary to Kennedy) a survival of pre-Mosaic religion, which would have provided food for the deity. The superiority and spiritual character of this rite is evident from the fact that the shewbread was simply presented to God and did not vanish, as in other cults, in a mysterious manner. The law made no mystery of this (Lev. 24:9). The number twelve has been linked to the months of the year or to the signs of the zodiac, rather than to the tribes of Israel.
The rite of the shewbread continued until A.D. 70 (1 Macc. 4:51; 2 Macc. 1:8; 10:3; Heb. 9:2).