Bible Dictionary
Mercyseat
The mercy-seat was the gold lid of the ark of the covenant. Blood was sprinkled upon it by the high priest during the yearly atonement, signifying the covering of sin before God.
Definition
Mercyseat is another form of mercy-seat, the gold lid of the ark of the covenant. It was two and a half cubits long and one and a half cubits wide and represented a throne associated with God’s presence.
Biblical Usage
The high priest sprinkled the blood of the yearly atonement upon it. The term may refer either to its physical covering of the ark or to the covering, or atonement, of sin.
Historical Background
The supplied material describes it as a solid gold plate forming the lid of the ark, rather than as a separate surface attached above it.
Scripture References
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Smith's Bible Dictionary
(Exodus 25:17; 37:6; Hebrews 9:5) This appears to have been merely the lid of the ark of the covenant, not another surface affixed thereto. (It was a solid plate of gold, 2 1/2 cubits (6 1/3 feet) long by 1 1/2 cubits (2 2/3 feet) wide, representing a kind of throne of God, where he would hear prayer and from which he spoke words of comfort.—ED.) It was that whereon the blood of the yearly atonement was sprinkled by the high priest; and in this relation it is doubtful whether the sense of the word in the Hebrew is based on the material fact of its “covering” the ark, or derived from this notion of its reference to the “covering” (i.e. atonement) of sin.