Shewbread

Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:

(showbread). Unleavened bread baked in twelve loaves corresponding to the twelve tribes, and placed fresh every Sabbath on the golden table of the sanctuary. Eaten only by the priests (Ex. 25:3030And thou shalt set upon the table showbread before me alway. (Exodus 25:30); Lev. 24:88Every sabbath he shall set it in order before the Lord continually, being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant. (Leviticus 24:8); 1 Sam. 21:1-61Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest: and Ahimelech was afraid at the meeting of David, and said unto him, Why art thou alone, and no man with thee? 2And David said unto Ahimelech the priest, The king hath commanded me a business, and hath said unto me, Let no man know any thing of the business whereabout I send thee, and what I have commanded thee: and I have appointed my servants to such and such a place. 3Now therefore what is under thine hand? give me five loaves of bread in mine hand, or what there is present. 4And the priest answered David, and said, There is no common bread under mine hand, but there is hallowed bread; if the young men have kept themselves at least from women. 5And David answered the priest, and said unto him, Of a truth women have been kept from us about these three days, since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in a manner common, yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel. 6So the priest gave him hallowed bread: for there was no bread there but the showbread, that was taken from before the Lord, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away. (1 Samuel 21:1‑6); Matt. 12:3-43But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him; 4How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the showbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests? (Matthew 12:3‑4)). The arrangement of loaves on the table was in two rows of six loaves each. Salt and frankincense were put on each row. It was called “showbread,” “bread of the face,” or “bread of the setting before,” because it stood continually before the Lord. In later times it was called the “bread of ordering” (1 Chron. 9:3232And other of their brethren, of the sons of the Kohathites, were over the showbread, to prepare it every sabbath. (1 Chronicles 9:32) marg.; Neh. 10:3333For the showbread, and for the continual meat offering, and for the continual burnt offering, of the sabbaths, of the new moons, for the set feasts, and for the holy things, and for the sin offerings to make an atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God. (Nehemiah 10:33)).

Concise Bible Dictionary:

See BREAD.