The gold COVER of the ark (25:17-22), from kaphar, 'to cover, wipe away,' with a secondary sense 'to atone.' The familiar English 'mercy seat' is not a translation of this word — it is William Tyndale's 16th-century coinage, following Luther's German Gnadenstuhl, 'seat of grace.' The Septuagint's Greek hilastērion ('the thing that atones') and the Vulgate's Latin propitiatorium both keep the secondary atoning sense without inventing a piece of furniture the Hebrew never names. This translation renders the literal 'cover.' → first discussed at Exod 25:17