12 You shall cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in its four feet. Two rings shall be on the one side of it, and two rings on the other side of it.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Four corners thereof - Rather, its four bases, or feet. It is not unlikely that there were low blocks, or plinths, placed under the corners to which the rings were attached (see Exodus 25:26), and that it is to them the word is here applied. The ark, when it was carried, must thus have been raised above the shoulders of the bearers.
And thou shalt cast four rings of gold for it,.... For which a mould was to be made, and the gold being melted was poured into it, and so the rings were fashioned:
and put them in the corners thereof; or, "in its feet", as Aben Ezra, though Jarchi says it had no feet; but as the word used so signifies always, it is more probable it had feet; and the rather, that it might not stand upon the ground, but on feet, as chests and coffers usually do:
and two rings shall be in the one side of it, and two rings in the other side of it; Jarchi says, at the upper corners, near the mercy seat were they placed, two on one side and two on the other, at the breadth of the ark; but it is more likely they were fixed in the lower part of it, as Ramban, at the feet of it; and in the length of the ark, as Josephus writes (m).
(m) Antiqu. l. 3. c. 6. sect. 5
rings--staples for the poles, with which it was to be carried from place to place.
*More commentary available at chapter level.