You shall take choice flour and bake of it twelve loaves, two-tenths of a measure for each loaf. Place them on the pure table before the Lord in two rows, six to a row. With each row you shall place pure frankincense, which is to be a token offering for the bread, as an offering by fire to the Lord. He shall arrange them before the Lord regularly every sabbath day -- it is a commitment for all time on the part of the Israelites. They shall belong to Aaron and his sons, who shall eat them in the sacred precinct; for they are his as most holy things from the Lord's offerings by fire, a due for all time. (Lev 24:5-9, 1985 JPS Tanakh)
Commenting on the bread for the sanctuary, Jacob Milgrom offered the following commentary on the above pericope:
In P, the term for bread is leḥem (hap)pānīm ‘(the) bread of presence’ (Exod 25:30; 35:13, 39:36), but once it is called leḥem hattāmîd ‘the regular bread’ (Num 4:7), an ellipsis from leḥem pānīm lěpāy tāmîd ‘bread of presence before one regularly’ (Exod 25:30). In postexilic literature, leḥem happānīm appears once (2 Chr 4:19) as a quotation from an earlier source, the archival account of the building of the Solomonic Temple (1 Kgs 7:48). Otherwise, it has been altered to leḥem hamma ‘ăreket ‘pile bread’ (Neh 10:34; 1 Chr 9:32; 33:29); ma’ăreket leḥem ‘pile(s) of bread’ (2 Chr 13:11); or simply ma’ăreket ‘(bread) pile(s)’ (2 chr 2:3). This terminology is probably borrowed from our pericope (vv. 5-7), wě’āraktā ‘et- ‘erkô ‘you shall set up its order’ (Exod 40:4) and erek leḥem ‘an order of bread’ (Exod 40:23; cf. Dillmann and Ryssel 1897; Paran 1989:281). The change in terminology, I suggest, is not because the earlier term fell out of use, but because, in official circles, there arose aversion to its anthropomorphic implications (see below).
The table on which the bread was always present—even when the table was transported (Num 4:7b)—was, perhaps for that reason, the most important sanctum except for the Ark. It follows the Ark in all accounts (prescription, Exod 25:29-30; construction, Exod 37:10-16; installation, Exod 40:4, 22; and transport, Num 4:7-8). Its relative importance is further underscored by its being covered during transport. It joins the Ark in meriting three coverings, whereas the other sancta—the menorah and the two altars—rare only two coverings (cf. Num 4:5-8 with vv. 9-14).
There can be no doubt that the display of bread before a deity is an ancient practice. In Egypt, the offerings are placed on the outer altar, but only the fresh bread and cake are brought into the sanctuary and laid on mats (together with incense and Ma’at) before the god’s table (Saueron 1960:84), where they are burned and sprinkled with wine, as surety for the eternal duration of the sacrificial worship (RAB 557; cf. Dommershausen 1984; Blackman 1918-19; Erman 1907:44 . . . )
Hittite religion also evidences the centrality of a bread offering laid out on a table before the deity (Hoffner 1974:216). The Hittite king Muršili II attests that “the offerers of sacrificial loaves and the offerers of libations were giving bread and making libations to the gods, my lords” (Hoffner 1974:216). Babylonians laid sweet unleavened bread before various deities, in twelves or multiples of twelve (Zimmern 1905:600; cf. Blome 1934:247-5 . . .) A table for the bread is also attested in the Greek temple at Delphi that, according to Josephus (Ant. 3.139), was precisely of the same dimensions as that prescribed for the Tabernacle.
Thus, there can be no doubt that the bread display was integral to Israelite worship from earliest times. It is first attested for the Nob sanctuary, where the bread was given to David and his soldiers (nonpriests!), apparently as an emergency measure to prevent starvation (cf. b. Menaḥ 95b-96a).
It is important, however, to recognize the wide gulf that separates the bread rite prescribed for the Tabernacle from its counterparts in the neighboring cultures. Whereas the latter baked bread for the god’s table daily, Israel prepared it once weekly—clearly a token offering whose purpose was exposure, not food (Barr 1963). Indeed, even the term leḥem happānîm, literally “bread of the face” or “personal bread” (Johnson 1947; de Vaux 1964: 39 n. 35)—a gross anthropormorphism—is missing in this pericope, probably deliberately (Kalisch 1867-72). The classic polemic against the pagan notion that the sacrifices and food offerings actually fed the deity was penned by the Psalmist: “If I were hungry I would not tell you, for mine are the world and its fullness. Do I eat the flesh of strong bulls, or is the blood of goats my drink?” (Ps 50:12-13). (Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary [AB 3B; New York: Doubleday, 2001], 2091-92, emphasis in bold added)
