24:5 twelve cakes. These twelve cakes of bread made of fine flour, one cake for each of the twelve tribes, was the “shewbread” (Exodus 25:30; Hebrews 9:2), so-called because it was to be continually before the presence of God. It was normally to be eaten only by the priests, except in case of emergency and dire hunger, as when David and his men partook of it (see I Samuel 21:1-6; and Luke 6:1-5).