On every Sabbath day, the priests were meant to take twelve loaves of bread and pile them on the table on the north side of the holy place in the tabernacle/tent of meeting. (Jewish tradition holds that the ark of the covenant was in the temple/tabernacle at Nob at this time. The bread of the Presence might serve to confirm this, although the Bible itself suggests that the ark was still at Kiriath-jearim (see 1 Samuel 7:1–2; 2 Samuel 6:1–23.) This bread served as a quiet witness to the fact that the Lord sustains his people and supplies their need (see Exodus 16:1–36).1 Twelve loaves were used to symbolize the twelve tribes of Israel and each bread was made using about twelve cups of flour (thus larger than average).2
6 So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence, which is removed from before the LORD, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away.