The first mention of the Ark in the Bible is in Ex. xxv. 10 et seq., where Moses on Mount Sinai is told to have an Ark of shittim-wood made for the Commandments which are about to be delivered. Minute directions are given for the plan of the Ark. It is to be 2½ cubits in length, 1½ in breadth, and 1½ in height. It is to be overlaid within and without with gold, and a crown or molding of gold is to be put around it. Four rings of gold are to be put into its corners—two on each side—and through these rings staves of shittim-wood overlaid with gold for carrying the Ark are to be inserted; and these are not to be removed. A golden cover (Hebr. ; A. V., "mercy-seat"), adorned with golden cherubim, is to be placed above the Ark; and from here the Lord says He will speak to Moses (Ex. xxv. 10-22). The Ark is to be placed behind a veil, a full description of which is given (ib. xxvi. 31-33). (see image) Ark of the Covenant.(After Calmet.)
Even Aaron was forbidden to enter this place of the Ark too often; and he was enjoined to perform certain ceremonies when entering there (Lev. xvi. 2 et seq.). Moses was directed to consecrate the Ark, when completed, with the oil of holy ointment (Ex. xxx. 23-26); and he was also directed to have the Ark made by Bezaleel, the son of Uri of the tribe of Judah, and by Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan (ib. xxxi. 2-7). These instructions Moses carried out, calling upon "every wisehearted" one among the people to assist in the work (ib. xxxv. 10-12). Bezaleel made the Ark (ib. xxxvii. 1); and Moses approved the work (ib. xxxix. 43), put the testimony in the Ark, and installed it (ib. xl. 20, 21).
In Deut. x. 1-5 a rather different account of the making of the Ark is given. Moses is made to say that he constructed the Ark before going upon Mount Sinai to receive the second set of tables. The charge of carrying the Ark and the rest of the holy utensils was given to the family of Kohath, of the tribe of Levi; but they were not to touch any of the holy things until after the latter had been covered by Aaron (Num. iv. 2-15).
In the march from Sinai, and at the crossing of the Jordan, the Ark preceded the people and was the signal for their advance (Num. x. 33; Josh. iii. 3, 6). During the crossing of the Jordan the river grew dry as soon as the feet of the priests carrying the Ark touched its waters, and remained so until the priests, with the Ark, left the river, after the people had passed over (Josh. iii. 15-17; iv. 10, 11, 18). As memorials, twelve stones were taken from the Jordan at the place where the priests had stood (ib. iv. 1-9). During the ceremonies preceding the capture of Jericho, the Ark was carried round the city in the daily procession, preceded by the armed men and by seven priests bearing seven trumpets of rams' horns (ib. vi. 6-15). After the defeat at Ai, Joshua lamented before the Ark (ib. vii. 6-9). When Joshua read the Law to the people between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, they stood on each side of the Ark (ib. viii. 33). The Ark was set up by Joshua at Shiloh (ib. xviii. 1); but when the Israelites fought against Benjamin at Gibeah, they had the Ark with them, and consulted it after their defeat (Judges xx. 27).
The Ark is next spoken of as being in the Temple at Shiloh during Samuel's apprenticeship (I Sam. iii. 3). After their first defeat at Eben-ezer, the Israelites had the Ark brought from Shiloh, and welcomed its coming with great rejoicing. In the second battle the Israelites were again defeated, and the Philistines captured the Ark (ib. iv. 3-5, 10, 11). The news of its capture was at once taken to Shiloh by a messenger "with his clothes rent, and with earth upon his head." The old priest, Eli, fell dead when he heard it; and his daughter-in-law, bearing a son at the time the news of the capture of the Ark was received, named him Ichabod—explained as "Where is glory?" in reference to the loss of the Ark (ib. iv. 12-22).
The Philistines took the Ark to several places in their country, and at each place misfortune resulted to them (ib. v. 1-6). At Ashdod it was placed in the temple of Dagon. The next morning Dagon was found prostrate before it; and on being restored to his place, he was on the following morning againfound prostrate and broken. The people of Ashdod were smitten with boils (Hebr. , A. V. "emrods"—that is, hemorrhoids); and a plague of mice was sent over the land (ib. vi. 5; the Septuagint, v. 6). The affliction of boils was also visited upon the people of Gath and of Ekron, whither the Ark was successively removed (ib. v. 8-12). After the Ark had been among them seven months, the Philistines, on the advice of their diviners, returned it to the Israelites, accompanying its return with an offering consisting of golden images of the boils and mice with which they had been afflicted. The Ark was put down in the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite, and the Beth-shemites offered sacrifices and burnt offerings (ib. vi. 1-15). Out of curiosity the men of Beth-shemesh gazed at [A. V. "looked into"] the Ark; and as a punishment over fifty thousand of them were smitten by the Lord (ib. 19). The Bethshemites sent to Kirjath-jearim, or Baal-Judah, to have the Ark removed (ib. 21); and it was taken thither to the house of Abinadab, whose son Eleazar was sanctified to keep it (ib. vii. 1). Kirjath-jearim was the abode of the Ark for twenty years (ib. 2). Under Saul the Ark was with the army before he first met the Philistines, but the king was too impatient to consult it before engaging in the battle (ib. xiv. 18, 19). In I Chron. xiii. 3 it is stated that the people were not accustomed to consult the Ark in the days of Saul.
At the very beginning of his reign David removed the Ark from Kirjath-jearim amid great rejoicing. On the way to Zion, Uzzah, one of the drivers of the cart on which the Ark was carried, put out his hand to steady the Ark, and was smitten by the Lord for touching it. David in fear carried the Ark aside into the house of Obed-edom the Gittite, instead of carrying it on to Zion, and here it stayed three months (II Sam. vi. 1-11; I Chron. xiii. 1-13). On hearing that the Lord had blessed Obed-edom because of the presence of the Ark in his house, David had the Ark brought to Zion by the Levites, while he himself, "girded with a linen ephod," "danced before the Lord with all his might"—a performance for which he was despised and rebuked by Saul's daughter Michal (II Sam. vi. 12-16, 20-22; I Chron. xv.). In Zion he put the Ark in the tabernacle he had prepared for it, offered sacrifices, distributed food, and blessed the people and his own household (II Sam. vi. 17-20; I Chron. xvi. 1-3; II Chron. i. 4). Levites were appointed to minister before the Ark (I Chron. xvi. 4). David's plan of building a temple for the Ark was stopped at the advice of God (II Sam. vii. 1-17; I Chron. xvii. 1-15; xxviii. 2, 3). The Ark was with the army during the siege of Rabbah (II Sam. xi. 11); and when David fled from Jerusalem at the time of Absalom's conspiracy, the Ark was carried along with him until he ordered Zadok the priest to return it to Jerusalem (II Sam. xv. 24-29).
When Abiathar was dismissed from the priesthood by Solomon for having taken part in Adonijah's conspiracy against David, his life was spared because he had formerly borne the Ark (I Kings ii. 26). Solomon worshiped before the Ark after the dream in which the Lord promised him wisdom (ib. iii. 15). In Solomon's Temple a Holy of Holies (Hebr. , A. V., "oracle") was prepared to receive the Ark (ib. vi. 19); and when the Temple was dedicated, the Ark, containing nothing but the two Mosaic tables of stone, was placed therein (ib. viii. 1-9; II Chron. v. 1-10). When the priests came out of the holy place after placing the Ark there, the Temple was filled by a cloud, "for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord" (I Kings viii. 10-11; II Chron. v. 13, 14). When Solomon married Pharaoh's daughter, he caused her to dwell in a house outside Zion, as Zion was consecrated because of its containing the Ark (II Chron. viii. 11). King Josiah had the Ark put into the Temple (II Chron. xxxv. 3), from which it appears that it had again been removed by some predecessor.
The only mention of the Ark in the Prophets is the reference to it by Jeremiah, who, speaking in the days of Josiah (Jer. iii. 16), prophesies a time when the Ark will no longer be needed because of the righteousness of the people.
In the Psalms the Ark is twice referred to. In Ps. lxxviii. 61 its capture by the Philistines is spoken of, and the Ark is called "the strength and glory of God"; and in Ps. cxxxii. 8, it is spoken of as "the ark of the strength of the Lord." The Ark is mentioned in only one passage in the Apocrypha (II Macc. ii. 4-10), which contains a legend to the effect that the prophet Jeremiah, "being warned of God," took the Ark, and the tabernacle, and the altar of incense, and buried them in a cave on Mount Sinai, informing those of his followers who wished to find the place that it should remain unknown "until the time that God should gather His people again together, and receive them unto mercy."
The Ark is called by several names in the Bible, as follows:
I.
"The ark" (): Ex. xxv. 14 et al.; Lev. xvi. 2; Num. iii. 31 et al.; Deut. x. 2 et al.; Josh. iii. 15 et al.; I Sam. vi. 13 et al.; II Sam. vi. 4 et al.; I Kings viii. 3 et al.; I Chron. vi. 16 et al.; II Chron. v. 4 et al.
II.
"The ark of the testimony" (1. ): Ex. xxxi. 7; (2. ): Ex. xxv. 22 et al.; Num. iv. 5 et al.; Josh. iv. 16.
III.
a
"The ark of the covenant" (1. ): Josh. iii. 6 et al.; (2. ): Josh. iii. 14.
b
"The ark of the covenant of the Lord" [Yhwh]; compare IV. a (1. ): Num. x. 33 et al.; Deut. x. 8 et al.; Josh. iv. 7 et al.; I Sam. iv. 3 et al.; I Kings iii. 15 et al.; I Chron. xv. 25 et al.; II Chron. v. 2 et al.; Jer. iii. 16; (2. ): Josh. iii. 17.
c
"The ark wherein is the covenant of the Lord, which he made with our fathers, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt" (): 1 Kings viii. 21.
d
"The ark wherein is the covenant of the Lord, that he made with the children of Israel" (): II Chron. vi. 11.
e
"The ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth"; compare IV. b (): Josh. iii. 11.
f
"The ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts [or Yhwh of hosts], who dwelleth between the cherubim"; compare IV. i, j (): I Sam. iv. 4.
g
"The ark of the covenant of the Lord [or Yhwh] your God"; compare IV. c, e (): Deut. xxxi. 26; Josh. iii. 3).
h
"The ark of the covenant of God"; compare IV. f, g (): Judges xx. 27; I Sam. iv. 4; II Sam. xv. 24; I Chron. xvi. 6.
IV.
a
"The ark of the Lord [Yhwh]"; compare III. b (): Josh. iv. 11 et al.; I Sam. iv. 6 et al.; II Sam. vi. 9 et al.; I Chron. xv. 3 et al.; II Chron. viii. 11.
b
"The ark of the Lord [Yhwh], the Lord of all the earth"; compare III. e (): Josh. iii. 13.
c
"The ark of the Lord God [or Yhwh]"; compare III. g (): I Kings ii. 26.
d
"The ark of the Lord [or Yhwh] God of Israel" (): I Chron. xv. 12 et al.
e
"The ark of the Lord [or Yhwh] your God"; compare III. g (): Josh. iv. 5.
f
"The ark of God"; compare III. h (1. ): I. Sam. iii. 3 et al.; (2. ): I Sam. iv. 13 et al.; II Sam. vi. 3 et al.; I Chron. xiii. 5 et al.; II Chron. i. 4.
g
"The ark of our God"; compare III. h (): I. Chron. xiii. 3.
h
"The ark of the God of Israel" (): I Sam. v. 8 et al.
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