10 Tell the people to build a chest of acacia wood 110 centimeters long, 66 centimeters wide, and 66 centimeters high. 11 Cover it inside and out with pure gold and put a gold edging around the lid. 12 Make four gold rings and attach one of them to each of the four legs of the chest. 13 Make two poles of acacia wood. Cover them with gold 14 and put them through the rings, so the chest can be carried by the poles. 15 Don’t ever remove the poles from the rings. 16 When I give you the Ten Commandments written on two flat stones, put them inside the chest.

17 *Make the lid of the chest out of pure gold. 18,19 Then hammer out two winged creatures of pure gold and fasten them to the lid at the ends of the chest. 20 The creatures must face each other with their wings spread over the chest. 21 Inside it place the two flat stones with the Ten Commandments on them and put the gold lid on top of the chest.

22 I will meet you there* between the two creatures and tell you what my people must do and what they must not do.

1 Bezalel built a chest of acacia wood 110 centimeters long, 66 centimeters wide, and 66 centimeters high.

1 The Lord said to Moses:

2 Set up my tent on the first day of the year*3 and put the chest with the Ten Commandments behind the inside curtain.*

20 The stones with the Ten Commandments written on them were stored in the sacred chest, the place of mercy* was put on top of it, and the carrying poles were attached. 21 The chest was brought into the tent and set behind the curtain in the most holy place. These things were done exactly as the Lord had commanded Moses.

89 Whenever Moses needed to talk with the Lord, he went into the sacred tent, where he heard the Lord's voice coming from between the two winged creatures above the lid of the sacred chest.

33 The people of Israel began their journey from Mount Sinai.* They traveled three days, and the Levites who carried the sacred chest led the way, so the Lord could show them where to camp. 34 And the cloud always stayed with them.

35 *Each day as the Israelites began their journey, Moses would pray, "Our Lord, defeat your enemies and make them run!" 36 And when they stopped to set up camp, he would pray, "Our Lord, stay close to Israel’s thousands and thousands of people."

1 The Lord told Moses:

2,3 Call together the twelve tribes of Israel and tell the leader of each tribe to write his name on the walking stick he carries as a symbol of his authority. Make sure Aaron’s name is written on the one from the Levi tribe, then collect all the sticks.

4 Place these sticks in the tent right in front of the sacred chest where I appear to you. 5 I will then choose a man to be my priest, and his stick will sprout. After that happens, I won’t have to listen to any more complaints about you.

6 Moses told the people what the Lord had commanded, and they gave him the walking sticks from the twelve tribal leaders, including Aaron’s from the Levi tribe. 7 Moses took them and placed them in the Lord's sacred tent.

8 *The next day when Moses went into the tent, flowers and almonds were already growing on Aaron’s stick. 9 Moses brought the twelve sticks out of the tent and showed them to the people. Each of the leaders found his own and took it.

10 But the Lord told Moses, "Put Aaron’s stick back! Let it stay near the sacred chest as a warning to anyone who might think of rebelling. If these people don’t stop their grumbling about me, I will wipe them out." 11 Moses did what he was told.

14 The Israelites packed up and left camp. The priests carrying the chest walked in front, 15 until they came to the Jordan River. The water in the river had risen over its banks, as it often does in springtime.* But as soon as the feet of the priests touched the water, 16,17 the river stopped flowing, and the water started piling up at the town of Adam near Zarethan. No water flowed toward the Dead Sea, and the priests stood in the middle of the dry riverbed near Jericho while everyone else crossed over.

14-18 "Joshua," the Lord said, "tell the priests to come up from the Jordan and bring the chest with them." So Joshua went over to the priests and told them what the Lord had said. And as soon as the priests carried the chest past the highest place that the floodwaters of the Jordan had reached, the river flooded its banks again.

That’s how the Lord showed the Israelites that Joshua was their leader.* For the rest of Joshua’s life, they respected him as they had respected Moses.

1 Meanwhile, the people of Jericho had been locking the gates in their town wall because they were afraid of the Israelites. No one could go out or come in.

2,3 The Lord said to Joshua:

With my help, you and your army will defeat the king of Jericho and his army, and you will capture the town. Here is how to do it: March slowly around Jericho once a day for six days. 4 Take along the sacred chest and tell seven priests to walk in front of it, carrying trumpets.*

But on the seventh day, march slowly around the town seven times while the priests blow their trumpets. 5 Then the priests will blast on their trumpets, and everyone else will shout. The wall will fall down, and your soldiers can go straight in from every side.

6 Joshua called the priests together and said, "Take the chest and tell seven priests to carry trumpets and march ahead of it."

7-10 Next, he gave the army their orders: "March slowly around Jericho. A few of you will go ahead of the chest to guard it, but most of you will follow it. Don’t shout the battle cry or yell or even talk until the day I tell you to. Then let out a shout!"

As soon as Joshua finished giving the orders, the army started marching. One group of soldiers led the way, with seven priests marching behind them and blowing trumpets. Then came the priests carrying the chest, followed by the rest of the soldiers.

20 *The priests blew their trumpets again, and the soldiers shouted as loud as they could. The walls of Jericho fell flat. Then the soldiers rushed up the hill, went straight into the town, and captured it.

2 The Philistines made a fierce attack. They defeated the Israelites and killed about 4,000 of them.

3 The Israelite army returned to their camp, and the leaders said, "Why did the Lord let us lose to the Philistines today? Let’s get the sacred chest where the Lord's agreement with Israel is kept. Then the Lord* will help us and rescue us from our enemies."

4 *The army sent some soldiers to bring back the sacred chest from Shiloh, because the Lord All-Powerful has his throne on the winged creatures on top of the chest.

As Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, 5 brought the chest into camp, the army cheered so loudly that the ground shook. 6 The Philistines heard the noise and said, "What are those Hebrews shouting about?"

When the Philistines learned that the sacred chest had been brought into the camp, 7 they were scared to death and said:

The gods have come into their camp. Now we’re in real trouble! Nothing like this has ever happened to us before. 8 We’re in big trouble! Who can save us from these powerful gods? They’re the same gods who made all those horrible things happen to the Egyptians in the desert.

9 Philistines, be brave and fight hard! If you don’t, those Hebrews will rule us, just as we’ve been ruling them. Fight and don’t be afraid.

10 The Philistines did fight. They killed 30,000 Israelite soldiers, and all the rest ran off to their homes. 11 Hophni and Phinehas were killed, and the sacred chest was captured.

6 The Lord caused a lot of trouble for the people of Ashdod and their neighbors. He made sores break out all over their bodies,* and everyone was in a panic.*7 Finally, they said, "The God of Israel did this. He is the one who caused all this trouble for us and our god Dagon. We’ve got to get rid of this chest."

8 The people of Ashdod invited all the Philistine rulers to come to Ashdod, and they asked them, "What can we do with the sacred chest that belongs to the God of Israel?"

"Send it to Gath," the rulers answered. But after they took it there, 9 the Lord made sores break out on everyone in town. The people of Gath were frightened, 10 so they sent the sacred chest to Ekron. But before they could take it through the town gates, the people of Ekron started screaming, "They’ve brought the sacred chest that belongs to the God of Israel! It will kill us and our families too!"

11 The people of Ekron called for another meeting of the Philistine rulers and told them, "Send this chest back where it belongs. Then it won’t kill us."

Everyone was in a panic, because God was causing a lot of people to die,

1 After the sacred chest had been in Philistia for seven months,*2 the Philistines called in their priests and fortunetellers, and asked, "What should we do with this sacred chest? Tell us how to send it back where it belongs!"

3 "Don’t send it back without a gift," the priests and fortunetellers answered. "Send along something to Israel’s God to make up for taking the chest in the first place. Then you will be healed, and you will find out why the Lord was causing you so much trouble."

10 The Philistines followed their advice. They hitched up the two cows to the cart, but they kept their calves in a barn. 11 Then they put the chest on the cart, along with the bag that had the gold rats and sores in it.

12 The cows went straight up the road toward Beth-Shemesh, mooing as they went. The Philistine rulers followed them until they got close to Beth-Shemesh.

13 The people of Beth-Shemesh were harvesting their wheat* in the valley. When they looked up and saw the chest, they were so happy that they stopped working and started celebrating.

14,15 The cows left the road and pulled the cart into a field that belonged to Joshua from Beth-Shemesh, and they stopped beside a huge rock. Some men from the tribe of Levi were there. So they took the chest off the cart and placed it on the rock, and then they did the same thing with the bag of gold rats and sores. A few other people chopped up the cart and made a fire. They killed the cows and burned them as sacrifices to the Lord. After that, they offered more sacrifices.

1 *The people of Kiriath-Jearim got the chest and took it to Abinadab’s house, which was on a hill in their town. They chose his son Eleazar to take care of it, 2 and it stayed there for 20 years.

During this time everyone in Israel was very sad and begged the Lord for help.*

11,12 *The chest stayed there for three months, and the Lord greatly blessed Obed Edom, his family, and everything he owned. Then someone told King David, "The Lord has done this because the sacred chest is in Obed Edom’s house."

At once, David went to Obed Edom’s house to get the chest and bring it to David’s City. Everyone was celebrating. 13 The people carrying the chest walked six steps, then David sacrificed an ox and a choice cow. 14 He was dancing for the Lord with all his might, but he wore only a linen cloth.*15 He and everyone else were celebrating by shouting and blowing horns while the chest was being carried along.

1,2 *The sacred chest had been kept on Mount Zion, also known as the city of David. But Solomon decided to have the chest moved to the temple while everyone was in Jerusalem, celebrating the Festival of Shelters during Ethanim,* the seventh month of the year.

Solomon called together the important leaders of Israel. 3,4 Then the priests and the Levites carried to the temple the sacred chest, the sacred tent, and the objects used for worship. 5 Solomon and a crowd of people stood in front of the chest and sacrificed more sheep and cattle than could be counted.

6 The priests carried the chest into the most holy place and put it under the winged creatures, 7 whose wings covered both the chest and the poles used for carrying it. 8 The poles were so long that they could be seen from right outside the most holy place, but not from anywhere else. And they stayed there from then on.

9 *The only things kept in the chest were the two flat stones Moses had put there when the Lord made his agreement with the people of Israel at Mount Sinai,* after bringing them out of Egypt.

10 *Suddenly a cloud filled the temple as the priests were leaving the most holy place. 11 The Lord's glory was in the cloud, and the light from it was so bright that the priests could not stay inside to do their work.

14 You are unfaithful children,

but you belong to me.

Come home!

I’ll take one or two of you

from each town and clan

and bring you to Zion.

15 Then I’ll appoint wise rulers

who will obey me,

and they will care for you

like shepherds.

16 You will increase in numbers,

and there will be no need

to remember the sacred chest

or to make a new one.*

1 The first promise included rules for worship and a tent for worship here on earth. 2 *The first part of the tent was called the holy place, and a lampstand, a table, and the sacred loaves of bread were kept there.

3 *Behind the curtain was the most holy place. 4 *The gold altar for burning incense was in this holy place. The gold-covered sacred chest was also there, and inside it were three things. First, there was a gold jar filled with manna.* Then there was Aaron’s walking stick that sprouted.* Finally, there were the flat stones with the Ten Commandments written on them. 5 *On top of the chest were the glorious creatures with wings* opened out above the place of mercy.*

Now isn’t the time to go into detail about these things.

19 *The door to God’s temple in heaven was then opened, and the sacred chest* could be seen inside the temple. I saw lightning and heard roars of thunder. The earth trembled and huge hailstones fell to the ground.