Arca da aliança
A Arca da Aliança era o símbolo mais sagrado de Israel — representava a presença de Deus no meio do seu povo. Sobre ela brilhava a glória do Senhor entre os querubins.
They are to make an Ark of acacia wood that measures two and a half cubits long by a cubit and a half wide by one and a half cubits high. Cover it with pure gold on the inside and the outside, and make a gold trim to go around it. Cast four gold rings and attach them to its four feet, two on one side and two on the other. Make poles of acacia wood and cover them with gold. Place the poles into the rings on the sides of the Ark, so it can be carried. The poles are to stay in the rings of the Ark; don’t take them out. Place inside the Ark the Testimony which I’m going to give you.
You are to make an atonement cover of pure gold, two and a half cubits long by a cubit and a half wide. Make two cherubim of hammered gold for the ends of the atonement cover, and put one cherub on each end. All of this is to be made from one piece of gold. The cherubim are to be designed with spread wings pointing upward, covering the atonement cover. The cherubim are to be placed facing each another, looking down towards the atonement cover. Place the atonement cover on top of the Ark, and put the Testimony that I’m going to give you inside the Ark.
I will meet with you there as arranged above the atonement cover, between the two cherubim that stand over the Ark of the Testimony, and I will talk with you about all the commands I will give the Israelites.
Bezalel made the Ark of acacia wood measuring two and a half cubits long by a cubit and a half wide by one and a half cubits high.
The Lord told Moses, "Put up the Tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting, on the first day of the first month of the year. Place the Ark of the Testimony inside it. Make sure the Ark is behind the veil.
Moses took the Testimony and put it in the Ark. He attached the poles to the Ark, and he placed the atonement cover on the top of the Ark. Then he carried the Ark into the Tabernacle. He put up the veil, and made sure the Ark of the Testimony was behind it, as the Lord had ordered him to do.
Whenever Moses went into the Tent of Meeting to speak with the Lord, he would hear the voice speaking to him from the atonement cover on the Ark of the Testimony between the two cherubim. This is how the Lord spoke to him.
They left the mountain of the Lord to go on a three-day journey. The Ark of the Lord’s Agreement led the way for them during these three days to find a place for them to camp. The cloud of the Lord was above them during day as they moved on from the camp.
Whenever the Ark was carried out, Moses would call out, "Stand up, Lord, and may your enemies be scattered, and may those who hate you run away from you."
Whenever it was set down, he would call out, "Return, Lord, to the thousands and thousands of the people of Israel."
The Lord told Moses, "Tell the Israelites to bring twelve walking sticks, one from the leader of each tribe. Write the name of each man on the walking stick, and write Aaron’s name on the walking stick of the tribe of Levi, because there has to be a walking stick for the head of each tribe. Place the walking sticks in the Tent of Meeting in front of the Testimony where I meet with you. The walking stick that belongs to the man I choose will sprout buds, and I will put a stop to the Israelites' constant complaints against you."
Moses explained this to the Israelites, and each of their leaders gave him a walking stick, one for each of the leaders of their tribes. So there were twelve walking sticks including the one belonging to Aaron. Moses placed the walking sticks before the Lord in the Tent of the Testimony.
The next day Moses went into the Tent of the Testimony and saw that Aaron’s walking stick that represented the tribe of Levi, had sprouted and developed buds, flowered and produced almonds. Moses took all the walking sticks from the presence of the Lord and showed them to all the Israelites. They saw them, and each man collected his own walking stick.
The Lord told Moses, "Put Aaron’s walking stick back in front of the Testimony, to be kept there as a reminder to warn anyone who wants to rebel, so that you may stop their complaining against me. Otherwise they’ll die." Moses did what the Lord ordered him to do.
So the people broke camp and set out to cross the Jordan, with the priests carrying the Ark ahead of them.
As it was harvest season, the Jordan was full of water, overflowing its banks. But at the very moment the priests carrying the Ark stepped into the water, the river stopped flowing. The water piled up a long way upstream, at the town of Adam, near Zarethan, while downstream no more water flowed into the Dead Sea. So the people crossed over, opposite Jericho. The priests carrying the Ark stood on the dried-up riverbed of the Jordan as all the people went by, staying there until everyone had crossed over on dry ground.
The priests came up out of the Jordan carrying the Ark of the Agreement, and as soon as their feet touched dry ground the waters of the Jordan returned to where they had been, overflowing its banks as before.
Jericho’s gates were shut and barred because of the Israelites. Nobody was allowed in or out. But the Lord told Joshua, "I’m handing over the city of Jericho to you, along with its king and its army of warriors. March around the city with your armed men once a day for six days. Seven priests are to go ahead of the Ark, each carrying a ram’s horn. On the seventh day, march seven times around the city, with the priests blowing their rams' horns. When you hear a long blast on the rams' horns, everyone shall give a really loud shout. The city walls will collapse, and every man can go right in."
So Joshua, son of Nun, sent for the priests, and told them, "Pick up the Ark of Agreement, and have seven priests carry seven rams' horns and go ahead of the Ark of the Lord." Then he told the people, "Move out! March around the city with the armed men up front ahead of the Ark of the Lord!"
So as soon as they heard the sound of the horns, the people gave a loud shout, and the city walls collapsed. The men went in right away and captured the city.
The Philistines attacked the Israelites in formation, and when the battle spread, the Philistines defeated the Israelites, killing 4,000 of them on the battlefield. When the Israelite army returned to camp, the elders of Israel asked, "Why did the Lord defeat us before the Philistines today? Let’s go and get the Ark of the Lord’s Agreement from Shiloh, so that he can accompany us and save us from our enemies."
So the army sent men to Shiloh, and they brought back the Ark of the Lord Almighty’s Agreement, he who sits on his throne between the cherubim. Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were there with the Ark of the God’s Agreement. When the Ark of the Lord’s Agreement arrived in the camp, all the Israelites gave such a loud shout it made the ground shake.
When the Philistines heard all the shouting, they asked, "What’s the meaning of this shouting in the Israelite camp?" When they found out that the Ark of the Lord had arrived in the camp, the Philistines were afraid. "A god has arrived in the camp," they said. "We’re in trouble, for nothing like this has happened before. This is disaster for us! Who will save us from the power of these mighty gods? These are the gods who attacked the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the wilderness. Be brave, and fight like real men, Philistines! Otherwise you’ll end up as slaves to the Israelites, just as they were your slaves. Now be real men and fight!"
So the Philistines fought, and the Israelites were defeated—every man ran away home. The death toll was very large: thirty thousand of the Israelite infantry were killed. The Ark of God was captured, and Hophni and Phinehas, Eli’s two sons, died.
The Lord punished the people of Ashdod and its surrounding area, devastating them and plaguing them with swellings. When the people of Ashdod saw what was going on, they said, "We can’t let the Ark of the God of Israel remain here with us, because he is punishing us and Dagon our god." So they sent for all the Philistine rulers and asked them, "What should we do with the Ark of the God of Israel?"
"Take the Ark of the God of Israel to Gath," they replied. So they moved it to Gath. But once they’d moved the Ark to Gath, the Lord also took action against that town, throwing it into great confusion and attacking the people of the town, young and old, with a plague of swellings.
So they sent the Ark of God to Ekron, but as soon as it arrived, the leaders of Ekron shouted, "They’ve moved the Ark of the God of Israel here to kill us and our people!" So they sent for all the Philistine rulers and said, "Send the Ark of the God of Israel away, back to where it came from, otherwise it’s going to kill us and our people." People were dying throughout the town, creating terrible panic, for God’s punishment was very hard.
After the Ark of the Lord had been in the country of the Philistines for seven months, the Philistines summoned the priests and fortune-tellers, and asked, "What should we do with the Ark of the Lord? Explain to us how to send it back to where it came from."
"If you’re going to send back the Ark of the God of Israel, do not send it back empty-handedly, but make sure to send along with it a gift of a guilt offering to him," they replied. "Then you will be healed, and you will understand why he has treated you like this."
So that’s what the people did. They took two milk cows and tied them to the cart, and kept their calves in a stall. They put the Ark of the Lord on the cart, together with the chest containing the gold rats and models of their swellings. The cows went straight up the road to Beth-shemesh, lowing as they went, going directly on the main road and not turning either left or right. The Philistine rulers followed them all the way to the border of Beth-shemesh.
The people of Beth-shemesh were reaping wheat in the valley. When they looked up and saw the Ark, they were so happy to see it. The cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh, and stopped there beside a large rock. The people cut up the cart for wood and sacrificed the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. The Levites took down the Ark of the Lord and the chest containing the gold objects, and put them on the large rock. The people of Beth-shemesh presented burnt offerings and made sacrifices to the Lord that day.
So the people of Kiriath-jearim came and took the Ark of the Lord. They put it in Abinadab’s house on the hill. They dedicated his son Eleazar to take care of the Ark of the Lord. The Ark remained there in Kiriath-jearim from that day for a long time, in fact for twenty years. Everyone in Israel mourned and in repentance came back to the Lord.
King David was told, "The Lord has blessed Obed-edom’s household and all that he has because of the Ark of God." So David went and had the Ark of God brought from Obed-edom’s house to the City of David. There was a lot of celebration! After those carrying the Ark of the Lord had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. Wearing a priest’s ephod, David danced as hard as he could before the Lord as he and all the Israelites brought along the Ark of the Lord, with plenty of shouting and the sound of horns being blown.
Then Solomon summoned before him in Jerusalem the elders of Israel, including all the heads of the tribes and the family leaders of the Israelites. He instructed them to bring up with them the Ark of the Lord’s Agreement from Zion, the City of David. All the men of Israel assembled before King Solomon at the festival which is held in the seventh month, the month of Ethanim.
When all the elders of Israel had gathered, the priests picked up the Ark and brought the Ark of the Lord and the Tent of Meeting with all its holy items. The priests and Levites carried them up. In front of the Ark, King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel who had gathered there with him sacrificed many, many sheep and bulls—so numerous they couldn’t be counted! Then the priests carried the Ark of the Lord’s Agreement to its place in the inner sanctuary of the Temple, the Most Holy Place, underneath the wings of the cherubim. The cherubim spread their wings over the place where the Ark was, covering the Ark and its carrying poles. The poles were so long that the ends could be seen from the Holy Place in front of the inner sanctuary, but not from outside. They are there to this day.
There was nothing in the Ark apart from the two tablets of stone that Moses had placed in it at Horeb, where the Lord had made an agreement with the Israelites after they came out of the land of Egypt. When the priests left the Holy Place, the cloud filled the Temple of the Lord. Due to the cloud, the priests could not stay there to carry out their service, for the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord’s Temple.
Come back, unfaithful children, declares the Lord, because I am married to you. I will take you, one from a town and two from a family, and bring you to Zion. I will give you shepherds who are like me who will feed you wisely and with understanding.
At that time as you increase in number in the country, declares the Lord, no one will be talking about the Ark of the Lord’s Agreement anymore. People won’t need to think about it or remember it or wonder what happened to it; and certainly won’t need to make a new one.
The former system had instructions as to how to worship, and an earthly sanctuary. The first room in the Tabernacle housed the candlestick, the table, and the sacred bread. This was called the Holy Place. Past the second veil in the Tabernacle was the room called the Most Holy Place. This contained the golden altar of incense, the gold-covered "agreement chest." Inside this were the golden pot containing manna, Aaron’s rod that had produced buds, and the stone inscriptions of the agreement. Above this were the glorious angel cherubim covering the place of reconciliation. We can’t discuss all of this in detail now.
Then the Temple of God in heaven was opened, and the Ark of the Agreement could be seen inside his Temple. There were lightning flashes, the sound of thunder, an earthquake, and a great hailstorm.