10 "Now they shall construct an *ark of acacia wood *two and a half cubits *long, one and a half cubits *wide, and one and a half cubits *high. 11 You shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and out you shall overlay it, and you shall make a gold molding *around it. 12 You shall also cast four gold rings for it and *fasten them on its four feet; two rings shall be on one side of it, and two rings on the other side of it. 13 And you shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. 14 You shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, to carry the ark with them. 15 The poles shall *remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be removed from it. 16 You shall put into the ark the testimony which I shall give you.

17 "And you shall make *an atoning cover of pure gold, *two and a half cubits *long and one and a half cubits *wide. 18 You shall make two cherubim of gold; make them of hammered work *at the two ends of the atoning cover. 19 Make one cherub *at one end and one cherub *at the other end; you shall make the cherubim of one piece*with the atoning cover at its two ends. 20 And the cherubim shall have their wings spread upward, covering the atoning cover with their wings and *facing one another; the faces of the cherubim are to be turned toward the atoning cover. 21 Then you shall put the atoning cover *on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony which I will give to you.

22 There I will meet with you; and from above the atoning cover, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, I will speak to you about *every commandment that I will give you for the sons of Israel.

1 Now Bezalel made the ark of acacia wood; its length was *two and a half cubits, its width one and a half cubits, and its height one and a half cubits;

1 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 "On the first day of the first month you shall set up the *tabernacle of the tent of meeting. 3 You shall place the ark of the testimony there, and you shall screen off the ark with the veil.

20 Then he took the testimony and put it into the ark, and *attached the poles to the ark, and put the *atoning cover *on top of the ark. 21 He then brought the ark into the tabernacle, and set up a veil for the covering, and screened off the ark of the testimony, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

89 Now when Moses entered the tent of meeting to speak with Him, he heard the voice speaking to him from above the *atoning cover that was on the ark of the testimony, from between the two *cherubim; so He spoke to him.

33 So they moved on from the mountain of the Lord three days’ journey, with the ark of the covenant of the Lord going on in front of them for the *three days, to seek out a resting place for them. 34 And the cloud of the Lord was over them by day when they set out from the camp.

35 Then it came about when the ark set out that Moses said,

"Rise up, Lord!

And may Your enemies be scattered,

And those who hate You flee from Your presence."

36 And when it came to rest, he said,

"Return, Lord,

To the myriad thousands of Israel."

1 *Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 "Speak to the sons of Israel, and obtain from them a staff for each father’s household: twelve staffs, from all their leaders for their fathers’ households. You shall write each man’s name on his staff, 3 and write Aaron’s name on the staff of Levi; for there is to be one staff for the head of each of their fathers’ households. 4 You shall then leave them in the tent of meeting in front of the testimony, where I meet with you. 5 And it will come about that the staff of the man whom I choose will sprout. So I will relieve Myself of the grumblings of the sons of Israel, who are grumbling against you." 6 So Moses spoke to the sons of Israel, and all their leaders gave him a staff, one for each leader, for their fathers’ households, twelve staffs in all, with the staff of Aaron among their staffs. 7 Then Moses left the staffs before the Lord in the tent of the testimony.

8 Now on the next day Moses went into the tent of the testimony; and behold, Aaron’s staff for the house of Levi had sprouted and produced buds and bloomed with blossoms, and it yielded ripe almonds. 9 Moses then brought out all the staffs from the presence of the Lord to all the sons of Israel; and they looked, and each man took his staff. 10 But the Lord said to Moses, "Put the staff of Aaron back in front of the testimony *to be kept as a sign against the *rebels, so that you may put an end to their grumblings against Me and they do not die." 11 Moses did so; just as the Lord had commanded him, so he did.

14 So when the people set out from their tents to cross the Jordan, with the priests carrying the ark of the covenant before the people, 15 and when those who were carrying the ark came up to the Jordan and the feet of the priests carrying the ark *stepped down into the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks all the days of harvest), 16 then the waters which were *flowing down from above stood and rose up in one heap, a great distance away at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan; and those which were *flowing down toward the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. So the people crossed opposite Jericho. 17 And the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan while all Israel crossed on dry ground, until all the nation had finished crossing the Jordan.

18 It came about when the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord had come up from the middle of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet were *lifted up to the dry ground, that the waters of the Jordan returned to their place, and went over all its banks as before.

1 Now Jericho was tightly shut because of the sons of Israel; no one went out and no one came in. 2 But the Lord said to Joshua, "See, I have handed Jericho over to you, with its king and the valiant warriors. 3 And you shall march around the city, all the men of war circling the city once. You shall do so for six days. 4 Also seven priests shall carry seven trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark; then on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. 5 It shall be that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city will fall down *flat, and the people shall go up, everyone *straight ahead."

6 So Joshua the son of Nun called the priests and said to them, "Take up the ark of the covenant, and have seven priests carry seven trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark of the Lord." 7 Then *he said to the people, "Go forward and march around the city, and the armed men shall go on ahead of the ark of the Lord."

20 So the people shouted, and *the priests blew the trumpets; and when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted with a great shout, and the wall fell down *flat, so that the people went up into the city, everyone straight *ahead, and they took the city.

2 Then the Philistines drew up in battle formation to meet Israel. When the battle *spread, Israel was *defeated by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men on the battlefield. 3 When the people came into the camp, the elders of Israel said, "Why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines? Let’s take the ark of the covenant of the Lord from Shiloh, so that He may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies." 4 So the people sent men to Shiloh, and from there they carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord of armies who is enthroned above the cherubim; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.

5 And as the ark of the covenant of the Lord was coming into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth resounded. 6 And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, "What does the noise of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews mean?" Then they understood that the ark of the Lord had come into the camp. 7 So the Philistines were afraid, for they said, "God has come into the camp!" And they said, "Woe to us! For nothing like this has happened before. 8 Woe to us! Who will save us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the wilderness. 9 Take courage and be men, Philistines, or you will become slaves to the Hebrews, as they have been slaves to you; so be men and fight!"

10 So the Philistines fought and Israel was defeated, and every man fled to his tent; and the defeat was very great, for thirty thousand foot soldiers of Israel fell. 11 Moreover, the ark of God was taken; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died.

6 Now the hand of the Lord was heavy on the Ashdodites, and He made them feel devastated and struck them with tumors, both Ashdod and its territories. 7 When the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, "The ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, because His hand is severe on us and on Dagon our god." 8 So they sent word and gathered all the governors of the Philistines to them, and said, "What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?" And they said, "Have the ark of the God of Israel *brought to Gath." So they took the ark of the God of Israel away. 9 After they had taken it away, the hand of the Lord was against the city, creating a very great panic; and He struck the people of the city, from the young to the old, so that tumors broke out on them. 10 So they sent the ark of God to Ekron. And as the ark of God came to Ekron, the Ekronites cried out, saying, "They have brought the ark of the God of Israel to *us, to kill *us and *our people!" 11 Therefore they sent word and gathered all the governors of the Philistines, and said, "Send away the ark of the God of Israel and let it return to its own place, so that it will not kill *us and *our people!" For there was a deadly panic throughout the city; the hand of God was very heavy there.

1 Now the ark of the Lord had been in the territory of the Philistines for seven months. 2 And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, "What are we to do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us *how we may send it to its place." 3 And they said, "If you are going to send the ark of the God of Israel away, do not send it empty; but you shall certainly return to Him a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and it will be revealed to you why His hand does not leave you."

10 Then the men did so: they took two milk cows and hitched them to the cart, and shut in their calves at home. 11 And they put the ark of the Lord on the cart, and the saddlebag with the gold mice and the likenesses of their tumors. 12 Now the cows went straight in the *direction of Beth-shemesh; they went on the same road, bellowing as they went, and did not turn off to the right or to the left. And the governors of the Philistines followed them to the border of Beth-shemesh.

13 Now the people of Beth-shemesh were gathering in their wheat harvest in the valley, and they raised their eyes and saw the ark, and rejoiced at seeing it.14 And the cart came into the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite and stopped there where there was a large stone; and they split the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. 15 And the Levites took down the ark of the Lord and the saddlebag that was with it, in which were the articles of gold, and put them on the large stone; and the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices that day to the Lord.

1 And the men of Kiriath-jearim came and took the ark of the Lord and brought it into the house of Abinadab on the hill, and they *consecrated his son Eleazar to watch over the ark of the Lord. 2 From the day that the ark remained at Kiriath-jearim, the *time was long, for it was twenty years; and all the house of Israel *mourned after the Lord.

12 Now it was reported to King David, saying, "The Lord has blessed the house of Obed-edom and all that belongs to him, on account of the ark of God." So David went and brought the ark of God up from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with joy. 13 And so it was, that *when those carrying the ark of the Lord marched six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened steer. 14 And David was dancing before the Lord with all his strength, and David was wearing a linen ephod. 15 So David and all the house of Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with joyful shouting and the sound of the trumpet.

1 Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the fathers’ households of the sons of Israel, to King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord from the city of David, that is, Zion. 2 So all the men of Israel assembled themselves before King Solomon at the feast, in the month Ethanim, that is, the seventh month. 3 Then all the elders of Israel came, and the priests took up the ark. 4 And they brought up the ark of the Lord, the tent of meeting, and all the holy utensils which were in the tent; the priests and the Levites brought them up. 5 And King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, who were gathered together to him, were with him before the ark, sacrificing *so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered. 6 Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the house, to the Most Holy Place, under the wings of the cherubim. 7 For the cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim made a covering over the ark and its carrying poles from above. 8 But the poles were so long that the ends of the poles could be seen from the holy place in front of the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen outside; they are there to this day. 9 There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets of stone which Moses put there at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the sons of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt. 10 And it happened that when the priests came from the holy place, the cloud filled the house of the Lord, 11 so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.

14 ‘Return, you faithless sons,’ declares the Lord;

‘For I am a master to you,

And I will take you, one from a city and two from a family,

And bring you to Zion.’

15 "Then I will give you shepherds *after My own heart, who will feed you knowledge and understanding. 16 And it shall be in those days when you become numerous and are fruitful in the land," declares the Lord, "they will no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the Lord.’ And it will not come to mind, nor will they remember it, nor miss it, nor will it be made again.

1 Now even the first covenant had regulations for divine worship and the earthly sanctuary. 2 For a *tabernacle was equipped, the *outer sanctuary, in which were the lampstand, the table, and the *sacred bread; this is called the Holy Place. 3 Behind the second veil there was a *tabernacle which is called the Most Holy Place, 4 having a golden *altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden jar holding the manna, Aaron’s staff which budded, and the tablets of the covenant; 5 and above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the *atoning cover; but about these things we cannot now speak in detail.

19 And the *temple of God which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in His *temple, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder, and an earthquake, and a great *hailstorm.