10 "Tell the people to make a sacred chest from acacia wood. It is to be ◄45 in./110 cm.► long, ◄27 in./66 cm.► wide, and ◄27 in./66 cm.► high. 11 Cover it with pure gold inside and outside, and put a gold border around the top of it. 12 They must make/cast four rings from gold and fasten them to the legs of the chest. Put two rings on each side of the chest. 13 They must make two poles from acacia wood, and they must cover them with gold. 14 They must put the poles into the rings on the sides of the chest, so that the chest can be carried by the poles. 15 The poles must always be left in the rings; they must not take the poles out of the rings. 16 Put inside the chest the two stone slabs that I will give you, on which I have written my commandments.

17 Tell them to make a lid for the chest from pure gold. It will be the place where I will forgive people’s sins. It also is to be ◄45 in./110 cm.► long and ◄27 in./66 cm.► wide. 18 Tell them to hammer huge lump of gold into the form of two creatures that have wings. 19 One of these is to be put at each end of the chest, but the gold from which they are made must be joined to the gold from which the lid is made. 20 Tell them to place the winged creatures so that their wings touch each other and spread out over the lid. 21 Put inside the chest the stone slabs that I will give you. Then fasten the lid onto the top of the chest.

22 I will set times to talk with you there. From above the lid of the chest, between the two winged creatures, I will tell to you all my laws that you must tell to the Israeli people."

1 Then Bezalel made the sacred chest from acacia wood. It was ◄45 in./110 cm.► long, ◄27 in./66 cm.► wide, and ◄27 in./66 cm.► high.

1 Then Yahweh said to Moses/me, 2 "On the first day of the first month next year, tell the people to set up the Sacred Tent. 3 Put inside it the sacred chest that contains the stone slabs on which are engraved the Ten Commandments, and hang the curtain in front of it.

20 Then he/I took the two stone slabs on which the commandments were written and put them in the sacred chest. He/I put the carrying poles in the rings on the chest and put the lid on top of the chest. 21 Then he/I took the chest into the Very Holy Place inside the Sacred Tent and hung the curtain. In that way, he/I prevented the people who were outside from seeing the chest. He/I did all this exactly as Yahweh had commanded him/me.

89 Whenever Moses/I entered the Sacred Tent to talk with Yahweh, he/I heard Yahweh’s voice speaking between the two images of creatures with wings that were above the lid of the sacred chest.

33 So Hobab agreed to go with them. The Israelis left Sinai Mountain, which they called Yahweh’s Mountain, and they walked for three days. The men carrying the sacred chest went in front of the other people for those three days, and they kept looking for a place to set up their tents. 34 The cloud sent by Yahweh was over them every day.

35 Each morning when the men who were carrying the sacred chest started to walk, Moses/I said,

"Yahweh, arise!

Scatter your enemies!

Cause those who hate you to run away from you!"

36 And each time the men stopped to set down the sacred chest, Moses/I said,

"Yahweh, stay close to the thousands of us Israelis!"

1 Then Yahweh said to Moses/me, 2 "Tell the Israeli people to bring to you twelve walking sticks. They should bring one from each of the leaders of the twelve tribes. You should carve each leader’s name on his stick. 3 There must be one stick for the leader of each tribe, so you must carve Aaron’s name on the stick for the tribe of Levi. 4 Put those sticks inside the Sacred Tent, in front of the sacred chest that has in it the tablets on which the Ten Commandments are written. That is the place where I always talk with you. 5 Buds will sprout on the stick of the man whom I have chosen to be the priest. When the people see that, they will stop their constantly complaining about you because they will realize that you are the one whom I have chosen."

6 So Moses/I told the people what Yahweh had said. Then each of the twelve Israeli leaders, including Aaron, brought his walking stick to Moses/me. 7 Moses/I placed the sticks inside the Sacred Tent in front of the sacred chest.

8 The following morning, when he/I went into the tent, he/I saw that Aaron’s stick, which represented the tribe of Levi, had sprouted, it had produced leaves and blossoms, and it had also produced almonds that were ripe! 9 Moses/I brought all the sticks out of the Sacred Tent and showed them to the people. Each of the twelve leaders took back his own stick.

10 Then Yahweh said to Moses/me, "Put Aaron’s stick in front of the sacred chest, and let it stay there permanently. That will be a warning to people who want to rebel against me. Then no more people will die because of complaining against me." 11 So Moses/I did what Yahweh had commanded.

14 So when the Israeli people packed up their tents in order to cross the river, the priests who were carrying the chest containing the Ten Commandments went in front of them. 15 It was springtime, when people harvest their crops, and at that time the river floods over its banks. But as soon as the priests reached the edge of the river and stepped into the water, 16 the water stopped flowing. The water piled up far upstream, at a town named Adam, near Zarethan. The water stopped flowing down to the Dead Sea. So the people were able to cross the river near Jericho. 17 The priests who were carrying the chest containing the Ten Commandments that Yahweh had given them stood on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan riverbed, while the rest of the Israeli people crossed the river as though they were crossing dry ground.

18 Then the priests, carrying the chest containing the Ten Commandments that Yahweh had given to Moses, came up out of the riverbed. And as soon as they walked up out of the riverbed onto the riverbank, the water of the Jordan River flowed again, and flooded over the river banks as it had done before.

1 Meanwhile, the guards of Jericho shut the gates of the city tightly, because they were afraid of the Israeli army. No one was allowed to go into the city or go out of it. 2 Then Yahweh said to Joshua, "Listen to what I say! I am going to enable your army [SYN] to capture/conquer [MTY] Jericho and its king and its soldiers. 3 So your army must march around the city for six days, once each day. 4 Tell seven priests to march around with them. Each priest must carry a trumpet. Four other priests must carry the sacred chest, and they must walk behind the priests who are carrying the trumpets. On the seventh day, the army must march around the city seven times, and the priests must be blowing the trumpets while they march. 5 After they have all marched around the city seven times, the priests must blow their trumpets once, very loudly. When the Israeli people/soldiers hear that, they must shout loudly. Then the wall of the city will collapse, and all the Israeli people/soldiers will go straight into the city."

6 So Joshua summoned the priests and said to them, "Tell four priests to carry the chest that contains the Ten Commandments that Yahweh gave to us. Tell seven other priests to carry trumpets and walk in front of them." 7 And Joshua told the soldiers, "Start marching! March around the city, with several soldiers with weapons marching in front. Behind them will march the seven priests with trumpets, and behind them will march the four priests carrying Yahweh’s sacred chest."

20 So they did what Joshua told them to do. When the priests blew a long blast on their trumpets, the people/army shouted loudly, and the wall of the city collapsed! Then the Israeli soldiers rushed in and captured the city.

2 The Philistine army attacked the Israeli army, and as the battle continued, the Philistines defeated the Israelis and killed about 4,000 of their soldiers. 3 When the remaining Israeli soldiers returned to their camp, the Israeli elders/leaders said, "Why did Yahweh allow the Philistine army to defeat us today? We should bring the chest that contains the Ten Commandments here from Shiloh, in order that Yahweh will go with us when we go to the battle again, and in order that our enemies will not defeat us again!"

4 So the soldiers did that. They sent some men to Shiloh, and those men brought back the chest that contained the Ten Commandments. They thought that if they did that, Yahweh would help them. They believed that Yahweh sat on a throne between the statues of winged creatures that were on top of the chest that Yahweh Almighty had given them. The two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, went with them.

5 When the Israeli people saw the men bringing the box into their camp, they were so happy that they shouted loudly. They shouted so loudly that they made the ground shake! 6 The Philistines asked, "What are the people in the Hebrew camp shouting about?" Someone told them that they were shouting because the chest that contained the Ten Commandments of Yahweh had been brought to them. 7 Then the Philistines became very afraid. They said, "One of the Israelis’ gods has come into their camp to help them We are in big trouble now! Nothing like this has happened to us before! 8 ◄Who can/Can anyone► save us from their powerful gods [RHQ]? They are the gods who struck the people of Egypt with many plagues before the Israelis left Egypt and traveled through the desert. 9 You Philistine men, be courageous! Fight very hard! If you do not do that, they will defeat us, and then you will become their slaves, just like they have been our slaves previously!"

10 So the Philistine men fought very hard, and they defeated the Israelis. They killed 30,000 Israeli soldiers, and the other Israeli soldiers fled and ran away to their tents. 11 The Philistines captured the sacred chest, and they killed Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas.

6 Then Yahweh [SYN] powerfully caused the people of Ashdod and the people who lived in nearby villages to have ◄a very great plague/serious illness► of tumors. 7 The men of Ashdod realized why this was happening, and they cried out, "The god of the Israeli people is punishing us and is also punishing our god Dagon. So we cannot allow the sacred chest of the god of the Israelis to remain here!" 8 They summoned the five kings of the Philistia people-group, and asked them, "What should we do with the sacred chest of the god of the Israelis?"

The kings replied, "Take the sacred chest to Gath city." So they moved it to Gath. 9 But after they took it to Gath, Yahweh powerfully struck the people of that city also, with the result that many men, including young men and old men, got tumors on their skin. Then the people became very afraid. 10 So they took the sacred chest to Ekron city.

But when the men carried the sacred chest into Ekron, the people there cried out, "Why are you bringing the sacred chest of the God of the Israelis into our city [RHQ]? By doing that you will cause us and the rest of our people to die!" 11 The people were terrified/in panic because they knew that God was starting to punish them severely. So they summoned the five kings of the Philistia people-group again, and pleaded with them, saying, "Take this sacred chest of the god of the Israelis back to its own place! If you do not do that quickly, we will all die!"

1 The people of Philistia kept God’s sacred chest in their area for seven months. 2 Then they summoned their priests and their ◄diviners/men who practice rituals to find out what would happen in the future►. They asked them, "What should we do with the sacred chest of Yahweh? Tell us how we should send it back to its own land."

3 Those men replied, "Send with it an offering to show Yahweh that you know that you are guilty for having captured the chest, in order that the plague will stop. If you do that, and then if you are healed, you will know that Yahweh is the one who caused you to experience the plague."

10 So the people did what the priests and men who predicted what would happen in the future told them to do. They made a cart and hitched two cows to it. They took the calves from their mothers. 11 They put in the cart Yahweh’s sacred chest and the box with the models of the gold rats and the tumors. 12 Then the cows started walking, and they went straight toward Beth-Shemesh. They stayed on the road, and were mooing all the time. They did not turn to the left or to the right. The five kings of the Philistia area followed the cows until they reached the edge of Beth-Shemesh.

13 At that time, the people of Beth-Shemesh were harvesting wheat in the valley outside the city. When the cows came along the road, they looked up and saw the sacred chest. They were extremely happy to see it. 14,15 The cows pulled the cart into the field of a man named Joshua, and they stopped alongside a large rock. Several men from the tribe of Levi lifted from the cart the sacred chest and the box containing the gold models of the rats and the tumors, and they put them all on the large rock. Then the people smashed the cart and kindled a fire with the wood from which the cart had been made. They slaughtered the cows and burned their bodies/carcasses on the fire to be an offering for Yahweh that would be completely burned. That day the people of Beth-Shemesh offered to Yahweh many sacrifices that were completely burned, and other sacrifices.

1 When the men of Kiriath-Jearim received that message, they came to Beth-Shemesh and took the sacred chest of Yahweh. They took it to the house of Abinadab, which was on a hillside. They appointed Abinadab’s son Eleazar to take care of the chest.

2 The sacred chest stayed in Kiriath-Jearim for a long time—a total of 20 years. During that time all the people of Israel mourned because it seemed that Yahweh had abandoned them (OR, and then they asked Yahweh to help them).

12 Later, people told David, "Yahweh has blessed Obed-Edom and his family because he is taking care of the sacred chest!" When David heard that, he and some other men went to Obed-Edom’s house, and very joyfully brought the sacred chest from there to Jerusalem. 13 This time, descendants of Levi were carrying the sacred chest, but when they had walked only six steps, they stopped, and there David killed a bull and a fat calf, and offered them to Yahweh for a sacrifice. 14 David was wearing only a linen cloth wrapped around his waist, and was dancing very energetically to honor Yahweh. 15 David and the Israeli men took the sacred chest up to Jerusalem, shouting loudly and blowing trumpets.

1 Solomon then summoned to Jerusalem all the elders of Israel, all the leaders of the tribes, and the leaders of the clans. He wanted them to join in bringing Yahweh’s Sacred Chest from Zion Hill to the temple, where it was in the part of the city called ‘The City of David’. 2 So all the Israeli leaders came to King Solomon during the Festival of Living in Temporary Shelters, in October.

3 When they had all arrived, the priests lifted up the Sacred Chest 4 and brought it to the temple. The descendants of Levi who assisted the priests helped them to carry to the temple the Sacred Tent and all the sacred things that had been in the tent. 5 Then King Solomon and many of the Israeli people who had gathered in front of Yahweh’s Sacred Chest sacrificed a huge amount of sheep and oxen. No one was able to count the sacrifices because there were so many.

6 The the priests then brought the Sacred Chest into the Very Holy Place in the temple, and they placed it under the wings of the statues of the winged creatures. 7 The wings of those statues spread out over the Sacred Chest and over the poles by which it was carried. 8 The poles were so long that the ends of the poles could be seen by people who were standing at the entrance to the Most Holy Place, but they could not be seen by people standing outside the temple. Those poles are still there. 9 The only things that were in the Sacred Chest were the two stone tablets that Moses had put there at Sinai Mountain, where Yahweh made an agreement with the people after they left Egypt.

10 When the priests came out of the temple, suddenly it was filled with a cloud. 11 It was the glory/radiance of Yahweh that filled the temple, with the result that the priests were not able to continue their work.

14 But you belong to me.

So I will take you, one from each city and two from each clan,

and bring you back to Jerusalem

from the countries to which you were exiled.

15 If you do that, I will appoint for you leaders with whom I am pleased,

leaders who will guide you well because they will know and understand what pleases me.

16 And when you become very numerous [DOU] in your land,

you will not need to talk about the Sacred Chest that contained the Ten Commandments.

You will not think about it,

and you will not want to make a new one.

1 To continue: In the first covenant, God regulated how people should perform rituals, and he told them to make [MTY] a sanctuary. 2 That sanctuary was a tent that the Israelites set up. In its outer room there was the lampstand and the table on which they put the bread that the priests presented to God. That room was called ‘the holy place’. 3 Behind the curtain inside the holy place there was another room. That was called ‘the very holy place’. 4 It had an altar, made from gold, for burning incense. It also had the chest which they called the chest of the covenant. All its sides were covered with gold. In it was the golden pot which contained pieces of the food they called manna. That was the food with which God miraculously fed the people before they entered the promised land. In the chest there was also Aaron’s walking stick that budded to prove that he was God’s true priest. In the chest were also the stone tablets on which God had written the Ten Commandments. 5 On top of the chest were figures of winged creatures that symbolized God’s glory. Their wings overshadowed the chest’s lid where the high priest sprinkled the blood ◄to atone for/to forgive► those who had sinned. I do not need to write about these things in detail now.

19 Then God’s temple in heaven was opened {was open} and I saw in the temple the sacred box/chest that contains God’s commandments. Lightning was flashing, it was thundering and rumbling, the earth shook, and large hailstones fell from the sky.