![[Jacques Home Page]](thumbnail/openbibleemitting65x53.jpg "[Jacques Home Page]")
![[Articles Directory]](thumbnail/prophet53x53.jpg "[Articles Directory]")
![[Blurbs Directory]](thumbnail/fruit53x53.jpg "[Blurbs Directory]")
![[Poetry Directory]](thumbnail/heart38x53.jpg "[Poetry Directory]")
Questions About the Ark of the Covenant
In this article I will attempt to answer some of the questions about the ark that are not addressed with much detail in the scriptures. All the concepts discussed are scriptural and the details are based on the best of my limited understanding. Of course it's limited but I still consider it among the best there is to find in this world based on what I have seen on this topic. I am not claiming any special divine intervention or insight other than the intelligence that God has given me that is common to many though few have used it to tackle this problem. I do, however, consider my interest in this subject to be divine intervention in my life as it is in your life should you choose to take it in.
When was the ark built?
The ark was built shortly after Moses reached 80 years of age. Instructions were given to Moses by the Word regarding the ark and other things when he spent 40 days and nights on Mount Sinai, the mountain of God, following the exodus when the descendants of Israel had arrived in Arabia a couple of months after the first Passover and Unleavened Bread events. Circa 1445 BC or 2458 SA (Since Adam), +/- 55yrs.
Moses received instructions (Exodus 25) from God some days after the first day of the 3rd month in the same year as the exodus and began making all the things that God had commanded at that time. The work was completed about 9 months later on the 1st day of the 1st month at the onset of the 2nd year since the exodus.
Exodus 19:1 (NKJV)
In the third month after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on the same day, they came to the Wilderness of Sinai.
Exodus 24:15 to 18 (NKJV)
15Then Moses went up into the mountain, and a cloud covered the mountain.
16Now the glory of the LORD rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day He called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud.
17The sight of the glory of the LORD was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel.
18So Moses went into the midst of the cloud and went up into the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
Exodus 40:17 (GNB)
So on the first day of the first month of the second year after they left Egypt, the Tent of the LORD’s presence was set up.
Who built the ark?
Bezalel made the ark of the covenant.
Exodus 37:1 (NKJV)
Then Bezalel made the ark of acacia wood; two and a half cubits was its length, a cubit and a half its width, and a cubit and a half its height.
Bezalel and Aholiab were the main artisans who built and directed the building of all the things that the Lord (Jesus, YHVH) had commanded to be built.
Exodus 31:1 to 11 (NKJV)
1Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying:
2“See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah.
3And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship,
4to design artistic works, to work in gold, in silver, in bronze,
5in cutting jewels for setting, in carving wood, and to work in all manner of workmanship.
6“And I, indeed I, have appointed with him Aholiab the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and I have put wisdom in the hearts of all the gifted artisans, that they may make all that I have commanded you:
7the tabernacle of meeting, the ark of the Testimony and the mercy seat that is on it, and all the furniture of the tabernacle;
8the table and its utensils, the pure gold lampstand with all its utensils, the altar of incense,
9the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the laver and its base—
10the garments of ministry, the holy garments for Aaron the priest and the garments of his sons, to minister as priests,
11and the anointing oil and sweet incense for the holy place. According to all that I have commanded you they shall do.”
What are the size and weight of the ark?
Exodus 25:10 to 22 (NKJV)
10“And they shall make an ark of acacia wood; two and a half cubits shall be its length, a cubit and a half its width, and a cubit and a half its height.
11And you shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and out you shall overlay it, and shall make on it a molding of gold all around.
12You shall cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in its four corners; two rings shall be on one side, and two rings on the other side.
13And you shall make poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold.
14You shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, that the ark may be carried by them.
15The poles shall be in the rings of the ark; they shall not be taken from it.
16And you shall put into the ark the Testimony which I will give you.
17“You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold; two and a half cubits shall be its length and a cubit and a half its width.
18And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work you shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat.
19Make one cherub at one end, and the other cherub at the other end; you shall make the cherubim at the two ends of it of one piece with the mercy seat.
20And the cherubim shall stretch out their wings above, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and they shall face one another; the faces of the cherubim shall be toward the mercy seat.
21You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the Testimony that I will give you.
22And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel.
Exodus 37:1 to 9 (NKJV)
1Then Bezalel made the ark of acacia wood; two and a half cubits was its length, a cubit and a half its width, and a cubit and a half its height.
2He overlaid it with pure gold inside and outside, and made a molding of gold all around it.
3And he cast for it four rings of gold to be set in its four corners: two rings on one side, and two rings on the other side of it.
4He made poles of acacia wood, and overlaid them with gold.
5And he put the poles into the rings at the sides of the ark, to bear the ark.
6He also made the mercy seat of pure gold; two and a half cubits was its length and a cubit and a half its width.
7He made two cherubim of beaten gold; he made them of one piece at the two ends of the mercy seat:
8one cherub at one end on this side, and the other cherub at the other end on that side. He made the cherubim at the two ends of one piece with the mercy seat.
9The cherubim spread out their wings above, and covered the mercy seat with their wings. They faced one another; the faces of the cherubim were toward the mercy seat.
Acacia wood
The average weight of dried wood is about 39 lbs per cubic foot or 0.02257 lbs per cubic inch. I will use this as I was not able to satisfactorily verify the weight of acacia wood.
I will attempt to determine and calculate the amount by volume and by weight of the wood used to build the arc assuming 3" thick wood and a 21" cubit. The Companion Bible says a cubit is 21" to 25". Several other sources indicate that the short cubit was 17 to 18 inches and that a long cubit was 20 to 21 inches. The long cubit was the one used by royalty and for holy uses such as temple measurements. For what it's worth, the span from my elbow to the tip of my finger is 18 inches.
Ark wood = 52.5" x 31.5" x 31.5" (3" thick wood) = 18,300 cu. in. = 413 lbs
Ark lid wood = 52.5" x 31.5" x 3" = 4,960 cu. in. = 112 lbs
Two wood poles = 136.5" long x 6" diameter (I added 4 cubits to each pole)
= 136.5" x 28.27 sq. in. x 2 = 3860 cu. in. each = 87 lbs x 2 = 174 lbs
Circle Area = pi times radius squared.
The following passages makes me believe that the carrying poles of the ark were considerably longer than the ark itself.
2 Chronicles 5:9 (NKJV)
The poles extended so that the ends of the poles of the ark could be seen from the holy place, in front of the inner sanctuary; but they could not be seen from outside.
Exodus 26:33 and 34 (NKJV)
And you shall hang the veil from the clasps. Then you shall bring the ark of the Testimony in there, behind the veil. The veil shall be a divider for you between the holy place and the Most Holy. You shall put the mercy seat upon the ark of the Testimony in the Most Holy.
Total weight of wood for the ark = 700 lbs
Gold
Gold weighs 1203.74 lbs/cu. ft or 0.69661 lbs/cu. in.
Ark gold = outside + inside + rim
I will assume that the gold is a uniform 0.125" thick.
= 6983 + 5258 + 507 = 12,748 sq in = 1594 cu in = 1110 lbs
Mercy seat gold = top and bottom + rim
I will assume that the gold is an average 0.5" thick.
= 3308 + 680 = 3988 sq in = 1994 cu in = 1390 lbs
Two angels gold = solid gold = 1000 lbs
Two poles gold
I will assume that the gold is a uniform 0.125" thick.
= length + ends = (657 + 7.67) cu. in. = 463 lbs
Circumference = 2 x pi x radius or pi x diameter
Four rings = 48 lbs
Four feet = 52 lbs
Total weight of ark gold = 4063 lbs
Total weight of ark = (4063 + 700) = 4763 lbs
If the gold were half the thickness the ark would weigh 2730 lbs. Even at this weight if 12 people were used to carry the ark each would carry about 228 lbs. This would require incredible strength and endurance in order to carry the ark any distance. This number 12 would also fit in well with some of God's favorite numbers; 12 sons of Israel, 12 tribes, 12 stones, 12 precious stones, 12 cakes, 12 wells, 12 pillars, 12 months, 12 apostles, 12 thrones. I highly suspect that several teams of carriers would have been used and that they would have taken turns and or switched sides occasionally in order to get the job done.
1 Chronicles 15:15 (NKJV)
And the children of the Levites bore the ark of God on their shoulders, by its poles, as Moses had commanded according to the word of the LORD.
I believe that the two angels were symmetrical and stood about 2 cubits tall. Their wings would have been held head high and outstretched above the mercy seat with the wing feathers extending beyond the line of the edge of the ark to cover not only the ark but also the carrying poles, like an umbrella, as stated in 1 Kings 8:7 and Exodus 25:20 and 37:9. In this way there would be sufficient room for two beings to sit on the mercy seat with adequate head room under the wings of the angels.
Exodus 25:20 (NKJV)
And the cherubim shall stretch out their wings above, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and they shall face one another; the faces of the cherubim shall be toward the mercy seat.
I also suspect that the tips of the angels outstretched wings touched each other to give the structure stability.
Exodus 25:22 (NKJV)
And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel.
What was in the ark?
These are the things that are said to have been in the ark; the testimony, the two tablets with the ten commandments, the golden pot containing manna and Aaron's rod. And beside the ark was the book of the law.
Exodus 25:16 (NKJV)
And you shall put into the ark the Testimony which I will give you.
Exodus 25:21 (NKJV)
You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the Testimony that I will give you.
Exodus 40:20 (NKJV)
He took the Testimony and put it into the ark, inserted the poles through the rings of the ark, and put the mercy seat on top of the ark.
Deuteronomy 10:2 (NKJV)
And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke; and you shall put them in the ark.’
Deuteronomy 10:5 (NKJV)
Then I turned and came down from the mountain, and put the tablets in the ark which I had made; and there they are, just as the LORD commanded me.
Deuteronomy 31:26 (NKJV)
Take this Book of the Law, and put it beside the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there as a witness against you;
Hebrews 9:4 and 5 (NKJV)
which had the golden censer and the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which were the golden pot that had the manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant; and above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail. (That was then, this is now. JG)
Using a long cubit of 21" makes the maximum length of Aaron's rod to be 60" or 5 feet. The rod had to fit inside the ark. This would make it difficult to fit the other known objects inside the ark. A 50" or 4' rod would fit in the ark much more readily, sorry Hollywood.
Who carried the ark?
The members of the tribe of Levi were assigned to carry the ark.
Deuteronomy 10:8 (NKJV)
At that time the LORD separated the tribe of Levi to bear the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to minister to Him and to bless in His name, to this day.
Deuteronomy 31:25 (NKJV)
that Moses commanded the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saying:
1 Chronicles 15:2 (NKJV)
Then David said, “No one may carry the ark of God but the Levites, for the LORD has chosen them to carry the ark of God and to minister before Him forever.”
How often and how far was the ark carried?
The ark was carried many times over a period of forty years in the desert. Whenever the cloud or pillar of fire moved from the tent of the Lord's presence the people would strike the camp and follow and pitch the camp where the cloud or pillar stopped. There is no record of how many times this happened nor of the distances travelled during these moves. We know that they carried the ark from Mount Sinai to Jerusalem but we do not know how long each leg or any leg of the journey was with any certainty.
We also know that when they reached the promised land that they walked around Jericho seven times in one day carrying the ark. If Jericho was a half mile wide and a half mile long it would have been about 2.5 miles to walk the perimeter. Seven times around would have been about an 18 mile walk. Quite a feat for those carrying the ark.
When was it last seen?
According to The Bible Timeline by Thomas Robinson 1992, in 586 BC Jeremiah, as legend would have it, took the ark of the covenant and hid it somewhere on Mount Nebo in Moab, modern day Jordan, near the north end of the Dead Sea. According to the same Bible Timeline this was the same year that Zedekiah was captured, tortured by Nebuchadnezzar and taken to Babylon. The timeline also states that a couple of years later a company of Jews, including Jeremiah and Baruch, flees to Egypt.
There is no legend or proof of this but is it not possible that Jeremiah brought the ark from Mount Nebo to Egypt?
Jeremiah 39:6 and 7 (NKJV)
Then the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes in Riblah; the king of Babylon also killed all the nobles of Judah. Moreover he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, and bound him with bronze fetters to carry him off to Babylon.
Jeremiah 52:11 (NKJV)
He also put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in bronze fetters, took him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death.
The Bible states that Jeremiah and Ezekiel were contemporaries and knew each other.
Jeremiah 37:18 (NKJV)
Moreover Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah, “What offense have I committed against you, against your servants, or against this people, that you have put me in prison?
What else might they have said to each other and discussed, perhaps on other unrecorded occasions.
Other activities were going on at this time in history.
Jeremiah 41:10 (NKJV)
Then Ishmael carried away captive all the rest of the people who were in Mizpah, the king’s daughters (king Zedekiah's daughters) and all the people who remained in Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had committed to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam. And Ishmael the son of Nethaniah carried them away captive and departed to go over to the Ammonites.
Jeremiah 41:14 (NKJV)
Then all the people whom Ishmael had carried away captive from Mizpah turned around and came back, and went to Johanan the son of Kareah.
Jeremiah 41:16 and 17 (NKJV)
Then Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces that were with him, took from Mizpah all the rest of the people whom he had recovered from Ishmael the son of Nethaniah after he had murdered Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the mighty men of war and the women and the children and the eunuchs, whom he had brought back from Gibeon. And they departed and dwelt in the habitation of Chimham, which is near Bethlehem, as they went on their way to Egypt,
Jeremiah 43:5 to 7 (NKJV)
5But Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces took all the remnant of Judah who had returned to dwell in the land of Judah, from all nations where they had been driven, 6men, women, children, the king’s daughters (king Zedekiah's daughters), and every person whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had left with Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, and Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch the son of Neriah. 7So they went to the land of Egypt, for they did not obey the voice of the LORD. And they went as far as Tahpanhes.
Jeremiah 44:14 (NKJV)
so that none of the remnant of Judah who have gone into the land of Egypt to dwell there shall escape or survive, lest they return to the land of Judah, to which they desire to return and dwell. For none shall return except those who escape.
It is those who escape who are of primary interest at this time. According to the booklet by Herbert W. Armstrong called "The United States and Britain in Prophecy," a marriage took place between a king of Ireland and Tea-Tephi, one of king Zedekiah's daughters, around the time depicted in these passages, and they sailed from the eastern Mediterranean shores to settle in Ireland along with a number of others, which may have numbered in the thousands, and probably included Jeremiah. Several ships or several trips would have been required for the migration.
Jeremiah 44:15 (NKJV)
Then all the men who knew that their wives had burned incense to other gods, with all the women who stood by, a great multitude, and all the people who dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying:
So you see that there was a great multitude in Egypt, not just a small group, a multitude which included Zedekiah's daughters and Jeremiah.
Another interesting event is mentioned here.
Jeremiah 48:1 (NKJV)
Against Moab. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Woe to Nebo! For it is plundered, Kirjathaim is shamed and taken; The high stronghold is shamed and dismayed
Why would Nebo be plundered at this time? There must have been something of interest there or a rumour to the effect. Were they in search of the ark?
There was something else going on in these last months or years of the knowledge of the location of the ark.
Jeremiah 31:10 (NKJV)
Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, And declare it in the isles afar off, and say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him, And keep him as a shepherd does his flock.’
The isles which are afar off is believed to refer to the isles that now comprise Ireland, Scotland and Britain.
Isaiah 24:15 (AV)
Wherefore glorify ye the LORD in the fires, even the name of the LORD God of Israel in the isles of the sea.
I believe that this is speaking of those same isles.
Jeremiah 25:22 (AV)
And all the kings of Tyrus, and all the kings of Zidon, and the kings of the isles which are beyond the sea,
The isles which are beyond the sea again indicate the British isles which are beyond the Mediterranean Sea.
So there are strong indications that Jeremiah and king Zedekiah's daughters escaped to Ireland.
Where is the ark now?
Revelation 11:19 (NKJV)
Then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple. And there were lightnings, noises, thunderings, an earthquake, and great hail.
From what information I could gather it seems a likely conclusion to assume that the ark was last seen on earth either at Mount Nebo or in Ireland. It is interesting to note that Mount Nebo is the same mountain that Moses was said to have climbed when he was last seen on earth and that his bones were never found. Perhaps God took him away. Perhaps the ark was also taken by God in a similar way. The other possibility is that Jeremiah took the ark to Ireland and that it is hidden there and that the secret of its location may have been buried when those with the knowledge of its location died.
2017 Jacques Gauvin
Search for related topics. * United Church Of God - UCG - ucg.org