Keluaran 25:10-22

The Ark of the Covenant

25:10 ¹ “They are to make an ark ²  of acacia wood – its length is to be three feet nine inches, its width two feet three inches, and its height two feet three inches. ³  25:11 You are to overlay ⁴  it with pure gold – both inside and outside you must overlay it, ⁵  and you are to make a surrounding border ⁶  of gold over it. 25:12 You are to cast four gold rings for it and put them on its four feet, with two rings on one side and two rings on the other side. 25:13 You are to make poles of acacia wood, overlay them with gold, 25:14 and put the poles into the rings at the sides of the ark in order to carry the ark with them. 25:15 The poles must remain in the rings of the ark; they must not be removed from it. 25:16 You are to put into the ark the testimony ⁷  that I will give to you.

25:17 “You are to make an atonement lid ⁸  of pure gold; ⁹  its length is to be three feet nine inches, and its width is to be two feet three inches. 25:18 You are to make two cherubim ¹⁰  of gold; you are to make them of hammered metal on the two ends of the atonement lid. 25:19 Make ¹¹  one cherub on one end ¹²  and one cherub on the other end; from the atonement lid ¹³  you are to make the cherubim on the two ends. 25:20 The cherubim are to be spreading their wings upward, overshadowing ¹⁴  the atonement lid with their wings, and the cherubim are to face each other, ¹⁵  looking ¹⁶  toward the atonement lid. 25:21 You are to put the atonement lid on top of the ark, and in the ark you are to put the testimony I am giving you. 25:22 I will meet with you there, ¹⁷  and ¹⁸  from above the atonement lid, from between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will command you for the Israelites.

Keluaran 37:1-9

The Making of the Ark

37:1 Bezalel made the ark of acacia wood; its length was three feet nine inches, its width two feet three inches, and its height two feet three inches. 37:2 He overlaid it with pure gold, inside and out, and he made a surrounding border ¹⁹  of gold for it. 37:3 He cast four gold rings for it that he put ²⁰  on its four feet, with ²¹  two rings on one side and two rings on the other side. 37:4 He made poles of acacia wood, overlaid them with gold, 37:5 and put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark in order to carry the ark.

37:6 He made ²²  an atonement lid of pure gold; its length was three feet nine inches, and its width was two feet three inches. 37:7 He made two cherubim of gold; he made them of hammered metal on the two ends of the atonement lid, 37:8 one cherub on one end ²³  and one cherub on the other end. ²⁴  He made the cherubim from the atonement lid on its two ends. 37:9 The cherubim were spreading their wings ²⁵  upward, overshadowing the atonement lid with their wings. The cherubim ²⁶  faced each other, ²⁷  looking toward the atonement lid. ²⁸ 

Keluaran 37:2

37:2 He overlaid it with pure gold, inside and out, and he made a surrounding border ²⁹  of gold for it.

1 Samuel 6:2-9

6:2 the Philistines called the priests and the omen readers, saying, “What should we do with the ark of the Lord? Advise us as to how we should send it back to its place.”

6:3 They replied, “If you are going to send the ark of ³⁰  the God of Israel back, don’t send it away empty. Be sure to return it with a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and you will understand why his hand is not removed from you.” 6:4 They inquired, “What is the guilt offering that we should send to him?”

They replied, “The Philistine leaders number five. So send five gold sores and five gold mice, for it is the same plague that has afflicted both you and your leaders. 6:5 You should make images of the sores and images of the mice ³¹  that are destroying the land. You should honor the God of Israel. Perhaps he will release his grip on you, your gods, and your land. ³²  6:6 Why harden your hearts like the Egyptians and Pharaoh did? ³³  When God ³⁴  treated them harshly, didn’t the Egyptians send the Israelites on their way? ³⁵  6:7 So now go and make a new cart. Get two cows that have calves and that have never had a yoke placed on them. Harness the cows to the cart and take their calves from them back to their stalls. 6:8 Then take the ark of the Lord and place it on the cart, and put in a chest beside it the gold objects you are sending to him as a guilt offering. You should then send it on its way. 6:9 But keep an eye on it. If it should go up by the way of its own border to Beth Shemesh, then he has brought this great calamity on us. But if that is not the case, then we will know that it was not his hand that struck us; rather, it just happened to us by accident.”

[25:10]  ¹ sn This section begins with the ark, the most sacred and important object of Israel’s worship. Verses 10-15 provide the instructions for it, v. 16 has the placement of the Law in it, vv. 17-21 cover the mercy lid, and v. 22 the meeting above it. The point of this item in the tabernacle is to underscore the focus: the covenant people must always have God’s holy standard before them as they draw near to worship. A study of this would focus on God’s nature (he is a God of order, precision, and perfection), on the usefulness of this item for worship, and on the typology intended.

[25:10]  ² tn The word “ark” has long been used by English translations to render אָרוֹן (’aron), the word used for the wooden “box,” or “chest,” made by Noah in which to escape the flood and by the Israelites to furnish the tabernacle.

[25:10]  ³ tn The size is two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high. The size in feet and inches is estimated on the assumption that the cubit is 18 inches (see S. R. Driver, Exodus, 267).

[25:11]  ⁴ tn The verbs throughout here are perfect tenses with the vav (ו) consecutives. They are equal to the imperfect tense of instruction and/or injunction.

[25:11]  ⁵ tn Here the verb is an imperfect tense; for the perfect sequence to work the verb would have to be at the front of the clause.

[25:11]  ⁶ tn The word זֵר (zer) is used only in Exodus and seems to describe something on the order of a crown molding, an ornamental border running at the top of the chest on all four sides. There is no indication of its appearance or function.

[25:16]  ⁷ sn The “testimony” is the Decalogue (Exod 24:12; 31:18; Deut 4:13; 9:9; 1 Kgs 8:9); the word identifies it as the witness or affirmation of God’s commandments belonging to his covenant with Israel. It expressed God’s will and man’s duty. In other cultures important documents were put at the feet of the gods in the temples.

[25:17]  ⁸ tn The noun is כַּפֹּרֶת (kapporet), translated “atonement lid” or “atonement plate.” The traditional translation “mercy-seat” (so KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV) came from Tyndale in 1530 and was also used by Luther in 1523. The noun is formed from the word “to make atonement.” The item that the Israelites should make would be more than just a lid for the ark. It would be the place where atonement was signified. The translation of “covering” is probably incorrect, for it derives from a rare use of the verb, if the same verb at all (the evidence shows “cover” is from another root with the same letters as this). The value of this place was that Yahweh sat enthroned above it, and so the ark essentially was the “footstool.” Blood was applied to the lid of the box, for that was the place of atonement (see S. R. Driver, Exodus, 269-270).

[25:17]  ⁹ tn After verbs of making or producing, the accusative (like “gold” here) may be used to express the material from which something is made (see GKC 371 §117.hh).

[25:18]  ¹⁰ tn The evidence suggests that the cherubim were composite angelic creatures that always indicated the nearness of God. So here images of them were to be crafted and put on each end of the ark of the covenant to signify that they were there. Ezekiel 1 describes four cherubim as each having human faces, four wings, and parts of different animals for their bodies. Traditions of them appear in the other cultures as well. They serve to guard the holy places and to bear the throne of God. Here they were to be beaten out as part of the lid.

[25:19]  ¹¹ tn The text now shifts to use an imperative with the vav (ו) conjunction.

[25:19]  ¹² tn The use of זֶה (zeh) repeated here expresses the reciprocal ideas of “the one” and “the other” (see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 26, §132).

[25:19]  ¹³ sn The angels were to form one piece with the lid and not be separated. This could be translated “of one piece with” the lid, but it is likely the angels were simply fastened to it permanently.

[25:20]  ¹⁴ tn The verb means “overshadowing, screening” in the sense of guarding (see 1 Kgs 8:7; 1 Chr 28:18; see also the account in Gen 3:24). The cherubim then signify two things here: by their outstretched wings they form the throne of God who sits above the ark (with the Law under his feet), and by their overshadowing and guarding they signify this as the place of atonement where people must find propitiation to commune with God. Until then they are barred from his presence. See U. Cassuto, Exodus, 330-35.

[25:20]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “their faces a man to his brother.”

[25:20]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the faces of the cherubim will be” (“the cherubim” was moved to the preceding clause for smoother English).

[25:22]  ¹⁷ sn Here then is the main point of the ark of the covenant, and the main point of all worship – meeting with God through atonement. The text makes it clear that here God would meet with Moses (“you” is singular) and then he would speak to the people – he is the mediator of the covenant. S. R. Driver (Exodus, 272) makes the point that the verb here is not the word that means “to meet by chance” (as in Exod 3:18), but “to meet” by appointment for a purpose (וְנוֹעַדְתִּי, vÿno’adti). The parallel in the NT is Jesus Christ and his work. The theology is that the Law condemns people as guilty of sin, but the sacrifice of Christ makes atonement. So he is the “place of propitiation (Rom 3:25) who gains communion with the Father for sinners. A major point that could be made from this section is this: At the center of worship must be the atoning work of Christ – a perpetual reminder of God’s righteous standard (the testimony in the ark) and God’s gracious provision (the atonement lid).

[25:22]  ¹⁸ tn The verb is placed here in the text: “and I will speak”; it has been moved in this translation to be closer to the direct object clause.

[37:2]  ¹⁹ tn Or “molding.”

[37:3]  ²⁰ tn “that he put” has been supplied.

[37:3]  ²¹ tn This is taken as a circumstantial clause; the clause begins with the conjunction vav.

[37:6]  ²² tn Heb “and he made.”

[37:8]  ²³ tn Heb “from/at [the] end, from this.”

[37:8]  ²⁴ tn The repetition of the expression indicates it has the distributive sense.

[37:9]  ²⁵ tn The construction is a participle in construct followed by the genitive “wings” – “spreaders of wings.”

[37:9]  ²⁶ tn “The cherubim” has been placed here instead of in the second clause to produce a smoother translation.

[37:9]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and their faces a man to his brother.”

[37:9]  ²⁸ tn Heb “to the atonement lid were the faces of the cherubim.”

[37:2]  ²⁹ tn Or “molding.”

[6:3]  ³⁰ tc The LXX and a Qumran ms add “the covenant of the Lord.”

[6:5]  ³¹ tn Heb “your mice.” A Qumran ms has simply “the mice.”

[6:5]  ³² tn Heb “Perhaps he will lighten his hand from upon you and from upon your gods and from upon your land.”

[6:6]  ³³ tn Heb “like Egypt and Pharaoh hardened their heart.”

[6:6]  ³⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:6]  ³⁵ tn Heb “and they sent them away and they went.”