By Apostle Andre Pelser

In the Old Testament the Ark of the Covenant was probably the most precious piece of equipment in the entire Tent Tabernacle. Moses had to make everything according to divine specifications that were shown to him in the Mountain of the Lord.

ARK

Research

?aron (727), “ark; coffin; chest; box.” This word has cognates in Phoenician, Aramaic, Akkadian, and Arabic. It appears about 203 times in biblical Hebrew and in all periods.

In Gen. 50:26, this word represents a coffin or sarcophagus (as the same word does in Phoenician): “So Joseph died, being a hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.” This coffin was probably quite elaborate and similar to those found in ancient Egyptian tombs.

During the reign of Joash (or Jehoash), when the temple was repaired, money for the work was deposited in a “chest” with a hole in its lid. The high priest Jehoida prepared this chest and put it at the threshold to the temple (2 Kings 12:9).

In most occurrences, ?aron refers to the “ark of the covenant.” This piece of furniture functioned primarily as a container. As such the word is often modified by divine names or attributes. The divine name first modifies ?aron in 1 Sam. 3:3: “And ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep.…” ?Aron is first modified by God’s covenant name, Yahweh, in Josh. 4:5. Judg. 20:27 is the first appearance of the “ark” as the ark of the covenant of Elohim. First Samuel 5:11 uses the phrase “the ark of the God [?elohim] of Israel,” and 1 Chron. 15:12 employs “the ark of the Lord [Yahweh] God [?elohim] of Israel.”

Sometimes divine attributes replace the divine name: “Arise, O Lord, into thy rest; thou, and the ark of thy strength” (Ps. 132:8). Another group of modifiers focuses on divine redemption (cf. Heb. 8:5). Thus ?aron is often described as the “ark of the covenant” (Josh. 3:6) or “the ark of the covenant of the Lord” (Num. 10:33). As such, the ark contained the memorials of God’s great redemptive acts—the tablets upon which were inscribed the Ten Commandments, an omer or two quarts of manna, and Aaron’s rod. By Solomon’s day, only the stone tablets remained i