Objects & worship
Ark of the Covenant
The sacred chest that held the stone tablets of God’s covenant with Israel.
Also called · ark of the testimony
What it means
In Exodus 25, God tells Moses to make a wooden chest and cover it with gold inside and out. Poles fitted through rings on its sides allow it to be carried.
In Deuteronomy 10, Moses says that he placed in the ark the two tablets on which God wrote the Ten Commandments. In 1 Kings 8, priests carry the ark into the Most Holy Place of Solomon’s temple.
How it appears in the Bible
Numbers 10 describes the ark moving ahead of Israel in the wilderness. In 1 Samuel 4, Israel brings it to the battlefield but is defeated, and the ark is captured. Second Samuel 6 also records Uzzah’s death after he takes hold of it.
Translation note
English translations also use “ark of the testimony.”