Making the Ark

37 Bezalel^(A) made the ark of acacia wood, 1.15 metres long, 70 centimetres wide, and 70 centimetres high.^{[a] 2} He overlaid it with pure gold inside and out and made a gold moulding all round it. ³ He cast four gold rings for it, for its four feet, two rings on one side and two rings on the other side. ⁴ He made poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold. ⁵ He inserted the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark for carrying the ark.

⁶ He made a mercy seat of pure gold, 1.15 metres long and 70 centimetres wide.^{[b] 7} He made two cherubim of gold; he made them of hammered work at the two ends of the mercy seat, ⁸ one cherub at one end and one cherub at the other end. At each end, he made a cherub of one piece with the mercy seat. ⁹ They had wings spread out. They faced each other and covered the mercy seat with their wings. The faces of the cherubim were looking towards the mercy seat.

Moses Warns the People

²⁴ When Moses had finished writing down on a scroll every single word of this law, ²⁵ he commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the Lord’s covenant, ²⁶ ‘Take this book of the law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God so that it may remain there as a witness against you. ²⁷ For I know how rebellious and stiff-necked you are. If you are rebelling against the Lord now, while I am still alive, how much more will you rebel after I am dead! ²⁸ Assemble all your tribal elders and officers before me so that I may speak these words directly to them and call heaven and earth as witnesses against them.^{(A) 29} For I know that after my death you will become completely corrupt and turn from the path I have commanded you. Disaster will come to you in the future, because you will do what is evil in the Lord’s sight, angering him with what your hands have made.’^(B)

⁶ The priests brought the ark of the Lord’s covenant to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the temple, to the most holy place^(A) beneath the wings of the cherubim.