This ‘divine blueprint’ is, surely, one of the very strangest passages in the Bible. After receiving it, Moses passed it on verbatim to an artificer named Bezaleel, a man ‘filled with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to devise cunning works.’5 Bezaleel made the Ark exactly as specified.6 Then, when it was ready, Moses placed inside it the two tablets of stone, also given to him on Mount Sinai, on which God had inscribed the Ten Commandments.7 The sacred object, now pregnant with its precious contents, was then installed behind a ‘veil’ in the Holy of Holies of the Tabernacle8 – the portable tent-like structure that the Israelites used as their place of worship during their wanderings in the wilderness.
The terrors and the miracles
Soon terrible things began to happen. The first concerned Nadab and Abihu, two of the four sons of Aaron the High Priest, who was Moses’s own brother. As members of the priestly family they enjoyed access to the Holy of Holies, into which they one day advanced carrying metal incense burners in their hands.9 There, according to the book of Leviticus they ‘offered strange fire before the Lord, which He commanded them not’.10 The devastating consequence was that a flame leapt out from the Ark ‘and devoured them and they died.’11
And the Lord spake unto Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered before the Lord and died; And the Lord said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place within the veil before the throne of mercy, which is upon the Ark; that he die not: for I will appear in the cloud upon the throne of mercy.12
The throne of mercy – ‘mercy seat’ in some translations – was the slab of pure gold that served as the Ark’s cover. The reader will recall that mounted on either end of it – and facing each other – were two golden figures of cherubim. ‘The cloud upon the throne of mercy’ which threatened death to Aaron must therefore have been visible between the cherubim. It was not always present, but on those occasions when it did materialize the Israelites believed ‘that the demons held sway’13 – and then even Moses would not dare to approach.14
Other supposedly supernatural phenomena also manifested themselves ‘between the cherubim’ that faced each other across the Ark’s golden lid. For example, just a few days15 after the unfortunate demise of Aaron’s two sons, Moses went into the Holy of Holies of the Tabernacle, which was then still pitched in the shadow of Mount Sinai. After he had entered, the prophet ‘heard the voice of one speaking unto him from off the mercy seat that was upon the Ark … from between the two cherubim.’16 Certain very ancient Jewish legends state that this voice came from heaven ‘in the form of a tube of fire’.17 And fire – in one guise or another, with and without the deadly cloud – seems often to have been associated with the cherubim. According to an enduring folk memory, for example, ‘two sparks [elsewhere described as “fiery jets”] issued from the cherubim which shaded the Ark’ – sparks which occasionally burned and destroyed nearby objects.18
Eventually the time came for the Israelites to abandon their camp at the foot of Mount Sinai – also called the ‘Mountain of Yahweh’ (after the name of God):
They set out from the mountain of Yahweh and journeyed for three days. The Ark of the Covenant of Yahweh went at their head for this journey of three days, searching out a camping place for them … And as the Ark set out, Moses would say, ‘Arise Yahweh, may your enemies be scattered and those who hate you run for their lives before you!’ And as it came to rest, he would say, ‘Come back, Yahweh, to the thronging hosts of Israel.’19
Travelling at the head of the Israelite column, the sacred relic was borne on the shoulders of ‘the Kohathites’ (or ‘sons of Kohath’), a sub-clan of the tribe of Levi to which both Moses and Aaron also belonged. According to several legends, and to rabbinical commentaries on the Old Testament, these bearers were occasionally killed by the ‘sparks’ which the Ark emitted20 and, in addition, were lifted bodily off the ground from time to time because ‘the Ark [was] able to carry its carriers as well as itself.’21 Nor is this the only Jewish tradition to suggest that the Ark might have been able to exert a mysterious force that in some way was able to counteract gravity. Several other pieces of learned Midrashic exegesis also testify that it sometimes lifted its bearers off the ground (thus temporarily relieving them of what would otherwise have been a considerable burden).22 In a similar vein a particularly striking Jewish legend reports an incident during which the priests attempting to carry the Ark were ‘tossed by an invisible agency into the air and flung to the ground again and again.’23 Another tradition describes an occasion when ‘the Ark leaped of itself into the air’.24
Imbued as it was with such strange energies it is little wonder, throughout their wanderings in the wilderness, that the Israelites were able to use the Ark as a weapon – a weapon with powers so terrible that it could bring victory even when the odds seemed overwhelming.25 An account of one such battle describes the Ark as first uttering ‘a moaning sound’, then rising up off the ground and rushing towards the enemy26 – who not surprisingly were plunged into disarray and slaughtered on the spot. On another occasion, however – and as though to prove the rule – the Israelites were themselves defeated. This happened, according to the Bible, because they did not have the Ark with them at the time – Moses had withheld it from them after advising them against mounting an assault in that particular area:
They set out presumptuously towards the heights of the highlands. Neither the Ark of the Covenant of Yahweh nor Moses left the camp. Then the Amalekites came down … which dwelt in that hill country, and smote them and discomfited them.27
According to the Bible, forty years were spent in the wilderness,28 years during which the Israelites learned that it was in their interests to follow Moses’s advice to the letter. There-after, under his leadership and with the help of the Ark, they successfully subdued the fierce tribes of the Sinai peninsula, conquered Transjordania, spoiled the Midianites,29 and generally laid waste to all those who opposed them. Finally, towards the end of their four decades of wandering, they ‘pitched their camp in the plains of Moab … opposite Jericho.’30
Just across the Jordan river, the Promised Land was now in sight. By this time Moses’s brother Aaron had already died31 and had been replaced in the office of High Priest by Eleazar.32 Meanwhile Moses himself had been forewarned by Yahweh that it was not his destiny to enter Canaan and, accordingly, had invested ‘Joshua, the son of Nun’ as his successor.33
Soon afterwards Moses died,34 but not before he had initiated Joshua into the mysteries of the Ark of the Covenant.35 The new leader therefore had a formidable weapon at his disposal to deploy against the fierce resistance that he was about to encounter in the heavily fortified city of Jericho.
Joshua seemed to know that the Ark was a two-edged sword – that, if not properly handled, it could harm the Israelites as well as their enemies. Early in the campaign, while he was planning the advance across the Jordan river towards Jericho, he sent his officers throughout the camp to tell the people this:
When ye see the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place and go after it. Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure: come not near unto it …36
Then, when all was prepared:
Joshua spake unto the priests, saying, Take up the Ark of the Covenant, and pass over before the people … And it came to pass … as they that bare the Ark were come unto Jordan … [that] the waters which came from above stood and rose up upon an heap … and those that came down were cut off … and the priests that bare the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan … And … when the priests … were come up out of the midst of Jordan and the soles of the priests’ feet were lifted up onto the dry land … the waters of Jordan returned unto their place … And [Joshua] spake … saying … the Lord your God dried
up the waters of Jordan from before you, until ye were passed over.37
Anyone reared in the Judaeo-Christian tradition will be familiar with the details of the assault on Jericho that followed the triumphal crossing of the Jordan. While the main mass of the people stood back at the obligatory distance of two thousand cubits (more than half a mile), a hand-picked group of priests blowing trumpets marched around the walls of the city bearing the Ark. This procedure was repeated every day for six days. Then:
On the seventh day … they rose early about the dawning of the day, and compassed the city after the same manner … only on that day they compassed the city seven times. And … at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout; for the Lord hath given you the city … So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city … and they took the city … and they utterly destroyed all that was in the city.38
In the wilderness, when it was new, the Ark was nigh-on invincible, and during Joshua’s campaigns in the Promised Land the biblical testimony suggests that it continued to play a significant military role long after the fall of Jericho.39 Within about a hundred and fifty years of Joshua’s death, however, a change took place: a close examination of the relevant books of the Old Testament shows that, by this time, the relic was no longer routinely being carried into battle; instead it had been installed (in its Tabernacle) at an important shrine-sanctuary known as Shiloh, where it rested permanently.40
The reason for this change was the increasing power and confidence of the Israelites themselves who, by the eleventh century BC, had managed to capture, settle and control most of the Promised Land and who evidently felt that it was no longer necessary in such circumstances for them to bring out their secret weapon.41
This self-assurance, however, proved misplaced on one significant occasion – the battle of Ebenezer, at which the Israelites were defeated by the Philistines and four thousand of their men were killed.42 After this débâcle:
The troops returned to the camp and the elders of Israel said … ‘Let us fetch the Ark of our God from Shiloh so that it may come among us and rescue us from the power of our enemies.’43
This suggestion was immediately accepted:
So the people sent to Shiloh, that they might bring from thence the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of Hosts, which dwelleth between the cherubim … and when the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout so that the earth rang.44
Hearing this noise, the Philistines exclaimed:
‘What can this great shouting in the Hebrew camp mean?’ And they realized that the Ark of Yahweh had come into the camp. At this the Philistines were afraid; and they said, ‘God has come to the camp’. ‘Alas!’ they cried. ‘This has never happened before. Alas! Who will save us from the power of this mighty God?… But take courage and be men, Philistines, or you will become slaves to the Hebrews … Be men and fight.’45
Battle was joined again and, to the utter astonishment of all concerned:
Israel was smitten, and they fled every man into his tent: and there was a very great slaughter; for there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen. And the Ark of God was taken.46
This was truly a catastrophe. Never before had the Israelites suffered defeat when they had carried the Ark into battle and never before had the Ark itself been captured. Such an eventuality had been unthinkable, unimaginable – and yet it had happened.
As the Philistines bore the relic triumphantly away, a runner was sent to carry the bad news to Eli, the High Priest, who had remained behind at Shiloh:
And … lo, Eli sat upon a seat by the wayside watching … Now Eli was ninety and eight years old and his eyes were dim that he could not see. And the man said unto Eli, I am he that came out of the army, and I fled today out of the army. And he said, What is there done, my son? And the messenger answered and said, Israel is fled before the Philistines, and there hath been also a great slaughter among the people … and the Ark of God is taken.
When he mentioned the Ark of God, Eli fell backward off his seat … His neck was broken and he died, for he was old and heavy.
[And] his daughter-in-law … was with child and near her time. When she heard the news that the Ark of God had been captured … she crouched down and gave birth, for her labour pains came on.47
The child thus born was called Ichabod meaning ‘where is the glory?’48 This curious name was chosen, the Bible explained, because the mother had given vent to a great cry of grief when she had received the information about the loss of the Ark: ‘And she said, The glory is departed from Israel: for the Ark of God is taken.’49
Even stranger and more alarming events were to follow:
When the Philistines had captured the Ark of God they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Taking the Ark of God, the Philistines put it in the temple of [their deity] Dagon, setting it down beside [the statue of] Dagon. Next morning the people of Ashdod went to the temple of Dagon and there lay Dagon face down on the ground before the Ark of Yahweh. They picked Dagon up and put him back in his place. But early next morning there lay Dagon face down again upon the ground before the Ark of Yahweh, and Dagon’s head and two hands were lying severed on the threshold; only the trunk of Dagon was left in its place. This is why the priests of Dagon and indeed all who enter Dagon’s temple do not step on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to the present day.
The hand of Yahweh weighed heavily on the people of Ashdod and struck terror into them, afflicting them with tumours, in Ashdod and its territory. When the men of Ashdod saw what was happening they said, ‘The Ark of the God of Israel must not stay here with us, for his hand lies heavy on us and on Dagon our god.’ So they summoned all the Philistine chiefs to them, and said, ‘What shall we do with the Ark of the God of Israel?’ They decided, ‘The Ark of the God of Israel must go to Gath.’ So they took the Ark of the God of Israel to Gath. But after they had taken it there, the hand of Yahweh lay heavy on that town and a great panic broke out; the people of the town, from youngest to oldest, were struck with tumours that he brought out on them. They then sent the Ark of God to Ekron, but when it came to Ekron the Ekronites shouted, ‘They have brought us the Ark of the God of Israel to bring death to us and our people.’ They summoned all the Philistine chiefs and said, ‘Send the Ark of the God of Israel away; let it not bring death to us and our people’ – for there was mortal panic throughout the town; the hand of God was very heavy there. The people who did not die were struck with tumours and the wailing from the town went up to heaven.50
Shattered by the horrible afflictions that they had suffered because of the relic, the Philistines eventually decided – after seven months51 – to ‘send it back to where it belongs’.52 To this end they loaded it onto a ‘new cart’ hauled by ‘two milch kine’53 and set it rumbling on its way towards Bethshemesh, the nearest point inside Israelite territory.54
Another disaster soon followed, and this time the Philistines were not the victims:
They of Bethshemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley: and they lifted up their eyes, and saw the Ark, and rejoiced to see it. And the cart came unto the field of Joshua, a Bethshemite, and stood there, where there was a great stone: and the men of Bethshemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices the same day unto the Lord … [But] he smote the men of Bethshemesh because they had looked into the Ark of the Lord, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men; and the people lamented because the Lord had smitten many of the people with great slaughter.55
The text quoted above is from the King James Authorized Version of the Bible, produced in the early seventeenth century. Other more recent translations agree that certain men of Bethshemesh were smitten or ‘struck down’ by the Ark but put the number slain at seventy r
ather than fifty thousand and seventy – and it is the consensus of modern scholarship that this figure is the correct one.56
Seventy men, therefore, looked into the Ark of the Covenant after it arrived in the field of Joshua the Bethshemite, and these seventy men died as a result.57 Nowhere is it stated exactly how they died; but there can be no doubt that they were killed by the Ark – and in a manner sufficiently dramatic and horrible to lead the survivors to conclude: ‘No one is safe in the presence of the Lord, this holy God. To whom can we send it to be rid of him?’58 At this point, suddenly and rather mysteriously, a group of Levitical priests appeared, ‘took down the Ark of the Lord,’59 and carried it off – not to its former home at Shiloh but instead to a place called ‘Kiriath-Jearim’ where it was installed in ‘the house of Abinadabon the hill’.60
And on that hill it remained, isolated and guarded,61 for the next half century or so.62 Indeed it was not brought down again until David had become King of Israel. A powerful and headstrong man, he had recently captured the city of Jerusalem. Now it was his intention to consolidate his authority by bringing up to his new capital the most sacred relic of his people.
The date would have been somewhere between 1000 and 990 BC.63 This is what happened:
They placed the Ark of God on a new cart and brought it from Abinadab’s house which is on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio … were leading the cart. Uzzah walked alongside the Ark of God and Ahio went in front … When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah stretched his hand out to the Ark of God and steadied it, as the oxen were making it tilt. Then the anger of Yahweh blazed out against Uzzah, and for this crime God struck him down on the spot, and he died there beside the Ark of God.64
The Sign and the Seal Page 31
