What is the ark of the covenant, and what happened to it?

Topical

Short answer

The ark of the covenant was a gold-covered wooden chest, built at Sinai to God's specification, that held the tablets of the Ten Commandments and stood in the innermost room of the tabernacle and later the temple. It is a different object entirely from Noah's ark, which was a ship; the two share an English word and nothing else.

Built to a given design: acacia wood overlaid inside and out with gold, with a gold cover and two cherubim (Exodus 25:10; Exodus 25:11; Exodus 25:17; Exodus 25:18; Exodus 37:1).
Contents: the stone tablets (Exodus 25:16; Deuteronomy 10:5), and according to Hebrews also a jar of manna and Aaron's staff (Hebrews 9:4; Exodus 16:33; Numbers 17:10).
Where it stood: behind the curtain in the Most Holy Place, entered by the high priest once a year (Exodus 26:33; Leviticus 16:2; Hebrews 9:7).
Carried, not carted, on poles by Levites (Exodus 25:14; Numbers 4:15; 1 Chronicles 15:15).

What happened to it is not recorded. It disappears from the account around the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon, and the Bible never says where it went.

Question

What is the ark of the covenant, and what happened to it?

Analysis

What it was for

The cover is the significant part. It is the place where God said he would meet with Moses and speak from between the cherubim (Exodus 25:22; Numbers 7:89), and it is where blood was sprinkled on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:14; Leviticus 16:15). The New Testament picks this up when it describes Christ as the place of atonement (Romans 3:25; Hebrews 9:5).

Its history in the narrative

Event	Where
Built at Sinai	Exodus 37:1
Led Israel through the Jordan	Joshua 3:14; Joshua 3:15; Joshua 3:16
Carried around Jericho	Joshua 6:6
Captured by the Philistines, who returned it after disaster	1 Samuel 4:11; 1 Samuel 5:1; 1 Samuel 6:1; 1 Samuel 6:11
Uzzah struck down for touching it during an improper transport	2 Samuel 6:6; 2 Samuel 6:7; 1 Chronicles 13:9; 1 Chronicles 13:10
Brought to Jerusalem by David, correctly carried the second time	2 Samuel 6:12; 1 Chronicles 15:13; 1 Chronicles 15:15
Placed in Solomon's temple	1 Kings 8:6; 2 Chronicles 5:7
Last clear mention in place, under Josiah	2 Chronicles 35:3

Where it went: what is known and what is not

Scripture does not say. It is not in the list of temple items Babylon carried off (2 Kings 25:13; 2 Kings 25:14; 2 Kings 25:15), and it is absent from the inventory of what returned from exile (Ezra 1:7; Ezra 1:9; Ezra 1:10). The second temple's Most Holy Place is described in later Jewish sources as empty.

Jeremiah says something striking about it: a day is coming when people will no longer speak of the ark or miss it or make another, because Jerusalem itself will be called the throne of the LORD (Jeremiah 3:16). Whatever happened to the object, the text treats its loss as something that will not finally matter.

Proposals for its fate are speculation, and should be labelled as such. They include destruction in 586 BC, removal to Babylon, concealment before the city fell, and later traditions placing it in Ethiopia. None is recorded in Scripture, and Bubble Bible does not endorse any of them. The honest answer to "where is it?" is that nobody knows.

Revelation

The ark appears once more, in a vision of God's temple in heaven (Revelation 11:19). Readers differ on whether that is the earthly object, a heavenly original of which it was a copy (Hebrews 8:5; Hebrews 9:23), or imagery.

Sources, trace every one

Every cited verse, in full. Tap any reference to open it in the reader.

Exodus 25:10bsb
And they are to construct an ark of acacia wood, two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high.
Exodus 25:11bsb
Overlay it with pure gold both inside and out, and make a gold molding around it.
Exodus 25:17bsb
And you are to construct a mercy seat of pure gold, two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide.
Exodus 25:18bsb
Make two cherubim of hammered gold at the ends of the mercy seat,
Exodus 37:1bsb
Bezalel went on to construct the ark of acacia wood, two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high.
Exodus 25:16bsb
And place inside the ark the Testimony, which I will give you.
Deuteronomy 10:5bsb
and I went back down the mountain and placed the tablets in the ark I had made, as the LORD had commanded me; and there they have remained.
Hebrews 9:4bsb
containing the golden altar of incense and the gold-covered ark of the covenant. Inside the ark were the gold jar of manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant.
Exodus 16:33bsb
So Moses told Aaron, “Take a jar and fill it with an omer of manna. Then place it before the LORD to be preserved for the generations to come.”
Numbers 17:10bsb
The LORD said to Moses, “Put Aaron’s staff back in front of the Testimony, to be kept as a sign for the rebellious, so that you may put an end to their grumbling against Me, lest they die.”
Exodus 26:33bsb
And hang the veil from the clasps and place the ark of the Testimony behind the veil. So the veil will separate the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place.
Leviticus 16:2bsb
And the LORD said to Moses: “Tell your brother Aaron not to enter freely into the Most Holy Place behind the veil in front of the mercy seat on the ark, or else he will die, because I appear in the cloud above the mercy seat.
Hebrews 9:7bsb
But only the high priest entered the second room, and then only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance.
Exodus 25:14bsb
Insert the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, in order to carry it.
Numbers 4:15bsb
When Aaron and his sons have finished covering the holy objects and all their equipment, as soon as the camp is ready to move, the Kohathites shall come and do the carrying. But they must not touch the holy objects, or they will die. These are the transportation duties of the Kohathites regarding the Tent of Meeting.
1 Chronicles 15:15bsb
And the Levites carried the ark of God on their shoulders with the poles, as Moses had commanded in accordance with the word of the LORD.

On contested questions we show every major view, attributed and cited, and pick no winner. Answers are synthesized from primary sources, truth you can trace, not opinion.