Exodus 25:10

Ark] i.e. a chest or coffer. A cubit is about 18 in. Such sacred arks were well known to the Egyptians and Assyrians. They contained some image of the deity worshipped, and were carried with great pomp in processions at national festivals. It is significant of the spiritual nature of the Hebrew religion that the ark made by Moses contained no image, but instead a copy of the Moral Law. After the conquest of Canaan the ark remained for a long time at Shiloh (Joshua 18:1; 1 Samuel 3:3), and was at last brought by David to his capital at Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6; 1 Chronicles 13; 1 Chronicles 13). Solomon placed it in the temple which he built (1 Kings 8:1), after which there is no further record of it. It may have been carried off by Shishak to Egypt (1 Kings 14:26) or by Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon (2 Kings 25:8). There seems to have been no ark in the second temple.