11. This ark made at Horeb, 1 Kings viii. 9,—that is, at the foot of the mountain where the people encamped,—was finished with the rest of the tabernacle on the first day of the first month of the second year of the coming of the Israelites out of Egypt, Exod. xl. 1-8, being, as we have showed, the visible pledge of the presence of God amongst them, as it was placed with its tabernacle in the midst of the people whilst they were encamped in the wilderness,—the body of them being distributed into four hosts to the four quarters of heaven, Num. ii, that a blessing from thence might be equally communi- cated unto them all, and all might have an alike access to the wor- ship of God,—so it was carried in their marching in the midst of their armies, with a pronunciation of a solemn benediction when it began to set forward, and when it returned unto its repository in the most holy place, Num. x. 35, 36. This was the ordinary course in the removals of the ark. In an extraordinary manner God appointed it to be carried before all the people when the waters of Jordan were divided by his power, whereor that was a pledge, Josh, iii. 14-16; which the people on their own heads going afterwards to imitate, in their war with the Philistines, received asad reward of their temerity and boldness, 1 Sam. iv.
From the wilderness the ark was carried to Gilgal, Josh. v.10; and thence removed with the tabernacle to Shiloh, Josh. xviii, 1. Some suppose that after this it was occasionally removed to Mizpeh, as Judges xi. 11, xx. 1, xxi. 1, 2; because it is said in those places that
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such things were done “before the Lorp in Mizpeh.” But that expression doth not necessarily infer the presence of the ark and sanctuary in that place; yea, the context seems to intimate that it was at another place distant from thence, as, chap. xx. 26, 27, they went up from the place of the assembly in Mizpeh to the house of God, where the ark was. In Shechem also it is supposed to have been, from the assembly that Joshua made there, chap. xxiv. 1; upon the close whereof he fixed a stone of memorial before the sanctuary, verse 26. But yet neither doth this evince the removal of the ark or sanc- tuary; for Shechem being not far from Shiloh, the people might meet in the town for convenience, and then go some of them with Joshua unto Shiloh, as is most probable that they did. From Shiloh it was. carried into the field of Aphek, against the Philistines, 1 Sam. iv.; and being taken by them, was carried first to Ashdod, then to Gath, then to Ekron, 1 Sam. v.; thence returned to Kirjath-jearim, 1 Sam. vi, to the house of Abinadab, 1 Sam. vii.; thence to the house of Obed-edom, 2 Sam. vi.; thence to Mount Zion in Jerusa~- lem, into a place prepared for it by David, 2 Sam. vi.; and from thence it was solemnly introduced into and enthroned in the most holy place of the temple built by Solomon, 1 Kings viii. 6, 7. In the meantime, either occasionally or by advice, the tabernacle was removed from Shiloh, and that first place of the solemn worship of God altogether deserted, and made an example of what God would afterwards do unto the temple when his worship therein also was neglected and defiled, Jer. vii. 12-14, xxvi. 6,9. In the temple of Solomon it continued either unto the captivity of Jehoiakim, when Nebuchadnezzar took away all “the goodly vessels of the house of the Lorp,”’ 2 Chron. xxxvi. 10, or unto the captivity of Zedekiah, when he carried away all the remaining vessels, “ great and small,” verse 18. Of the Talmudical fable concerning the hiding of it by Josiah or Jeremiah; with the addition of its supposed restoration at the last day, in the second book of Maccabees, I have spoken else- where. Whether it was returned again with the vessels of the house of the Lord, by Cyrus, is uncertain. If it was not, it was an intima- tion that the covenant made with that people was waxing old, and hasting unto an expiration.
12. The things that accompanied this ark in the most holy place were upon it the mercy-seat, on the ends of it two cherubim. The merey-seat, as to its making, form, use, and disposition, is declared, Exod. xxv. 17. It is called 153, “capporeth.” 153 signifies “to hide, to cover, to plaster over, to shut, to plaster with bitumen or pitch;” in Pihel, “to expiate sin,” Exod. xxx. 10, Lev. iv. 20, If the name “mercy-seat” be taken from the word in Kal, it signifies only “operimentum, tegumentum, tegmen,” “a covering,” and so ought to be rendered. If it be taken from the sense of the word
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in Pihel, it retains the signification of expiation, and consequently of pardon and mercy. So it is by our translators rendered “ mercy- seat,” and that with respect unto the rendering of it by the apostle, inaornpiov, Heb, ix. 5, as by the LXX. in this place, iAaorjpiov éxiberoy, the “ propitiatory placed on the ark;” wherein what respect was had to the Lord Christ the apostle declares, Rom. iii, 25, and largely in our Epistle, chap. ix.