The Reason They Lost
Now Israel went out to battle against the Philistines, and encamped beside Ebenezer; and the Philistines encamped in Aphek. 2 Then the Philistines put themselves in battle array against Israel. And when they joined battle, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men of the army in the field. 3 And when the people had come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has the LORD defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD from Shiloh to us, that when it comes among us it may save us from the hand of our enemies.” 4 So the people sent to Shiloh, that they might bring from there the ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts, who dwells between the cherubim. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.
In Exodus 25 Yahweh gives Moses instructions for the construction of the ark.
• In Exodus 35 Moses repeats Yahweh’s instructions for the construction of the ark to the people.
• Exodus 37 contains the account of the building of the ark and reiterates Yahweh’s instructions.
33 So they departed from the mountain of the LORD on a journey of three days; and the ark of the covenant of the LORD went before them for the three days’ journey, to search out a resting place for them. 34 And the cloud of the LORD was above them by day when they went out from the camp.
35 So it was, whenever the ark set out, that Moses said:
“Rise up, O LORD!
Let Your enemies be scattered,
And let those who hate You flee before You
implies a divine presence in recording the Levites stood and ministered to Yahweh immediately before lifting and transporting the ark
the priests who carry the ark still the waters, enabling the Israelites to pass into the land of Canaan over dry land. Joshua instructs 12 Israelite men to “Pass on before the ark of the Lord” and erect 12 stones as a memorial of the river crossing. Rösel suggests the author of Joshua combined two originally separate traditions, using the miracle at the Jordan River to explain the standing stones at Gilgal
The ark holds a less prominent role in the fall of Jericho (Josh 6). According to the Lord’s instructions, “Seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark” on the march around the city (Josh 6:4 ESV). The ark continues to represent Yahweh’s presence, but Rösel argues that the priests’ act of blowing the shofar appears to cause the collapse of the city walls (Rösel, Joshua, 95).
Joshua 8 records that Joshua wrote a copy of the law of Moses on Mount Ebal while all of Israel stood with the ark, which represents God’s presence.
The Ark in 1 and 2 Samuel
First Samuel 4:7–8 records that when the Israelites bring the ark of the covenant into battle, the Philistines exclaim that “gods have come into the camp” (1 Sam 4:7 NRSV) and recognize them as the same “gods” who caused disease and pestilence in Egypt (1 Sam 4:8). Personifications of the plagues elsewhere in Scripture and the Ugaritic god list may provide insight into the Philistines’ exclamations here. For example, Psalm 78:48 refers to Resheph (רֶשֶׁף, resheph, “thunderbolts”) and Barad (בָּרָד, barad, “hail”) afflicting the Egyptians’ livestock. Likewise, Habakkuk 3:5 refers to Deber (דֶּבֶר, dever, “pestilence”) and Resheph (רֶשֶׁף, resheph, “plague”) going before and following after Yahweh. In the Ugaritic god lists, Resheph is equated with Nergal, the god of pestilence, who is associated with the divine Lamma, a composite creature similar to the cherubim (del Olmo Lete, 73; Lipiński, Resheph, 88). The Philistines may have viewed the two cherubim above the ark as representations of these deities.