Kislev 2 – Betzalel made the ark of acacia wood…or was it Moses?

December 2, 2024

09 – Kislev, 5785_09_Kislev, Bezalel, Deuteronomy, Exodus

Ark of the Covenant, Tabernacle

Kislev 2, 5785; from sunset December 2, 2024, to sunset December 3, 2024

(The second day of the ninth month)

This is the name “Mosheh” (מֺשֶׁה – Moses) as seen in the Dead Sea Scrolls, written over two thousand years ago.

We’re checking in again with the Israelites and the progress that they are making towards the construction of the Tabernacle. We placed Moses’ descent from Sinai with the second set of the Tablets of Testimony on Yom Kippur. We thought it possible that everything needed to build the Tabernacle was brought by those with a willing heart during the Feast of Tabernacles. We learned that Betzalel and Oholiav were chosen by God and that He put His Spirit in them. When we last checked in, they were making the curtains, columns, and hooks which we compared to the construction of a Torah scroll. They’ve been crossing a lot off of the “To Do” list!

The next “box” to check off the list was THE “box” – or rather – the Ark (box) of the Covenant. The Hebrew word used for ark is “aron” (אָרֹן – “ah-rone”) – and it means box, ark, chest, or even a coffin. This is a different word than the ark that Noah made. That word is “tevah” (תֵּבָה – “tay-vah”). Tevah is used to describe Noah’s vessel as well as the basket that Moses was placed in as a baby. Both of those were covered with pitch.

Bezalel made the ark of acacia wood; two cubits and a half was its length, a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height. And he overlaid it with pure gold within and without, and made a molding of gold around it.

And he cast for it four rings of gold for its four corners, two rings on its one side and two rings on its other side. And he made poles of acacia wood, and overlaid them with gold, and put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, to carry the ark.

And he made a mercy seat of pure gold; two cubits and a half was its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth. And he made two cherubim of hammered gold; on the two ends of the mercy seat he made them, one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end; of one piece with the mercy seat he made the cherubim on its two ends. The cherubim spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, with their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat were the faces of the cherubim. – Exodus 37:1-9 (RSV)

In Deuteronomy 10, when Moses recounts the story of the Israelites before they cross over into the Promised Land, he also tells of building an ark in which he placed the tablets.

At that time the LORD said to me, `Hew two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to me on the mountain, and make an ark of wood. And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke, and you shall put them in the ark.’ So I made an ark of acacia wood, and hewed two tablets of stone like the first, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. And he wrote on the tablets, as at the first writing, the ten commandments which the LORD had spoken to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly; and the LORD gave them to me. Then I turned and came down from the mountain, and put the tablets in the ark which I had made; and there they are, as the LORD commanded me. – Deuteronomy 10:1-5

So, who made the ark? Was it Betzalel or was it Moses?

To read all of our posts on the building of the Tabernacle, click on the image above.