The Ark was said to command both the forces of light and retribution, personified by the archangels Gabriel and Michael.  Gabriel was bringer of enlightenment and God’s message and is often depicted with a vessel containing the sacred water of God’s salvation.  By contrast, Michael was the instrument of God’s wrath and is often depicted with a sword and the severed heads of the Lord’s enemies. 

Whether or not the Ark did have the power the Bible purports, it does seem to have been an historical artifact that was kept in the Temple of Jerusalem until the early sixth century BC.  However, the Bible fails to reveal what ultimately happened to this, the Israelite’s most sacred possession.

The Ark was lost at the time that Jerusalem was sacked by the Babylonians in 597 BC.  Was it stolen, or was it hidden for safety?

Over the years various theories have been proposed as to when the Ark was removed from the Temple of Jerusalem.  However, if the Bible is right, it was still in the temple at a Passover festival during the reign of the Hebrew king Josiah, around 622 BC.

Moreover Josiah kept a passover unto the Lord in Jerusalem…  And said unto the Levites that taught all Israel, which were holy unto the Lord, Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel did build [i.e. the temple]. (Chronicles II  35:1–3)

However, 25 years later, when the temple was plundered by the invading Babylonians it has gone.  Two Old Testament passages, 2 Kings 25:13-15 and Jeremiah 52:17-19, refer to the Babylonians (or Chaldeans, as the Bible calls them) taking away all the sacred articles that were in the temple, but nowhere do they mention the Ark.  It seems that someone had secured its safety, and the most likely person to have had it removed was the contemporary prophet Jeremiah.

According to the Old Testament Book of Jeremiah (named after the prophet), Jeremiah condemns the Jewish people for loosing faith in God and reverting to idolatry.  For this reason, he tells them, the Ark will be lost for generations to come and they will no longer have the means to overcome their enemies:

The ark of the covenant of the Lord: neither shall it come to mind: neither shall they remember it: neither shall they visit it. (Jeremiah 3:16.)

We are not told what happened to the Ark but the inference here is that, for one reason or another, it was taken from the temple to a new and secret location.

Gustave Doré’s illustration of Jeremiah warning the Jews they will lose the Ark of the Covenant.

Jerome’s Bible reveals the fate of the lost Ark.

The books of the Old Testament, as we know them today, are a collection of ancient Hebrew texts known as the Tanak.  The original Hebrew Tanak included some texts that were omitted from the Bible by the later Christian Church.  Nevertheless, one of the earliest Christian Bibles to survive – a Latin translation made by Bishop Jerome of Bethlehem around 400 AD – includes one of these original Hebrew texts known as the Second Book of Maccabees.  Purportedly written during the second century BC, it refers to Jeremiah and certain lost temple treasures.  Chapter 2, verses 4-8, relates how before the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians, Jeremiah left the city with three of the holiest Temple relics - the tabernacle (the sacred tent that was once used as a portable temple), an incense altar and the Ark of the Covenant:

The prophet [Jeremiah], being warned by God, commanded that the tabernacle and the ark should accompany him.

Moreover, it actually tells us where Jeremiah took them:

He came forth to the mountain where Moses went up and saw the inheritance of God. And when Jeremiah came thither he found a hollow cave and he carried in thither the tabernacle and the ark and the altar of incense, and so stopped the door.

According to this passage Jeremiah decided that the Ark should remain hidden in this mountain cave and made sure that no one else should know its precise location.  The mountain in question appears to have been Mount Sinai – the only problem is that the exact location this holy mountain of God has also been forgotten.

To see why Jeremiah’s mountain appears to have been Mount Sinai click >HERE