This question has loomed in the minds of many for centuries, so much so that Hollywood made a movie titled “Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.” This was NOT based on Scripture and in describing the “power of the Ark” they took great liberties. Yet it served to spark a huge interest in the whereabouts of the Ark and thus your question reflects that same interest.

The very last mention of the Ark of the Covenant is in 2 Chronicles 35:3 where we read, “Then he (King Josiah) said to the Levites who taught all Israel, who were holy to the LORD: ‘put the HOLY ARK in the house which Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, built. It shall no longer be a burden to your shoulders. Now serve the LORD your God and His people Israel” (NKJV). The words, “It shall no longer be a burden to your shoulders” indicates that it was never to be moved from the Holy Temple in Jerusalem that Solomon built, for before the Temple was built the Ark was carried on the shoulders of the priests from place to place (through Israel’s journey through the wilderness to the Promised Land and in various places in the Promised Land).

This begs the question, “Did the priests disobey this commandment and remove it for some reason (perhaps to hide it in order to protect it during some of the invasions by foreign countries)?” This has been a prominent THEORY based on a passage from the book of 2 Maccabees 2:4-5 (which is NOT part of the Canon of Scripture) which states that Jeremiah “following a divine revelation, order that the tabernacle and the Ark should accompany him and….he went off to the mountain which Moses climbed to see God’s inheritance there. When he found a room in a cave in which he put the tent, the Ark, and the altar of incense; then he blocked the entrance.” Verses 6-8 go on to teach that it will remain there “until God gathers His people together again and shows them mercy. Then the Lord will disclose these things, and the glory of the Lord will be seen in the cloud, just as it appeared in the time of Moses and when Solomon prayed that the Temple might be gloriously sanctified.” But this “theory” is based on a book that has questionable material in it and was not included in the Canon of Scripture for that reason. Because of this we should NOT assume this is an accurate account of “the hiding of the Ark.”

But another VIEW (that has scriptural support) is that it was taken to Babylon when Nebuchadnezzar invaded and conquered Jerusalem. We read in 2 Kings 10:13 that “he carried out from there (Jerusalem) ALL THE TREASURES OF THE HOUSE OF THE LORD, and the treasures of the king’s house.” This VIEW seems plausible, for would not the “Ark of the Covenant” be included in “all the treasures of the LORD?” Yet we are not told what happened to the Ark after that. Was it destroyed or carried away to another place, perhaps by those who conquered Babylon? We simply don’t know so we must not speculate.

Before we close, let’s read in Revelation 11:19, “And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and THE ARK OF HIS COVENANT was seen in His temple.” So, is this “Ark” to be taken literally? Was the Ark removed from earth and taken to heaven? If so, we still don’t know WHEN it was or WHEN it will be for John was seeing a vision that will take place in the Millennial reign of Christ after the Rapture of the church. Many believe this is not the “literal Ark of the Covenant” that was built by Moses, for everything Moses built was a “SHADOW (type) of heavenly things” (Hebrews 8:5). Hebrews 9:23 confirms this again for it declares that everything in the earthly temple were “PATTERNS of the things in heaven” (KJV). No one would believe the “heavenly temple” will be the “temple that was in Jerusalem” so why should we believe the “Ark of the Covenant in heaven” will be the “Ark that was in Jerusalem.” We must be content to know that if God wanted us to know where the Ark is now, He would have told us in plain language in Scripture. I would encourage you and all our readers to read and ponder Deuteronomy 29:29.  (DO)  (694.5)