Deuteronomy 31:25

31:25 he ¹  commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the Lord’s covenant,

Deuteronomy 10:1-3

The Opportunity to Begin Again

10:1 At that same time the Lord said to me, “Carve out for yourself two stone tablets like the first ones and come up the mountain to me; also make for yourself a wooden ark. ²  10:2 I will write on the tablets the same words ³  that were on the first tablets you broke, and you must put them into the ark.” 10:3 So I made an ark of acacia ⁴  wood and carved out two stone tablets just like the first ones. Then I went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hands.

Deuteronomy 10:5

10:5 Then I turned, went down the mountain, and placed the tablets into the ark I had made – they are still there, just as the Lord commanded me.

Deuteronomy 31:26

31:26 “Take this scroll of the law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God. It will remain there as a witness against you,

Deuteronomy 10:8

10:8 At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi ⁵  to carry the ark of the Lord’s covenant, to stand before the Lord to serve him, and to formulate blessings ⁶  in his name, as they do to this very day.

Deuteronomy 31:9

The Deposit of the Covenant Text

31:9 Then Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the Levitical priests, who carry the ark of the Lord’s covenant, and to all Israel’s elders.

¹ tn Heb “Moses.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

² tn Or “chest” (so NIV, CEV); NLT “sacred chest”; TEV “wooden box.” This chest was made of acacia wood; it is later known as the ark of the covenant.

³ sn The same words. The care with which the replacement copy must be made underscores the importance of verbal precision in relaying the Lord’s commandments.

⁴ sn Acacia wood (Heb “shittim wood”). This is wood from the acacia, the most common timber tree of the Sinai region. Most likely it is the species Acacia raddiana because this has the largest trunk. See F. N. Hepper, Illustrated Encyclopedia of Bible Plants, 63.

⁵ sn The Lord set apart the tribe of Levi. This was not the initial commissioning of the tribe of Levi to this ministry (cf. Num 3:11-13; 8:12-26), but with Aaron’s death it seemed appropriate to Moses to reiterate Levi’s responsibilities. There is no reference in the Book of Numbers to this having been done, but the account of Eleazar’s succession to the priesthood there (Num 20:25-28) would provide a setting for this to have occurred.

⁶ sn To formulate blessings. The most famous example of this is the priestly “blessing formula” of Num 6:24-26.