Would You Carry the Ark and the Tabernacle?

July 24, 2009, 10:47 am by dc-agape.

Exodus 25:1-22

The first two things that YHWH wants Moses to create for the worship of him are the Tabernacle and the Ark.  Now previously, YHWH had told Moses that the only alter acceptable was made from un-worked stone and had no steps (Exodus 20:24-26).  Yet now YHWH wants things made from: gold, silver, bronze, fine linen, colorful yarn, goat hair, ram skins, sea cows, acacia wood, olive oil, spices, onyx stones and other gems.  Now some of these items are not too difficult to get, but others are not what slaves would possess.  We have to assume that during the process of looting Egypt they got all the necessary items. 

Even with looting the entire Egyptian people the Ark alone is a grand item, made of very expensive parts.  The Ark is 44 inches (111 cm) long by 26.5 inches (67 cm) wide and tall.  And all of this is made out of acacia wood.  We are talking about nearly 5000 square inches (34 sq ft or 3.1 sq meters) of wood.  At $4.69/sq ft this would be a value, today, of $159.64.  but this does not include the dowels used to carry the Ark, which were also made of acacia wood.  Since we do not know the length or the diameter of these rods their value cannot be computed.  The catch come with the fact that both the inside and outside was to be covered in pure gold.  Notice this is not low caret gold even 16 ct gold is not acceptable.  Gold today is worth $940 US/oz.  The density of pure gold is 19.3 g/cm³.  It does take some conversions and using the fact that overlays are usually very thin: one oz can be spread 100 sq ft. We can say that jus to cover the ark they used one oz ($940 US).  But that was not all the poles, of unknown size, were also to be covered in gold.  To be generous, we can say that the initial one ounce was used here as well.  But here comes the kicker: the cover was to be made of pure gold.  Its dimensions were identical to the actual Ark, but unfortunately the thickness was not given! What we do know is that the cover would have to be strong enough to not sag and too support two cherubim.  The sizes of the cherubim are also not defined.  But even if we say that the cover was ¼ inches thick (.385 cm), the amount of gold required would be 2800 cm³.   First off, this would be 54,000 grams of gold: 1904.8 oz.  Now we are talking about a value of $1.8 million US.  Even without the workmanship costs this bugger was worth nearly 2 million dollars!  But what is more is the weight of the Ark.  Acacia wood (Acacia nilotica) density is over 0.9 g/cm³.  Again we can use the ¼ inch thickness: the volume of wood used in the Ark would be .775 m³ or 775,000 cm³.  The weight of the wood alone would be nearly 700 kg.  Adding the cover and the box together the Ark weighed about 720 kg (1,584 lbs.).  How would you like to lug this monster around from place to place!

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