¹⁶ Command the priests who bear the ark of the testimony, that they come up out of the Jordan.

¹⁶ You shall put the testimony which I shall give you into the ark.

¹⁷ You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two and a half cubits shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth.

¹⁸ You shall make two cherubim of hammered gold. You shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat.

¹⁹ Make one cherub at the one end, and one cherub at the other end. You shall make the cherubim on its two ends of one piece with the mercy seat.

²⁰ The cherubim shall spread out their wings upward, covering the mercy seat with their wings, with their faces toward one another. The faces of the cherubim shall be toward the mercy seat.

²¹ You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I will give you.

²² There I will meet with you, and I will tell you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the testimony, all that I command you for the children of Israel.

³ and they commanded the people, saying, When you see the ark of the covenant of Yahweh your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then you shall remove from your place, and go after it.

⁴ Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure: don't come near to it, that you may know the way by which you must go; for you have not passed this way heretofore.

⁵ Joshua said to the people, Sanctify yourselves; for tomorrow Yahweh will do wonders among you.

⁶ Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, Take up the ark of the covenant, and pass over before the people. They took up the ark of the covenant, and went before the people.

¹⁹ God's temple that is in heaven was opened, and the ark of the Lord's covenant was seen in his temple. Lightnings, sounds, thunders, an earthquake, and great hail followed.