chest; two cubits and a half was the length of it; a cubit and a half was the breadth of it, and a cubit and a half was the height of it. It was built of shittim wood and overlaid with pure gold within and without; four rings of pure gold were put into the four corners of it, and staves of shittim wood overlaid with pure gold were put into the rings to carry the ark with. And a mercy seat of pure gold and two cherubim of gold of beaten work were put above upon the ark, and in the ark was put the testimony that God gave to the children of Israel.
Now, who got the control of, or the handling of this sacred piece of mechanical art, designed and ordered made by God Himself?
There were two priests, by the name of Hophni and Phinehas, who got control of it, and two greater villains than Hophni and Phinehas were we hardly read of. The most serious charge brought against them was that they lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. Hophni and Phinehas are the priests that we read of in the seventy-eighth Psalm, who fell by the sword and
