Featured artwork: James Tissot, The Ark Passes Over the Jordan (c. 1896–1902), The Jewish Museum. Public-domain reproduction via Wikimedia Commons; an artistic interpretation, not a historical reconstruction.
Short answer: The Bible never says when or how the Ark of the Covenant was finally lost. Its latest explicit mention is in 2 Chronicles 35:3, during the account of King Josiah. The Ark is not individually named in the detailed lists of Temple objects taken or destroyed by Babylon. Jerusalem and the First Temple fell in 587/586 BC, but that is a historical disappearance horizon—not a proven date for the Ark’s loss.
- Last explicit Biblical mention: 2 Chronicles 35:3.
- Final First Temple horizon: the Babylonian destruction of 587/586 BC.
- Later state: ancient sources describe the Second Temple without the Ark.
- Present location: unknown; competing traditions remain unverified.
This guide separates what the Biblical text states, what ancient historical sources establish, what later traditions claim, and what remains unknown.
How to read the evidence
These four labels keep a passage, a historical observation, and a later explanation from being treated as the same kind of evidence.
Biblical text
What it means: A cited passage states or narrates the point.
Read it as: Do not add a fate, location, or date the passage does not give.
Historical source
What it means: An ancient source describes an event or its own period.
Read it as: Use it only for what that source can actually establish.
Later tradition
What it means: A later community or writer explains what happened.
Read it as: Historically important tradition, not eyewitness corroboration.
Unverified claim
What it means: A proposed location lacks publicly testable provenance.
Read it as: A claim or belief, not an archaeological discovery.
What does “lost” mean here?
The Ark was captured once before and returned. In 1 Samuel 4–6, the Philistines took it in battle, kept it for a time, and sent it back to Israel. That temporary capture is covered in The Ark of the Covenant, Taken and Returned.
Here, “lost” means the later point at which the Ark disappears from the record available to us. No Biblical passage narrates that event.
The evidence at a glance
Solomon’s Temple
Source says: 1 Kings 8:6 places the Ark in the Holy of Holies.
Limit: It does not tell us how long the Ark remained there without interruption.
Josiah’s reign
Source says: 2 Chronicles 35:3 tells Levites to put the Ark in the Temple.
Limit: It does not say where the Ark had been or what happened next.
Babylonian conquests
Sources say: 2 Kings 24–25 and Jeremiah 52 list Temple objects taken or broken up.
Limit: The detailed lists do not individually name the Ark.
Second Temple period
Sources say: Josephus describes the inner chamber as empty; later ritual tradition assumes no Ark there.
Limit: These sources do not explain the Ark’s earlier fate.
The last explicit Biblical mention
The latest explicit reference to the physical Ark in the Bible’s narrative sequence appears in 2 Chronicles 35:3. In the account of Josiah’s Passover, the king tells the Levites to put the holy Ark in the house Solomon built and says they no longer need to carry it on their shoulders.
That wording raises an obvious question: why did the Ark need to be put back?
The passage does not answer. It does not say that Josiah had just recovered the Ark, that a previous king removed it, or that Josiah hid it afterward. Later interpreters filled that silence in different ways, but those explanations should not be read back into the verse as though Chronicles stated them.
Jeremiah 3:16 adds another important text. It imagines a future when people will no longer speak about, remember, or miss the Ark. That may help explain its theological absence in a restored community, but it is prophecy—not a report of where the Ark went.
Did the Babylonians take the Ark?
The Biblical accounts do not say that they did.
Babylon captured Jerusalem in stages. A Babylonian chronicle in the British Museum independently records Nebuchadnezzar’s campaign against Jerusalem in 597 BC. Second Kings 24 says Temple treasures and gold objects were removed at that time. A later siege ended with the destruction of Jerusalem and the First Temple in 587/586 BC.
Second Kings 25 and Jeremiah 52 name bronze pillars, stands, a basin, firepans, bowls, shovels, and other service vessels. The Ark is not individually listed. Second Chronicles 36:18 gives a broader statement about Temple vessels and treasures being taken, but it still does not identify the Ark.
Supported
Temple treasures, furnishings, and service vessels were removed or destroyed during Babylon’s campaigns.
Not stated
The texts do not individually say that the Ark was taken, destroyed, dismantled, or hidden.
Best conclusion
The inventories leave the Ark’s fate unresolved. Their silence cannot prove one explanation.
Why 587/586 BC still matters
The date appears in many answers because it marks the destruction of the First Temple. Scholars differ between 587 and 586 BC because ancient regnal years can be calculated in more than one way. Archaeological and historical work firmly places the destruction in this horizon; a peer-reviewed PNAS study, for example, uses 586 BC in its analysis of destruction layers.
For the Ark, this date is best treated as a historical horizon. The Ark is mentioned in the Josiah account before the destruction. It is absent from later descriptions of the Second Temple. Somewhere across that transition, it disappears from the record available to us.
That is different from saying, “The Ark was lost in 586 BC.” The sources do not support that precision.
Was the Ark in the Second Temple?
Ancient evidence points to no.
The first-century Jewish historian Josephus, Jewish War 5.219, describes the innermost chamber of the Second Temple as containing nothing. Mishnah Yoma 5:2 describes the high priest placing the incense on the Foundation Stone after the Ark was no longer there.
These sources come from, or preserve memories of, the Second Temple world. They strongly support the conclusion that the later Temple did not house the Ark.
They do not tell us whether the Ark had been hidden, carried away, dismantled, or destroyed centuries earlier.
What do the major traditions say?
The accounts below answer the same gap in different ways. Their disagreement is one reason none should be presented as settled history.
Later ancient tradition
Jeremiah and the mountain of Moses
2 Maccabees 2:4–8 says Jeremiah took the tent, Ark, and altar of incense to the mountain from which Moses viewed the promised land and hid them in a cave.
Limit: The Book of Jeremiah does not report this, and no verified discovery confirms the location.
Later rabbinic tradition
Hidden beneath the Temple
Mishnah Shekalim 6:3 preserves a tradition that the Ark was concealed beneath part of the Temple precincts, near the wood-storage area.
Limit: This is a remembered tradition, not an excavated or independently verified location.
Unverified claim
Aksum and other claimed locations
Ethiopian Christian tradition associates the Ark with Aksum. Other claims place it near Mount Nebo, under the Temple Mount, or elsewhere.
Limit: As a Smithsonian investigation explains, the Aksum claim rests on a living religious tradition; the claimed object is not available for independent archaeological verification.
Can archaeology tell us where the Ark is?
Archaeology can investigate Jerusalem’s destruction, ancient sanctuaries, and places connected with Ark traditions. It can also test a claimed artifact—if researchers can examine the object, its materials, its excavation context, and its chain of custody.
No claimed Ark currently meets that standard.
Even a gold-covered chest from the correct period would require much more than a visual resemblance to the description in Exodus. Without a secure context or identifying evidence, appearance alone could not establish that it was the Ark of the Covenant. A recent Oxford study of the subject likewise emphasizes what archaeology can and cannot establish about the Ark.
So, when was the Ark of the Covenant lost?
We do not know.
1. Last mention
2 Chronicles 35:3, in the account of Josiah.
2. Destruction horizon
587/586 BC, without an individual Ark entry in the conquest inventories.
3. Later state
Ancient sources describe the Second Temple without the Ark.
Everything more specific—Babylon, Mount Nebo, a chamber beneath the Temple, Aksum, or destruction—depends on inference or tradition rather than a surviving account of the final event.
For the Ark’s construction and role before this disappearance, see Ark of the Covenant Erected. You can also place the First Temple, Babylonian conquest, and return from exile in wider context with the Bible History Timeline Online.
Frequently asked questions
What is the last Bible verse to mention the Ark of the Covenant?
Second Chronicles 35:3 is the latest explicit mention in the Bible’s narrative sequence. It places the Ark in the account of King Josiah but does not say what happened to it afterward.
Did Nebuchadnezzar take the Ark to Babylon?
The Bible does not say. It lists many Temple treasures and furnishings taken by Babylon, but the detailed inventories do not individually name the Ark.
Did Jeremiah hide the Ark of the Covenant?
Second Maccabees 2:4–8 says that he did. The Book of Jeremiah does not report this, and the claimed location has not been independently verified.
Was the Ark in the Second Temple?
Ancient descriptions indicate that it was not. Josephus describes the Holy of Holies as empty, and later Jewish ritual tradition assumes the Ark’s absence.
Is the Ark of the Covenant in Ethiopia?
Ethiopian Christian tradition associates the Ark with Aksum, but the claimed object has not been made available for independent archaeological verification. It should be presented as a living tradition, not an established discovery.
Does Revelation say the Ark is in heaven?
Revelation 11:19 portrays the Ark in God’s heavenly temple as part of an apocalyptic vision. The passage is theological imagery, not a report locating the historical object from the First Temple.
How this article was checked
Each claim was checked in layers: first the Biblical text, then ancient historical sources, then later traditions. Dates are given as ranges where the chronology does not support one exact year. An omitted name is not treated as proof of capture, destruction, or concealment.
2 Chronicles 35:3; 2 Kings 25; Jeremiah 52
Source type: Biblical texts
Contribution: Last explicit mention and the Temple-object inventories.
Source type: Neo-Babylonian chronicle tablet
Contribution: Independent anchor for the 597 BC Jerusalem campaign; no Ark claim.
Source type: First-century AD Jewish history
Contribution: Describes the Second Temple’s innermost chamber as empty.
2 Maccabees 2:4–8; Mishnah Shekalim 6:3
Source type: Later ancient traditions
Contribution: Two different explanations for the Ark’s absence.
James Tissot, The Ark Passes Over the Jordan
Source type: Nineteenth-century artwork; public-domain reproduction
Contribution: Featured artistic interpretation of the Biblical Ark; not a historical portrait or reconstruction.
Study next: Explore the online Bible timeline for chronological context. For a wall-chart study reference, visit the Amazing Bible and World History Timeline at Bible Charts & Maps.
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