THE BOOK OF THE LAW IN THE SIDE OF THE ARK. DEUT. 31:26.
As to the book, or volume of the law, it being commanded to be put mitzzad, i. e., on the side of the ark; those who interpret that word of the inside, place it within the ark; and those who interpret it of the outside, place it on the outside of it in a case or coffer, made on purpose for it, and laid on the right side; meaning by the right side, that end of it which was on the right hand. And the last seemed to be in the right as to this matter; for, first, the same word, mitzzad, is made use of where it is said that the Philistines sent back the ark with an offering of jewels of gold put in a coffer by the side of it. And there it is certain that word must be understood of the outside, and not of the inside. Secondly, the ark was not of capacity enough to hold the volume of the whole law of Moses, with the other things placed therein. Thirdly, the end of the laying up the original volume of the law in the temple was, that it might be reserved there as the authentic copy, by which all others were to be corrected and set right; and, therefore, to answer this end, it must have been placed so as that access might be had thereto on all occasions requiring it; which could not have been done if it had been put within the ark, and shut up there by the cover of the mercy-seat over it, which was not to be removed. And fourthly, when Hilkiah, the high priest, in the time of Josiah, found the copy of the law in the temple, there is nothing said of the ark; neither is it there spoken of as taken from thence, but as found elsewhere in the temple. “And therefore, putting all this together, it seems plain that volume of the law was not laid within the ark, but had a particular coffer or repository of its own, in which it was placed on the side of it. And the word mitzzad, which answers to the Latin a latere, cannot truly bear any other meaning in the Hebrew language. And therefore, the Chaldee paraphrase, which goes under the name of Jonathan Ben Uzziel, in paraphrasing on those words of Deuteronomy, ‘Take this book of the law and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant,’ renders it thus: ‘Take the book of the law and place it in a case or coffer, on the right side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God.’—Prideaux’s Connection, Vol. 1, p. 152.