The Ark of the Covenant

Much like Patrick Henry in his Speech to the Virginia Convention, Whittier declares that there is a “Just God!” (See “Betrayed with a Kiss” for a discussion of that Biblical allusion.) Whittier goes on to speak of “Israel’s Ark of light,” an allusion to The Ark of the Covenant, also called The Ark of the Testimony, which is first mentioned in EXODUS 25:10-22, and then numerous times throughout the Bible, from Leviticus to Revelation. Whittier then declares, “Pilate and Herod, friends! / Chief priests and rulers, as of old, combine!” The Gospel accounts of Pilate, Herod and the Jewish religious leadership, Whittier’s “Chief priests,” can be found in MATTHEW 26:1-75 and MATTHEW 27:1-66, MARK 14:1-72 and Mark 15:1-47, LUKE 22:1-71 LUKE 23:1-56, and JOHN 18:1-40 and JOHN 19:1-42. Further, Peter tells the Jews in ACTS 3:13, “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go.” Not incidentally, Peter calls Jesus “the Holy One and the Just” in the very next verse (ACTS 3:14). Numerous references to Pilate, Herod and the Jewish priests can be discovered throughout the remainder of the book of ACTS. Also, Whittier asks, “How long, O Lord! how long / Shall such a priesthood barter truth away…?” Questioning the Lord about “How long?” especially recalls the voices of PSALMS 6:1-10, PSALMS 13, PSALMS 35, PSALMS 80 and PSALMS 90. Finally, Whittier’s closing stanza: “Oh, speed the moment on / When Wrong shall cease, and Liberty and Love / And Truth and Right throughout the earth be known / As in their home above” echoes the sentiment of Jesus’ famous prayer to His Father, The Lord’s Prayer, in MATTHEW 6:10, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Frederick Douglass alludes to Clerical Oppressors in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (see also “Daniel and the Lions“).