Exodus 37:6 He made the atonement cover of pure gold— two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide. (Bezalel continues his work on the ark of the covenant following the Lord's instructions for the place where He would make His presence dwell among His people. The pure gold cover of the ark is called the atonement cover. It is about 3 3/4 feet long and 2 1/4 feet wide and high. It is made of pure gold to show that this ark cover has nothing to do with the earthly wood of humanity. It is called the atonement cover because it covers the container into which the Ten Commandments were placed, God's holy covenant with mankind. Since no one could ever fulfill the Ten Commandments, the whole Law, and since the Lord knew that we humans could never fulfill them, here, at the very foundation of His covenant with His people, He already provides a symbolic picture of His atonement for us. Now, when He looks at humanity, when He views His covenant with us, when He sees how impossibly we have failed to keep His law, He doesn't just see our failure. He sees His atonement. He overlays His Ten Commandments with His atonement for us, an atonement that is pure and undefiled in its nature and one that completely covers us and all our failures, one that totally covers our inadequacy in meeting God's holy standards.)
