Now inside the ark, there was nothing other than the two tablets of stone, which Moses had placed in it at Horeb, when the Lord formed a covenant with the sons of Israel, when they departed from the land of Egypt.
If, therefore, you will hear my voice, and you will keep my covenant, you will be to me a particular possession out of all people. For all the earth is mine.
Then the Lord said to Moses: "Ascend to me on the mountain, and be there. And I will give to you tablets of stone, and the law and the commandments that I have written. So may you teach them."
And after this he said: "Cut out for yourself two tablets of stone similar to the first ones, and I will write upon them the words which were held on the tablets that you broke.
Therefore, he was in that place with the Lord for forty days and forty nights; he did not eat bread and he did not drink water, and he wrote on the tablets the ten words of the covenant.
These are the Israelites, to whom belongs adoption as sons, and the glory and the testament, and the giving and following of the law, and the promises.
But if the ministration of death, engraved with letters upon stones, was in glory, (so much so that the sons of Israel were not able to gaze intently upon the face of Moses, because of the glory of his countenance) even though this ministration was ineffective,
The Lord spoke these words to the entire multitude of you on the mountain, from the midst of the fire and the cloud and the darkness, with a loud voice, adding nothing more. And he wrote them on two tablets of stone, which he delivered to me.
having a golden censer, and the ark of the testament, covered all around and on every part with gold, in which was a golden urn containing manna, and the rod of Aaron which had blossomed, and the tablets of the testament.