Nothing was in the ark except the two stone tablets that Moses had put there at Horeb, , where the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites when they came out of the land of Egypt.
It had the gold altar of incense and the ark of the covenant, covered with gold on all sides, in which was a gold jar containing the manna, Aaron’s staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant.
Nothing was in the ark except the two tablets that Moses had put in it at Horeb, , where the Lord had made a covenant with the Israelites when they came out of Egypt.
Then the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed.
Then the glory of the Lord rose from above the cherub to the threshold of the temple. The temple was filled with the cloud, and the court was filled with the brightness of the Lord’s glory.
The Lord told Moses, ‘Put Aaron’s staff back in front of the testimony to be kept as a sign for the rebels, so that you may put an end to their complaints before me, or else they will die.’
On the day the tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the testimony, and it appeared like fire above the tabernacle from evening until morning.
The Lord said to Moses, ‘Tell your brother Aaron that he may not come whenever he wants into the holy place behind the curtain in front of the mercy seat on the ark or else he will die, because I appear in the cloud above the mercy seat.
The Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to lead them on their way during the day and in a pillar of fire to give them light at night, so that they could travel day or night.
The poles were so long that their ends were seen from the holy place , in front of the inner sanctuary, but they were not seen from outside; they are still there today.