There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone which Moshe put there at Chorev, when the LORD made a covenant with the children of Yisra'el, when they came out of the land of Egypt.
Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice, and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession from among all peoples; for all the earth is mine;
The LORD said to Moshe, *Come up to me on the mountain, and stay here, and I will give you the tables of stone with the law and the commands that I have written, that you may teach them.*
The LORD said to Moshe, *Chisel two stone tablets like the first: and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.
He was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread, nor drank water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten mitzvot.
But if the service of death, written engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the children of Yisra'el could not look steadfastly on the face of Moshe for the glory of his face; which was passing away:
These words the LORD spoke to all your assembly on the mountain out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice: and he added no more. He wrote them on two tables of stone, and gave them to me.
having a golden altar of incense, and the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which was a golden pot holding the manna, Aharon's rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant;