Nothing was in the ark, only the two tables of stone which Moses put there in Horeb, when Jehovah cut a covenant with the sons of Israel as they went out of the land of Egypt.
So says Jehovah, the God of Israel: I cut a covenant with your fathers in the day I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, saying,
whether it is a good thing, or whether an evil thing, we will obey the voice of Jehovah our God, to whom we send you; so that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of Jehovah our God.
And I passed by you, and I looked on you, and, behold, your time was the time of love. And I spread My skirt over you and covered your nakedness. And I swore to you and entered into a covenant with you, a statement of the Lord Jehovah. And you became Mine.
Is there not one father to us all? Has not one God created us? Why do we act deceitfully, each man with his brother, to pollute the covenant of our fathers?
And after the reading of the Law, and of the Prophets, the synagogue rulers sent to them, saying, Men, brothers, if there is a word of exhortation to the people, speak.