There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets of stone which Moses laid there at Horeb, where Yahweh cut a covenant with the sons of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.
So now then, if you will indeed listen to My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My treasured possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine;
Now Yahweh said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and remain there, and I will give you the stone tablets with the law and the commandment which I have written for their instruction.”
When He had finished speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, He gave Moses the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written by the finger of God.
Now Yahweh said to Moses, “Carve out for yourself two stone tablets like the former ones, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets which you shattered.
So he was there with Yahweh forty days and forty nights; he did not eat bread or drink water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.
who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises,
But if the ministry of death, in letters having been engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, which was being brought to an end,
“These words Yahweh spoke to all your assembly at the mountain from the midst of the fire, of the cloud and of the dense gloom, with a great voice, and He added no more. He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.
having a golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden jar holding the manna, and Aaron’s rod which budded, and the tablets of the covenant.