Nothing was in the ark except the two tables of stone that Moses put there at Horeb, when Adonai cut a covenant with the children of Israel when they came out of the land of Egypt.
Then Adonai said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and stay there, and I will give you the tablets of stone with the Torah and the mitzvot, which I have written so that you may instruct them.”
When He had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, He gave the two tablets of the Testimony to Moses—tablets of stone, written by the finger of God.
Adonai said to Moses, “Carve for yourself two tablets of stone like the first ones, and I will write upon them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.
So he stayed there with Adonai for 40 days and 40 nights, and he did not eat bread or drink water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant: the Ten Words.
Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that Bnei-Yisrael could not look intently upon Moses’ face because of its glory—although it was passing away—
It held a golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant, completely covered with gold. In the ark was a golden jar holding the manna , Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant—