² and I will write on the tablets the same words that were on the ones you smashed. Then place the tablets in the Ark.’

⁹ Nothing was in the Ark except the two stone tablets that Moses had placed in it at Mount Sinai,^[a] where the Lord made a covenant with the people of Israel when they left the land of Egypt.

⁴ In that room were a gold incense altar and a wooden chest called the Ark of the Covenant, which was covered with gold on all sides. Inside the Ark were a gold jar containing manna, Aaron’s staff that sprouted leaves, and the stone tablets of the covenant.

⁵ Then I turned and came down the mountain and placed the tablets in the Ark of the Covenant, which I had made, just as the Lord commanded me. And the tablets are still there in the Ark.”

¹³ He proclaimed his covenant—the Ten Commandments^[a]—which he commanded you to keep, and which he wrote on two stone tablets.

²⁰ He took the stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant and placed them^[a] inside the Ark. Then he attached the carrying poles to the Ark, and he set the Ark’s cover—the place of atonement—on top of it.

¹⁶ When the Ark is finished, place inside it the stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant,^[a] which I will give to you.

¹⁷ “Then make the Ark’s cover—the place of atonement—from pure gold. It must be 45 inches long and 27 inches wide.^{[b] 18} Then make two cherubim from hammered gold, and place them on the two ends of the atonement cover. ¹⁹ Mold the cherubim on each end of the atonement cover, making it all of one piece of gold. ²⁰ The cherubim will face each other and look down on the atonement cover. With their wings spread above it, they will protect it. ²¹ Place inside the Ark the stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant, which I will give to you. Then put the atonement cover on top of the Ark. ²² I will meet with you there and talk to you from above the atonement cover between the gold cherubim that hover over the Ark of the Covenant.^[c] From there I will give you my commands for the people of Israel.