Note 9 — III. Origin of the Materials of Writing, Tablets, etc.
Reading edition
And the Lord said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest.—Exodus xxxiv. 1.
In the ark of the covenant, so carefully preserved by the Jews, was Moses required to put the two tables of stone on which the Ten Commandments were written with the finger of God. We are expressly told that the ark contained nothing besides these tables. Aaron’s rod, the pot of manna, and the copy of the law were by, but not within the ark.—1 Kings viii. 9.