Deuteronomy 31:26 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Ver. 26. Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark— Or, by the side of the ark; as the same word is rendered, 1 Samuel 6:8 for it does not appear that it was laid up within the ark, it being expressly said, there was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone, 1 Kings 8:9. 2 Chronicles 5:10. Add to this, that the end of laying up the original volume of the law in the sanctuary, was, that it might be reserved there as the authentic copy by which all others were to be corrected and set right; which could not have been done, if it had been put within the ark, and shut up there by the cover of the mercy-seat over it, which was not to be removed. Besides, when Hilkiah, the high-priest, in the time of Josiah, found the copy of the law in the temple, there is nothing said of the ark; neither is it there spoken of as taken from thence, but as found elsewhere in the temple. 2 Kings 22:8. See Prideaux's Connection, vol. 1: b. 3.