There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb, when the LORD made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.
There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone (Deuteronomy 31:26). Some have concluded from this statement that Aaron rod (Numbers 17:10), the golden censer and the manna (Exodus 16:33), had been removed since the Israelites were settled in the promised land or lost while the ark was captive among the Philistines. But nothing else was ever in the ark, the articles mentioned Hebrews 9:4, being not in, but by it, being laid in the most holy place before the testimony (Exodus 16:33; Numbers 17:10).