There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets which Moses put at Horeb, when Yahweh made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of Egypt.
World English Bible
This verse is examined in more than one Scripture Analysis section. Each lens is shown on its own terms, in the section's own words; GEBible reaches no verdict of its own.
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There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets which Moses put at Horeb, when Yahweh made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of Egypt.
World English Bible
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
1 Kings 8:9 and 2 Chronicles 5:10 both state flatly that when Solomon brought the ark into the temple, "there was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone." Hebrews 9:4, describing the same ark, says it contained "the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant" — three items, not one.
Critical scholarship: Leans toward a genuine contradiction.
Historical detail
The proposed answers and sources for each reading are on the question page.
Exodus, Leviticus, and Nehemiah consistently name Mount Sinai as the mountain of revelation (Exod 31:18, 34:4, 34:32, Lev 26:46, 27:34, Neh 9:13). Deuteronomy, 1 Kings, 2 Chronicles, and Malachi consistently name Mount Horeb (Deut 29:1, 1 Kgs 8:9, 2 Chr 5:10, Mal 4:4).
Critical scholarship: Widely regarded as a genuine contradiction.
Geography
The proposed answers and sources for each reading are on the question page.
Each section sets the viewpoints side by side; you weigh the evidence. Here, "critical scholarship" means academic study, not a value judgment. How this is built →
Within each section, grouped by shared field or question type — not a cross-section comparison.
This citation refers to this GEBible page — the verse and the analysis gathered here. To cite the underlying scholarship, cite those sources directly.
"2 Chronicles 5:10 — Scripture Analysis" GEBible, https://gebible.app/analysis/verse/2-chronicles/5/10?version=WEB (retrieved 26 August 2026).