King Solomon and all the people of Israel assembled in front of the Covenant Box and sacrificed a large number of sheep and cattle---too many to count.

Then the priests carried the Covenant Box into the Temple and put it in the Most Holy Place, beneath the winged creatures.

There was nothing inside the Covenant Box except the two stone tablets which Moses had placed there at Mount Sinai, when the LORD made a covenant with the people of Israel as they were coming from Egypt.

Moses stayed there with the LORD forty days and nights, eating and drinking nothing. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant---the Ten Commandments.

I went up the mountain to receive the stone tablets on which was written the covenant that the LORD had made with you. I stayed there forty days and nights and did not eat or drink anything.

Yes, after those forty days and nights the LORD gave me the two stone tablets on which he had written the covenant.

"Take this book of God's Law and place it beside the Covenant Box of the LORD your God, so that it will remain there as a witness against his people.