Where are the Tablets of Stone Moses Broke? Are They Lost Forever?
When Mosheh broke the tablets of stone, aka the Ten Commandments, what happened to the pieces? Were they left on the ground and thus they were lost forever in the desert? Or they were stored somewhere. And if they were stored somewhere, where are they now? And why would Mosheh break something written with the finger of Elohim in the first place? These are all legitimate questions and in order to find answers to them, we need to follow the sequence of events in the first months of freedom of Israel.
Mosheh ascended Sinai three times to receive the tablets of stone
On the seventh day of the third month of the year, on the first day of the week, which later would become the Feast of the Weeks or Shavuot, YHVH called Mosheh to give him the tablets of stone, and the Torah and the command which He had written, to teach them (Exo 20:2-17). And also, to receive the instructions as to how to make the Tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant (Exo 25:8-16), and the menorah for which two Israelites were appointed to do the work (Exo 31:2-7). And it came to be that Mosheh was on the mountain forty days and forty nights (Exo 24:17-18) from the seventh of the third month until the seventeenth of the fourth month. And after Mosheh received all instructions, at the end of the forty days and forty nights he also received the tablets of stone, the Covenant of YHVH:
When I went up into the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the Covenant which Yehovah made with you, then I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I did not eat bread nor did I drink water. Then Yehovah gave me the two tablets of stone written with the finger of Elohim, and on them were all the Words which Yehovah had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly. And it came to be, at the end of forty days and forty nights, that Yehovah gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the Covenant. (Deu 9:9-11)
When Mosheh descended in forty days and nights [the 17th day of the 4th month of the year], Yehoshua (Joshua), who accompanied him to the skirts of the mountain, heard the voice of the people as they shouted (Exo 32:17). They descended to the camp to see that Israel had already broken the Covenant of YHVH by having made an image of the invisible Elohim. In his anger, Mosheh broke the tablets of stone, the Covenant, into pieces (Exo 32:19-20). He burned the golden calf and judged the sinners as about three thousand men fell that day.
On the next day [the 19th] Mosheh ascended the mountain early in the morning that he might atone for the sin of the children of Israel (Exo 32:30). He spent another forty days and forty nights with wrath of Elohim with no bread to eat and nor water to drink begging for mercy for his people because of the sin of the golden calf. He was with YHVH begging for mercy until the 29th of the fifth month when he descended to the camp. It is not arbitrary to say that those forty days Mosheh was begging for mercy for his people, because very clearly, he told the new generation forty years later at Mount Nebo that he prostrated before YHVH forty complete days: I fell down before Yehovah the forty days and forty nights. We read in the context,
So I fell down before Yehovah the forty days and forty nights, for I fell down because Yehovah had said He would destroy you. And I prayed to Yehovah, and said, ‘O Master Yehovah, do not destroy Your people and Your inheritance whom You have redeemed in Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a strong hand. ‘Remember Your servants, Abraham, Yitshaq, and Ya’akov. Do not look on the stubbornness of this people, or on their wrong or on their sin, lest the land from which You brought us should say, “Because Yehovah was not able to bring them to the land which He promised them, and because He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.” ‘And they are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm.’ (Deu 9:25-29)
YHVH told Mosheh to make himself an ark of wood where he was to put the broken pieces, because although the people had broken the Covenant of YHVH, the pieces of the two tablets of stone were still sacred (Deu 10:1-2). The Golden Ark of the Covenant was not made yet; it would be built later.
Mosheh made an ark of wood, hewed two tablets of stone like the first and ascended the mountain again on the 30th day of the fifth month early in the morning with new tablets for other forty days and forty nights (Deu 10:3-5). He went up to the mountain and prayed before YHVH for forgiveness of Israel’s sin (Exo 34:1-9). That was his third set of forty days and forty nights with YHVH with no bread, nor water (as at the first) to receive the tablets of stone of the Renewed Covenant (Deu 9:18).
And I took the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes, and I fell down before Yehovah, as at the first, forty days and forty nights. I did not eat bread and I did not drink water, because of all your sins which you committed in doing evil in the eyes of Yehovah, to provoke Him. Because I was afraid of the displeasure and rage with which Yehovah was wroth with you, to destroy you. But Yehovah listened to me that time once more. (Deu 9:17-19)
That was his third ascending. Mosheh spent another forty days and forty nights there in reconciliation (Exo 34:10-28). Because of the supplications, YHVH listen to him once more as at the second and renewed the Covenant with Israel with the explicit command not to make molded idols for themselves (Exo 34:18). Thus, He reminded them of their sin to Him. YHVH wrote on these tablets of stone with His finger the Words that were on the first set. Thus, Mosheh was with YHVH three sets of forty days and forty nights or 120 days. Counting these days from the first day he ascended, we come to the day Mosheh returned to the camp with the tablets of the Renewed Covenant: that was the tenth day of the seventh month of the year. That day became later known as the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippurim. That day was called the Day of Atonement, because on it Mosheh said to the people that YHVH had forgiven them the sin of the golden calf.
Two arks for the tablets of the Covenant
By having analyzed the sequence of events, it is clear that there were two arks at the time of the Exodus: one to house the broken tablets and another ark that would house the Renewed Covenant. And there was a reason for the ark of wood Mosheh made. Although, the people broke the Covenant of YHVH by making an image of the invisible Elohim who took them out of Egypt, YHVH’s Words were not broken. His Word has been set forever in heavens. The broken pieces of the first set of stones could not have possibly remained on the ground as common things. That is why there was a need of two arks: one of wood to preserve the pieces of the broken Covenant, and another for the Renewed Covenant. The tablets of the broken Covenant were preserved in an ark as a warning for the coming generations reminding them what the fathers did in the wilderness. That wood ark served also as an ark in which the tablets of the Renewed Covenant were kept until the Ark of beaten gold had to be built. The Ark of wood Mosheh made was the Ark that had the broken pieces of the first set in it and was the Ark that preceded the Israelites by three days of travel in the wilderness to prepare for them a place to encamp, as we read.
And they set forward from the mount of Yehovah three days’ journey; and the Ark of the Covenant of Yehovah went before them three days’ journey, to seek out a resting-place for them. And the cloud of Yehovah was over them by day, when they set forward from the camp. And it came to pass, when the Ark set forward, that Mosheh said: ‘Rise up, O Yehovah, and let Your enemies be scattered; and let them that hate You flee before You.’ And when it rested, he said: ‘Return, O Yehovah, to the ten thousand of the families of Israel.’ (Num 10:33-36)
The Torah says that the Ark of Yehovah’s covenant traveled three days ahead of them, as Israel was marching towards the land. That was the Ark that guided them in the desert. That was not the ark that Betsal’el son of Uri made of beaten gold (Exo 31:2-5), because the Israelites did not occupy themselves with the construction of the Tabernacle until Mosheh descended the mountain. Betsal’el made the Tabernacle first, and only then he made the Ark in which the tablets of the Renewed Covenant were laid. It follows, therefore, that the ark with broken tablets was another ark, and that was the one that was travelling before them in the desert, but the one Betsal’el made did not travel before them, but traveled with them. The Ark that had the broken pieces was the ark that accompanied the Israelites in battle.
We should note that the Torah calls the ark with the broken tablets of stone the Ark of the Covenant of Yehovah, as the ark made of beaten gold is also called the Ark of the Covenant of Yehovah. Both arks were called the Ark of the Covenant of Yehovah. In other words, we learn that there were two arks: one that travelled before the camp three days’ journey and the other that travelled in the camp. Both arks are called the Ark of the Covenant of Yehovah, and both sets of stone in them are called the Covenant of Yehovah. Therefore, we understand that the tablets of the broken Covenant were laid in an ark because they were set-apart, as the second set of tablets were also set-apart. They were laid in the ark and considered set-apart regardless of the breaking of the promise on Israel’s part to do everything YHVH had asked them to do.
So, where is the ark with the tablets of stone Mosheh broke?
In the article “Where is the Ark of the Covenant” we studied that there would be two hypotheses for hiding the Ark of the Covenant. The first one we studied is based on the accounts of the Apocryphal books of Baruch the disciple of Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) and Maccabees that the Ark was hidden by Jeremiah in a cave. The second is actually based on the tradition of the rabbis according to which when King Shlomo (Solomon) built the Temple in Jerusalem, the relics of the Tabernacle were stored deep in the earth below it. There is a third hypothesis that the ark has been guarded by monks in a church in Ethiopia, but the present author does not consider this to be plausible. Whatever the case might be, we may safely assume that the Ark of the Covenant with the broken pieces of the tablets had been hidden in a secret place together with the Ark of the Renewed Covenant: whether in a cave or in a hidden chamber beneath the Temple. Either way, it was hidden. However, according to another Jewish tradition, as found in Talmud, Bava Batra 14b, both the second tablets and the broken tablets of the Covenant were placed in the Ark made of beaten gold. So, according to this tradition, wherever the Ark of the Covenant was hidden, both sets of the tablets were preserved for the day when the Third Temple will be built in Jerusalem.
With that being said, the question that still needs to be answered is: why did Mosheh have to break the tablets of the Covenant? Did he not know that he broke what was written with the finger of Elohim? Was Mosheh aware of the consequences for his actions?
We will seek the answer to these questions, but it suffices to say that both sets of tablets of the Covenant with the nation of Israel are sacred for YHVH.
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