Exodus 25:16

To wit, the two tables of stone, wherein the decalogue was written, called the testimony here, and Exodus 30:6 Leviticus 16:13; and more fully the tables of the testimony, Exodus 31:18 Numbers 1:50; because they were witnesses of that covenant made between God and his people, whence they are called the tables of the covenant, Deuteronomy 9:9, and the ark, the ark of the covenant, Numbers 10:33. This being as a public record both of God's mercy promised to them, and of the duty and conditions required of them. See Exodus 16:34.