Numbers 17:10

Bring Aaron’s red again before the testimony. — Better, Put back (literally, make to return) Aaron’s rod... It is not stated here that the rod was put within the ark. Nor is it so stated in Exodus 16:33 with regard to the pot of manna. Neither of these was within the ark when it was brought into Solomon’s temple (1 Kings 8:9); but this statement is by no means inconsistent with that contained in Hebrews 9:4, inasmuch as the assertion that there was nothing but the tables of the law in the ark at that time does not prove that there were not other things in it at an earlier period, and may be thought to suggest the inference that such was actually the case. The Jews have a tradition that when King Josiah ordered the ark to be put in the house which King Solomon built, the rod of Aaron and the pot of manna and the anointing oil were hidden with the ark, and that at that time the rod of Aaron had buds and almonds.