Charles Ellicott Commentary Deuteronomy 10:5

"And I turned and came down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there they are as Jehovah commanded me." — Deuteronomy 10:5 (ASV)

I ... put the tables in the ark which I (had) made; and there they be. —Or, and they were there, or they continued there. According to the narrative in Exodus, the ark in which the tables ultimately remained was made afterwards. The English reader must not be misled by the word “had” in “I had made.” There is no pluperfect in Hebrew. The time of an action is determined not so much by the form of the verb as by its relation to the context. “I put the tables in the ark which I made, and they remained there,” is the literal sense. “I made” may very well mean “I caused to be made,” and refers to the ark which Bezaleel constructed under Moses’ directions.