John Gill Commentary Deuteronomy 10

At that time the Lord said unto me
On the fortieth day, mentioned in the preceding chapter, as Aben Ezra, or at the end of forty days, as Jarchi; not of the first forty, for then were given him the first two tables of stone, with the law written on them, which he broke when he came down; but at the end of the second forty days, as some think, when he had fallen before the Lord, and entreated him for the people, and, as a token of his reconciliation to them, gave the following order:

hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first
Of the same sort of stone, of the same size and form with those God gave him in the mount the first time he was there, and which he broke in his descent from thence; they were the work of God, but these were to be hewed by Moses: the order seems to be given between the request Moses made to see the glory of the Lord, and the proclamation made of it, see (Exodus 34:1) , and come up unto me into the mount; Mount Sinai; this was certainly the third time of his going up there, and where he continued forty days and nights; but whether he continued there so long the second time may be a matter of question, though he certainly did the third time; see (Exodus 32:30Exodus 32:31) (Exodus 34:1Exodus 34:4Exodus 34:28)

and make thee an ark of wood ;
Jarchi thinks this was not the ark Bezaleel made, but made after, and is that which went out to battle; and some take it to be a temporary ark, made for the present purpose till that was finished; but Aben Ezra is of opinion it is the same that Bezaleel made: and it may be said to be made by Moses, because he was not only ordered to make it, but it was by his orders and the direction he gave to Bezaleel that it was made; and this seems the more probable, because there the tables remained, (Deuteronomy 10:5) .

And I will write on the tables the words that were in the first
tables, which you broke^F1 Though they were hewn by Moses, the writing on them was the Lord's; and the very same laws, in the same words, without any alteration or variation, were written by him on these as on the former; partly to show the authenticity of them, that they were of God and not Moses, of a divine original and not human; and partly to show the invariableness of them, that no change had been made in them, though they had been broken by the people; of which Moses's breaking the tables was a representation;

and you shall put them in the ark ;
which being a type of Christ may signify the fulfilment of the law by him, who is the end, the fulfilling end of the law for righteousness to every believer; and that as this was in his heart to fulfil it, so it is in his hand as a rule of faith and conversation to his people.

FOOTNOTES:

• F1: See a Sermon of mine on this text, called, "The Law in the Hand of Christ."

And I made an ark of shittim wood
That is, ordered it to be made, and it was made by Bezaleel, and that of shittim wood: so the ark that was put into the holy of holies was made of this wood; see (See Gill on Exodus 25:10), (See Gill on Exodus 37:1),

and hewed two tables of stone like unto the first ;
two marble ones, as the Targum of Jonathan; that is, he ordered them to be hewed, and took care that they should be exactly made as the former were, of which he had perfect knowledge, having received them of the Lord, and brought them with him down the mount:

and went up into the mount, having the two tables in my hand ;
in order to have the words of the law, the ten commands, written on them, these being only hewn stones, without anything on them: they were very probably marble, of which great quantities were near at hand.

And he wrote on the tables according to the first writing The same laws, in the same letters:

the ten commandments which the Lord spoke to you in the mount ; in Mount Sinai, on which he descended, and from which he delivered the decalogue by word of mouth in an audible manner, that all the people could hear it:

out of the midst of the fire ; in which he descended, and where he continued, and from which he spoke, so that it was indeed a fiery law;

in the day of the assembly ; when all the people of Israel were assembled together at the bottom of the mount to hear it:

and the Lord gave them to me ; the two tables, when he had wrote upon them the ten commands.

And I turned myself
From the Lord, out of whose hands he had received the tables:

and came down from the mount ;
with the two tables in his hand as before, one in one hand, and the other in the other hand:

and put the tables in the ark which I had made ;
or ordered to be made:

and there they be, as the Lord commanded me ;
there they were when Moses rehearsed what is contained in this book, on the plains of Moab, about thirty eight years after the putting them, into it; and there they continued to be when the ark was brought into Solomon's temple, (1 Kings 8:9) and there they were as long as the ark was in being; which may denote the continuance of the law in the hands of Christ under the Gospel dispensation as a rule of walk and conversation to his people.