Exodus 16:34

16:34 Just as the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the Testimony ¹  for safekeeping. ² 

Exodus 25:16

25:16 You are to put into the ark the testimony ³  that I will give to you.

Exodus 25:21

25:21 You are to put the atonement lid on top of the ark, and in the ark you are to put the testimony I am giving you.

[16:34]  ¹ sn The “Testimony” is a reference to the Ark of the Covenant; so the pot of manna would be placed before Yahweh in the tabernacle. W. C. Kaiser says that this later instruction came from a time after the tabernacle had been built (see Exod 25:10-22; W. C. Kaiser, Jr., “Exodus,” EBC 2:405). This is not a problem since the final part of this chapter had to have been included at the end of the forty years in the desert.

[16:34]  ² tn “for keeping.”

[25:16]  ³ sn The “testimony” is the Decalogue (Exod 24:12; 31:18; Deut 4:13; 9:9; 1 Kgs 8:9); the word identifies it as the witness or affirmation of God’s commandments belonging to his covenant with Israel. It expressed God’s will and man’s duty. In other cultures important documents were put at the feet of the gods in the temples.