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.