The sages offered an alternative view of how the Ten Commandments were arranged on the two tablets. While Rabbi Chanina ben Gamliel taught that five commandments appeared on each tablet, the sages argued that all ten were written on each tablet, for a total of twenty inscriptions.
Their proof begins with (Deuteronomy 5:19): "These things the Lord spoke... and He wrote them on two tablets of stone." The verse says "these things," referring to all ten commandments, were written on the tablets, plural. The sages read this to mean that the complete set of ten was inscribed on both stones, not split between them.
The Mekhilta then cites two poetic verses in support. (Song of Songs 4:5) compares two objects to "two fawns, twins of a gazelle." The emphasis on "twins" suggests the tablets were identical, mirror images of each other, each bearing the same content. Just as twins are alike, the two tablets carried the same words.
(Song of Songs 5:14) describes hands as "wheels of gold, set with emeralds," which the sages connected to the tablets held in God's hands. The imagery of matched golden wheels reinforces the idea of symmetry and completeness in each tablet.
This view transforms the tablets from a divided document into a doubled one. Rather than splitting the commandments, with obligations toward God on one side and obligations toward humans on the other, God inscribed the full covenant on both stones. Each tablet was a complete record, ensuring that even if one were lost or broken, the entire covenant would survive intact on the other.