The Covenant Box Is Brought to the Temple^(A)

8 ^(B)Then King Solomon summoned all the leaders of the tribes and clans of Israel to come to him in Jerusalem in order to take the Lord's Covenant Box from Zion, David's City, to the Temple. ^2 (C)They all assembled during the Festival of Shelters in the seventh month, in the month of Ethanim. ³ When all the leaders had gathered, the priests lifted the Covenant Box ⁴ and carried it to the Temple. The Levites and the priests also moved the Tent of the Lord's presence and all its equipment to the Temple. ⁵ King Solomon and all the people of Israel assembled in front of the Covenant Box and sacrificed a large number of sheep and cattle—too many to count. ⁶ Then the priests carried the Covenant Box into the Temple and put it in the Most Holy Place, beneath the winged creatures. ⁷ Their outstretched wings covered the box and the poles it was carried by. ⁸ The ends of the poles could be seen by anyone standing directly in front of the Most Holy Place, but from nowhere else. (The poles are still there today.) ^9 (D)There was nothing inside the Covenant Box except the two stone tablets which Moses had placed there at Mount Sinai, when the Lord made a covenant with the people of Israel as they were coming from Egypt.

^10 (E)As the priests were leaving the Temple, it was suddenly filled with a cloud ¹¹ shining with the dazzling light of the Lord's presence, and they could not go back in to perform their duties. ^12 (F)Then Solomon prayed:

Solomon's Address to the People^(G)

¹⁴ As the people stood there, King Solomon turned to face them, and he asked God's blessing on them. ¹⁵ He said, “Praise the Lord God of Israel! He has kept the promise he made to my father David, when he told him, ^16 (H)‘From the time I brought my people out of Egypt, I have not chosen any city in all the land of Israel in which a temple should be built where I would be worshiped. But I chose you, David, to rule my people.’”

^17 (I)And Solomon continued, “My father David planned to build a temple for the worship of the Lord God of Israel, ¹⁸ but the Lord said to him, ‘You were right in wanting to build a temple for me, ^19 (J)but you will never build it. It is your son, your own son, who will build my temple.’

²⁰ “And now the Lord has kept his promise. I have succeeded my father as king of Israel, and I have built the Temple for the worship of the Lord God of Israel. ²¹ I have also provided a place in the Temple for the Covenant Box containing the stone tablets of the covenant which the Lord made with our ancestors when he brought them out of Egypt.”