⁵ King Solomon and the entire congregation of Israel, who had gathered around him and were with him in front of the ark, were sacrificing sheep and cattle that could not be counted or numbered, because there were so many.^{(A) 6} The priests brought the ark of the Lord’s covenant to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the temple, to the most holy place^(B) beneath the wings of the cherubim. ⁷ For the cherubim were spreading their wings over^[a] the place of the ark, so that the cherubim covered the ark and its poles from above.^(C)