⁶ King Solomon and the entire community of Israel, gathered for the occasion before the ark, sacrificed sheep and oxen too many to number or count. ⁷ The priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place: the inner sanctuary of the house, the holy of holies, beneath the wings of the cherubim. ⁸ The cherubim had their wings spread out over the place of the ark, covering the ark and its poles from above. ⁹ The poles were so long that their ends could be seen from the holy place in front of the inner sanctuary. (They cannot be seen from outside, but they remain there to this day.)^{[a] 10} There was nothing in the ark but the two tablets which Moses had put there at Horeb when the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites after they went forth from Egypt.

¹³ When the trumpeters and singers were heard as a single voice praising and giving thanks to the Lord, and when they raised the sound of the trumpets, cymbals, and other musical instruments to “Praise the Lord, who is so good, whose love endures forever,” the cloud filled the house of the Lord.^(A)