5 Solomon finished all the work for the Lord's temple. Then he brought into it all the holy things that belonged to his father, David. He stored all the valuable things in a safe place in God's temple. They included silver things and gold things.

Solomon brings the Covenant Box to the temple

² Then Solomon told all the leaders of Israel to come to him in Jerusalem. They were all the leaders of the Israelite tribes and families. He wanted them to bring the Lord's Covenant Box from Mount Zion, the City of David, to put it in the temple.^{[a] 3} So all the Israelite leaders came together to meet with King Solomon. This happened during the Festival of Huts in the seventh month of the year.

⁴ When all Israel's leaders had arrived, the Levites lifted up the Covenant Box. ⁵ The priests and the other Levites carried the Covenant Box, the Tent of Meeting and all the holy things that were in the tent. ⁶ King Solomon and all the Israelites who were with him walked in front of the Covenant Box. They offered many sheep and bulls as sacrifices. There were more animals than anyone could count.

⁷ Then the priests brought the Lord's Covenant Box to its proper place in the inside room of the temple. That was the Most Holy Place. They put it under the wings of the cherubs. ⁸ The wings of the cherubs touched each other above the place where the Covenant Box was. The cherubs covered the Covenant Box and the poles that the Levites used to carry it. ⁹ The poles in the Covenant Box were very long. The priests could see their ends from the Holy Place, if they stood in front of the Most Holy Place. But nobody could see the poles from outside the temple. And they are still there today. ¹⁰ There was nothing in the Covenant Box, except the two flat pieces of stone that Moses had put there at Sinai mountain. That was where the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites after they came out from Egypt.^[b]

The priests sing to praise the Lord

¹¹ Then the priests came out of the Holy Place. All the different groups of priests who were there had made themselves clean to serve God. ¹² The Levites who were musicians stood on the east side of the altar. They were Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun and their sons and their relatives. They wore clothes made of linen. They made music with cymbals, harps and lyres. There were also 120 priests who made music with trumpets. ¹³ All these musicians made nice music together. They joined together to praise the Lord and to thank him. The singers sang loudly to the music of the trumpets, the cymbals and the other musical instruments. They loudly sang these words to praise the Lord:

Then a cloud filled the Lord's temple. ¹⁴ The priests could not do their work to serve the Lord, because of the cloud. The bright glory of the Lord filled his temple.