The Ark Brought to the Temple^(A)

8 Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel, before King Solomon in Jerusalem, so that they could ensure that the ark of the covenant of the Lord would be brought out of the City of David in Zion. ² All the men of Israel assembled themselves before King Solomon at the feast in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month.

³ All the elders of Israel came, and the priests carried the ark. ⁴ The priests and Levites brought up the ark of the Lord, the tabernacle of the congregation, and all the holy implements that were in the tabernacle. ⁵ King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel who were assembled before him stood together in front of the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and oxen that they could not be told or numbered.

⁶ The priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place in the inner sanctuary of the house, to the Most Holy Place under the wings of the cherubim. ⁷ For the cherubim spread forth their two wings over the place of the ark and covered the ark and the poles from above. ⁸ The poles were so long that the ends of the poles could be seen out in the holy place in front of the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen from outside, and they are there to this day. ⁹ There was nothing in the ark except for the two tablets of stone that Moses put there at Horeb when the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel after they had come out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁰ And when the priests came out of the holy place, the cloud filled the house of the Lord, ¹¹ so that the priests could not continue to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.