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(A) After the Lord's temple was finished, Solomon put in its storage rooms everything that his father David had dedicated to the Lord, including the gold and silver, and the objects used in worship.

Solomon Brings the Sacred Chest to the Temple

(1 Kings 8.1-13)

2-3 (B) The sacred chest had been kept on Mount Zion, also known as the city of David. But Solomon decided to have the chest moved to the temple while everyone was in Jerusalem to celebrate the Festival of Shelters during the seventh month.[a]

Solomon called together all the important leaders of Israel. 4-5 Then the priests and the Levites picked up the sacred chest, the sacred tent, and the objects used for worship, and they carried them to the temple. Solomon and a crowd of people stood in front of the chest and sacrificed more sheep and cattle than could be counted.

The priests carried the chest into the most holy place and put it under the winged creatures, whose wings covered both the chest and the poles used for carrying it. The poles were so long that they could be seen from just outside the most holy place, but not from anywhere else. And they stayed there from then on.

10 (C) The only things kept in the chest were the two flat stones Moses had put there when the Lord made his agreement with the people of Israel at Mount Sinai,[b] after bringing them out of Egypt.

11-13 (D) The priests of every group had gone through the ceremony to make themselves clean and acceptable to the Lord. The Levite musicians, including Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and relatives, were wearing robes of fine linen. They were standing on the east side of the altar, playing cymbals, small harps, and other stringed instruments. One hundred and twenty priests were with these musicians, and they were blowing trumpets.

They were praising the Lord by playing music and singing:

“The Lord is good,
    and his love never ends.”

Suddenly a cloud filled the temple as the priests were leaving the holy place. 14 The Lord's glory was in that cloud, and the light from it was so bright that the priests could not stay inside to do their work.

Footnotes

  1. 5.2,3 seventh month: Tishri (also called Ethanim), the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar, from about mid-September to mid-October.
  2. 5.10 Sinai: Hebrew “Horeb.”

(A)Thus all the work that Solomon did for the house of the Lord was finished. And Solomon brought in the things that David his father had dedicated, and stored the silver, the gold, and all the vessels in the treasuries of the house of God.

The Ark Brought to the Temple

Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the fathers' houses of the people of Israel, in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of (B)the city of David, which is Zion. And all the men of Israel assembled before the king at the feast that is in the seventh month. And all the elders of Israel came, (C)and the Levites took up the ark. And they brought up the ark, the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the tent; (D)the Levitical priests brought them up. And King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, who had assembled before him, were before the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered. Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place, in the inner sanctuary of the house, in the Most Holy Place, underneath the wings of the cherubim. The cherubim spread out their wings over the place of the ark, so that the cherubim made a covering above the ark and its poles. And the poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen (E)from the Holy Place before the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen from outside. And they are[a] there to this day. 10 There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets (F)that Moses put there at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the people of Israel, when they came out of Egypt. 11 And when the priests came out of the Holy Place (for all the priests who were present had consecrated themselves, without regard to (G)their divisions, 12 and all the Levitical (H)singers, (I)Asaph, (J)Heman, and Jeduthun, their sons and kinsmen, arrayed in fine linen, with (K)cymbals, harps, and lyres, stood east of the altar with 120 (L)priests who were trumpeters; 13 and it was the duty of the trumpeters and singers to make themselves heard in unison in praise and thanksgiving to the Lord), and when the song was raised, (M)with trumpets and cymbals and other musical instruments, in praise to the Lord,

(N)“For he is good,
    for his steadfast love endures forever,”

the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud, 14 so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, (O)for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.

Footnotes

  1. 2 Chronicles 5:9 Hebrew it is