² Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the fathers’ households of the Israelites, in Jerusalem to bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord up from the City of David, which is Zion. ³ All the men of Israel gathered before the king at the feast in the seventh month. ⁴ And all the elders of Israel came, and the Levites took up the ark. ⁵ The Levitical priests brought up the ark, the Tent of Meeting, and all the holy utensils that were in the Tent. ⁶ And King Solomon and all the assembly of Israel who gathered together with him before the ark were sacrificing so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered. ⁷ Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place, to the inner sanctuary of the house, into the Holy of Holies, under the wings of the cherubim; ⁸ for the cherubim spread out their wings over the place of the ark, making a covering above the ark and its carrying poles. ⁹ The poles were so long that the ends of the poles of the ark were visible from the front of the Holy of Holies (inner sanctuary), but were not visible from the outside. They are there to this day. ¹⁰ There was nothing in the ark except ^[a]the two tablets [of the Ten Commandments] which Moses put there at Mount Horeb, when the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites, when they came out of Egypt.^(A)

The Glory of God Fills the Temple

¹¹ When the priests came out of the Holy Place (for all the priests who were present had sanctified themselves [separating themselves from everything unclean], without regard to their ^[b]assigned divisions), ¹² and all of the Levitical singers, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, with their sons and relatives, clothed in fine linen, with cymbals, harps, and lyres were standing at the east end of the altar, and with them a hundred and twenty priests blowing trumpets ¹³ in unison when the trumpeters and singers were to make themselves heard with one voice praising and thanking the Lord, and when they raised their voices accompanied by the trumpets and cymbals and [other] instruments of music, and when they praised the Lord, saying, “For He is good, for His mercy and lovingkindness endure forever,” then the house of the Lord was filled with a cloud, ¹⁴ so that the priests could not remain standing to minister because of the cloud; for the glory and brilliance of the Lord filled the house of God.