The Ark Brought into the Temple

8 Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the fathers’ households of the sons of Israel, to King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord from the City of David, which is Zion. ² All the men of Israel assembled before King Solomon at the feast in the month of Ethanim (September-October), that is, the seventh month. ³ All the elders of Israel came, and the priests carried the ark. ⁴ They brought up the ark of the Lord and the Tent of Meeting and all the holy utensils that were in the tent; the priests and the Levites brought them up. ⁵ King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, who had assembled before him, were with him before the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen, so many that they could not be counted or numbered. ⁶ Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the house, into the Holy of Holies, under the wings of the cherubim. ⁷ For the cherubim spread their two wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim covered the ark and its [carrying] poles from above. ⁸ The poles were so long that the ends of the poles were visible from the Holy Place that was in front of the ^[a]Holy of Holies, but they were not visible from the outside; they are there to this day (the date of this writing). ⁹ There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets of stone which Moses put there at Horeb (Sinai), where the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites when they came out of the land of Egypt.^{(A) 10} Now it happened that when the priests had come out of the Holy Place, the cloud filled the Lord’s house, ¹¹ so the priests could not stand [in their positions] to minister because of the cloud, for the glory and brilliance of the Lord had filled the Lord’s house (temple).

Solomon Addresses the People

¹² Then Solomon said,