⁶ King Solomon and the entire congregation of Israel who had gathered around him were in front of the ark sacrificing sheep and cattle that could not be counted or numbered because there were so many. ⁷ The priests brought the ark of the Lord’s covenant to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the temple, to the most holy place, beneath the wings of the cherubim.^{(A) 8} And the cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark so that the cherubim formed a cover above the ark and its poles.