The Ark Brought to the Temple

¹Then King Solomon summoned into his presence at Jerusalem the elders of Israel, all the heads of the tribes and the chiefs of the Israelite families, to bring up the ark of the Lord ’s covenant from Zion, the City of David.

²All the Israelites came together to King Solomon at the time of the festival in the month of Ethanim, the seventh month.

³When all the elders of Israel had arrived, the priests took up the ark,

⁴and they brought up the ark of the Lord and the tent of meeting and all the sacred furnishings in it. The priests and Levites carried them up,

⁵and King Solomon and the entire assembly of Israel that had gathered about him were before the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and cattle that they could not be recorded or counted.

⁶The priests then brought the ark of the Lord ’s covenant to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place, and put it beneath the wings of the cherubim.

⁷The cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark and overshadowed the ark and its carrying poles.

⁸These poles were so long that their ends could be seen from the Holy Place in front of the inner sanctuary, but not from outside the Holy Place; and they are still there today.

⁹There was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites after they came out of Egypt.

¹⁰When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of the Lord .

¹¹And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled his temple.

¹²Then Solomon said, “The Lord has said that he would dwell in a dark cloud;

¹³I have indeed built a magnificent temple for you, a place for you to dwell forever.”

¹⁴While the whole assembly of Israel was standing there, the king turned around and blessed them.

¹⁵Then he said:

Solomon’s Prayer of Dedication

²²Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in front of the whole assembly of Israel, spread out his hands toward heaven

²³and said:

⁵⁴When Solomon had finished all these prayers and supplications to the Lord , he rose from before the altar of the Lord , where he had been kneeling with his hands spread out toward heaven.

⁵⁵He stood and blessed the whole assembly of Israel in a loud voice, saying:

The Dedication of the Temple

⁶²Then the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices before the Lord .

⁶³Solomon offered a sacrifice of fellowship offerings to the Lord : twenty-two thousand cattle and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep and goats. So the king and all the Israelites dedicated the temple of the Lord .

⁶⁴On that same day the king consecrated the middle part of the courtyard in front of the temple of the Lord , and there he offered burnt offerings, grain offerings and the fat of the fellowship offerings, because the bronze altar that stood before the Lord was too small to hold the burnt offerings, the grain offerings and the fat of the fellowship offerings.

⁶⁵So Solomon observed the festival at that time, and all Israel with him—a vast assembly, people from Lebo Hamath to the Wadi of Egypt. They celebrated it before the Lord our God for seven days and seven days more, fourteen days in all.

⁶⁶On the following day he sent the people away. They blessed the king and then went home, joyful and glad in heart for all the good things the Lord had done for his servant David and his people Israel.