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1Then Solomon assembled Israel’s elders, all the tribal leaders, and the chiefs of Israel’s clans at Jerusalem to bring up the chest containing the LORD ’s covenant from David’s City Zion.
2Everyone in Israel assembled before King Solomon in the seventh month, the month of Ethanim, during the festival.[#8.2 September–October, Tishrei; Ethanim is a month from a Canaanite calendar.]
3When all of Israel’s elders had arrived, the priests picked up the chest.
4They brought the LORD ’s chest, the meeting tent, and all the holy equipment that was in the tent. The priests and the Levites brought them up,
5while King Solomon and the entire Israelite assembly that had joined him before the chest sacrificed countless sheep and oxen.
6The priests brought the chest containing the LORD ’s covenant to its designated spot beneath the wings of the winged creatures in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the most holy place.
7The winged creatures spread their wings over the place where the chest rested, covering the chest and its carrying poles.
8The carrying poles were so long that their tips could be seen from the holy place in front of the inner sanctuary, though they weren’t visible from outside. They are still there today.
9Nothing was in the chest except the two stone tablets Moses had placed there while at Horeb, where the LORD made a covenant with the Israelites after they left Egypt.
10When the priests left the holy place, the cloud filled the LORD ’s temple,
11and the priests were unable to carry out their duties due to the cloud because the LORD ’s glory filled the LORD ’s temple.
12Then Solomon said, “The LORD said that he would live in a dark cloud,
13but I have indeed built you a lofty temple as a place where you can live forever.”
14The king turned around, and while the entire assembly of Israel was standing there, he blessed them,
15saying, “Bless Israel’s God, the LORD , who spoke directly to my father David and now has kept his promise:
16‘From the day I brought my people Israel out of Egypt I haven’t selected a city from any Israelite tribe as a site for the building of a temple for my name. But now I have chosen David to be over my people Israel.’
17My father David wanted to build a temple for the name of the LORD , Israel’s God.
18“But the LORD said to my father David, ‘It is very good that you thought to build a temple for my name.
19Nevertheless, you yourself won’t build that temple. Instead, your very own son will build the temple for my name.’
20The LORD has kept his promise—I have succeeded my father David on Israel’s throne just as the LORD said, and I have built the temple for the name of the LORD , Israel’s God.
21There I’ve placed the chest that contains the covenant that the LORD made with our ancestors when he brought them out of Egypt.”
22Solomon stood before the LORD ’s altar in front of the entire Israelite assembly and, spreading out his hands toward the sky,
23he said:
54As soon as Solomon finished praying and making these requests to the LORD , he got up from before the LORD ’s altar, where he had been kneeling with his hands spread out to heaven.
55He stood up and blessed the whole Israelite assembly in a loud voice:
56“May the LORD be blessed! He has given rest to his people Israel just as he promised. He hasn’t neglected any part of the good promise he made through his servant Moses.
57May the LORD our God be with us, just as he was with our ancestors. May he never leave us or abandon us.
58May he draw our hearts to him to walk in all his ways and observe his commands, his laws, and his judgments that he gave our ancestors.
59And may these words of mine that I have cried out before the LORD remain near to the LORD our God day and night so that he may do right by his servant and his people Israel for each day’s need,
60and so that all the earth’s peoples may know that the LORD is God. There is no other God!
61Now may you be committed to the LORD our God with all your heart by following his laws and observing his commands, just as you are doing right now.”
62Then the king and all Israel with him sacrificed to the LORD .
63Solomon offered well-being sacrifices to the LORD : twenty-two thousand oxen and one hundred twenty thousand sheep when the king and all Israel dedicated the LORD ’s temple.
64On that day the king made holy the middle of the courtyard in front of the LORD ’s temple. He had to offer the entirely burned offerings, grain offerings, and the fat of well-being sacrifices there, because the bronze altar that was in the LORD ’s presence was too small to contain the entirely burned offerings, the grain offerings, and the fat of the well-being sacrifices.
65At that time Solomon, together with all Israel, held a celebration. It was a large assembly from Lebo-hamath to the border of Egypt. They celebrated for seven days and then for another seven days in the presence of the LORD our God: fourteen days in all.
66On the eighth day, Solomon dismissed the people. They blessed the king and went back to their tents happy and pleased about all the good that the LORD had done for his servant David and for his people Israel.[#8.66 The second seven-day celebration (see 2 Chron 7:8-9); but contrast LXX.]