1 Kings 8:1–9

SOLOMON’S DEDICATION OF THE TEMPLE

8At that time Solomon assembled the elders^l of Israel,^m all the tribal headsⁿ and the ancestral leaders of the Israelites before him at Jerusalem in order to bring the ark of the Lord’s covenant from the city of David,^o that is Zion.^{p 2}So all the men of Israel were assembled in the presence of King Solomon in the month of Ethanim, which is the seventh month,^A at the festival.^q

³All the elders^r of Israel came, and the priests^s picked up the ark.^{t 4}The priests and the Levites brought the ark of the Lord, the tent of meeting,^u and the holy utensils that were in the tent.^{v 5}King Solomon and the entire congregation of Israel, who had gathered around him and were with him in front of the ark, were sacrificing sheep, goats, and cattle that could not be counted or numbered, because there were so many.^{w 6}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^x beneath the wings of the cherubim. ⁷For the cherubim were spreading their wings over^B the place of the ark, so that the cherubim covered the ark and its poles from above.^{y 8}The poles were so long that their ends were seen from the holy place in front of the inner sanctuary, but they were not seen from outside the sanctuary; they are still there today.^{z 9}Nothing was in the ark except the two stone tablets that Moses had put there at Horeb,^Caa where the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites when they came out of the land of Egypt.^ab