²Then Solomon assembled the respected leaders of Israel, all the heads of the tribes, and the leaders of the Israelite families. They came to Jerusalem to take the ark of the Lord’s promise from the City of David (that is, Zion). ³All the men of Israel gathered around the king at the Festival ⸤of Booths⸥ in the seventh month.

⁴When all the leaders of Israel had arrived, the Levites picked up the ark. ⁵They brought the ark, the tent of meeting, and all the holy utensils in it ⸤to the temple⸥. The priests and the Levites carried them ⁶while King Solomon and the whole assembly from Israel were offering countless sheep and cattle sacrifices in front of the ark. ⁷The priests brought the ark of the Lord’s promise to its place in the inner room of the temple (the most holy place) under the wings of the angels.^a

⁸The angels’ outstretched wings were over the place where the ark ⸤rested⸥ so that the angels became a covering above the ark and its poles. ⁹The poles were so long that their ends could be seen in the holy place by anyone standing in front of the inner room,^bbut they couldn’t be seen outside. (They are still there today.) ¹⁰There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets Moses placed there at Horeb, where the Lord made a promise to the Israelites after they left Egypt.

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Footnotes

a 5:7 Or “cherubim.”
b 5:9 A few Hebrew manuscripts, 1 Kings 8:8, Greek; other Hebrew manuscripts “The poles extended so long from the ark that their ends could be seen by anyone standing in front of the inner room.”