1 Kings 8:1–9

Solomon’s Dedication of the Temple

8At that time Solomon assembled the elders ^fof Israel, ^gall the tribal heads ^hand 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, ⁱthat is Zion. ^j2So all the men of Israel were assembled in the presence of King Solomon in the seventh month, the month of Ethanim, ^kat the festival. ^l

³All the elders ^mof Israel came, and the priests ⁿpicked up the ark. ^o4The priests and the Levites brought the ark of the Lord, the tent of meeting, ^pand the holy utensils that were in the tent. ^q5King Solomon and the entire congregation of Israel, who had gathered around him and were with him in front of the ark, were sacrificing sheep and cattle that could not be counted or numbered, because there were so many. ^r6The priests brought the ark of the Lord’s covenant to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the temple, to the most holy place ^sbeneath the wings of the cherubim. ⁷For the cherubim were spreading their wings over ^tthe place of the ark, so that the cherubim covered the ark and its poles from above. ^u8The 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 there to this day. ^v9Nothing was in the ark except the two stone tablets that Moses had put there at Horeb, ^wxwhere the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites when they came out of the land of Egypt. ^y