1 Kings 8:1–9

The Ark Brought into the Temple

^1aThen Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all ^bthe heads of the tribes, the leaders of the fathers’ households of the sons of Israel, to King Solomon in Jerusalem, ^cto bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord from ^dthe city of David, which is Zion.

²All the men of Israel assembled themselves to King Solomon at ^athe feast, in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month.

³Then all the elders of Israel came, and ^athe priests took up the ark.

⁴They brought up the ark of the Lord and ^athe tent of meeting and all the holy utensils, which were in the tent, and the priests and the Levites brought them up.

⁵And King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, who were assembled to him, ^awere with him before the ark, sacrificing ¹so many sheep and oxen they could not be counted or numbered.

⁶Then ^athe priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord ^bto its place, into the inner sanctuary of the house, to the most holy place, ^cunder the wings of the cherubim.

⁷For the cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim made a covering over the ark and its poles from above.

⁸But ^athe poles were so long that the ends of the poles could be seen from the holy place before the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen outside; they are there to this day.

^9aThere was nothing in the ark except the two tablets of stone which Moses put there at Horeb, where ^bthe Lord made a covenant with the sons of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.