The Ark Enters the Temple
Once the temple is finished, Solomon gathers Israel's leaders and the people at the feast to bring up the ark, the tent, and the sacred furnishings. The transfer is public, ordered, and carried out by the Levites and priests.
S1o all the work that Solomon had performed for the house of the LORD was completed. 2At that time Solomon assembled in Jerusalem the elders of Israel— all the tribal heads and family leaders of the Israelites — to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD from Zion, the City of David. 3So all the men of Israel came together to the king at the feast in the seventh month. 4When all the elders of Israel had arrived, the Levites took up the ark, 5and they brought up the ark and the Tent of Meeting with all its sacred furnishings. The Levitical priests carried them up.
Before the ark, Solomon and the assembled congregation offer countless sacrifices, and the priests place the ark in the Most Holy Place beneath the cherubim. The chapter lingers over its position and contents, tying this moment back to the covenant made through Moses.
6There, before the ark, King Solomon and the whole congregation of Israel who had assembled with him sacrificed so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered. 7Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the LORD to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place, beneath the wings of the cherubim. 8For the cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark and overshadowed the ark and its poles. 9The poles of the ark extended far enough that their ends were visible from in front of the inner sanctuary, but not from outside the Holy Place; and they are there to this day. 10There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb, where the LORD had made a covenant with the Israelites after they had come out of Egypt.
As the consecrated priests come out, singers and trumpeters stand together and praise the LORD with one voice. Their thanksgiving rises until the temple fills with the cloud of divine glory, and the priests can no longer stand to minister.
11Now all the priests who were present had consecrated themselves regardless of their divisions. And when the priests came out of the Holy Place, 12all the Levitical singers — Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and relatives — stood on the east side of the altar, dressed in fine linen and playing cymbals, harps, and lyres, accompanied by 120 priests sounding trumpets. 13The trumpeters and singers joined together to praise and thank the LORD with one voice. They lifted up their voices, accompanied by trumpets, cymbals, and musical instruments, in praise to the LORD: 14And the temple, the house of the LORD, was filled with a cloud so that the priests could not stand there to minister because of the cloud. For the glory of the LORD filled the house of God.