The Sacred Chest was brought to the temple

2 Then King Solomon summoned to Jerusalem all the elders of Israel, all the leaders of the tribes and of the families/clans. He wanted them to help to bring to the temple Yahweh’s Sacred Chest from Zion Hill, where it was in the part of the city called ‘The City of David’. 3 So all the leaders of Israel gathered together along with the king, during the Festival of Living in Temporary Shelters, in October.

4 When they had all arrived, the descendants of Levi lifted up the Sacred Chest, 5 and they carried it and the Sacred Tent and the sacred things that were inside it. The priests, who were also descended from Levi, carried them. 6 King Solomon and many of the other people of Israel who had gathered there walked in front of the Sacred Chest. And they sacrificed a huge amount of sheep and cattle. No one was able to count them because there were very many.

7 The priests then brought the Sacred Chest into the Most Holy Place, the inner room of the temple, and they placed it under the wings of the statues of winged creatures. 8 The wings of those statues spread out over the Sacred Chest and over the poles by which it was carried. 9 The poles were very long, with the result that they could be seen by those who were standing at the entrance to the Most Holy Place, but they could not be seen by anyone standing outside the temple. Those poles are still there. 10 The only things that were inside the Sacred Chest were the two stone tablets that Moses had put there at Sinai Mountain, where Yahweh made an agreement with the Israeli people after they came out of Egypt.

11 Then the priests left the Holy Place. All the priests who were there, from every group, had performed the rituals to cause them to be acceptable to God. 12 All the descendants of Levi who were musicians—Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, their sons and their other relatives—stood on the east side of the altar. They were wearing linen clothes, and they were playing cymbals, harps, and lyres. There were 120 other priests who were blowing trumpets. 13 The men blowing trumpets, those playing the cymbals and other musical instruments, and the singers, made music together, praising Yahweh and singing this song:

“Yahweh is good to us;

he faithfully loves us forever.”

Then suddenly the temple was filled with a cloud. 14 The glorious radiance of Yahweh filled the temple, with the result that the priests were not able to continue doing their work.

6 Then Solomon said, “Yahweh, you said that you would live in a dark cloud. 2 But now I have built a glorious temple for you to live in forever!”

3 Then while all the people stood there, Solomon turned toward the people and he asked God to bless them. 4 He said to them,

“Praise Yahweh, the God to whom we Israelis belong, who has caused to happen what he promised to my father David. What he said to David was this:

5 ‘From the time that I brought my people out of Egypt, I have never chosen a city in Israel in which a temple should be built for people to worship me there. Nor did I choose anyone to be the leader of my Israeli people. 6 But now I have chosen Jerusalem to be the place for people to worship me, and I have chosen you to rule my Israeli people.’ ”

7 Then Solomon said, “My father David wanted to build a temple for Yahweh, the God to whom we Israelis belong. 8 But Yahweh said to him, ‘You have wanted to build a temple for me, and what you wanted to do was good. 9 However, you are not the one who I want to build the temple; it is one of your own sons who I want to build a temple for me.’

10 “And Yahweh has done what he promised to do. I have become the king of Israel to succeed my father, and I am ruling the people, like Yahweh promised, and I have arranged for this temple to be built for us to worship Yahweh, the God to whom we Israelis belong. 11 I have put the Sacred Chest in the temple, in which are the stone tablets on which are engraved the Ten Commandments of the agreement that Yahweh made with us Israeli people.”