1-2. The sacred chest had been kept on Mount Zion, also known as the city of David. But Solomon decided to have the chest moved to the temple while everyone was in Jerusalem, celebrating the Festival of Shelters during Ethanim, the seventh month of the year.Solomon called together the important leaders of Israel.
3-4. Then the priests and the Levites carried to the temple the sacred chest, the sacred tent, and the objects used for worship.
5. Solomon and a crowd of people walked in front of the chest, and along the way they sacrificed more sheep and cattle than could be counted.
6. The priests carried the chest into the most holy place and put it under the winged creatures,
7. whose wings covered the chest and the poles used for carrying it.
8. The poles were so long that they could be seen from just outside the most holy place, but not from anywhere else. And they stayed there from then on.
9. The only things kept in the chest were the two flat stones Moses had put there when the Lord made his agreement with the people of Israel at Mount Sinai, after bringing them out of Egypt.
10. Suddenly a cloud filled the temple as the priests were leaving the most holy place.
11. The Lord's glory was in the cloud, and the light from it was so bright that the priests could not stay inside to do their work.
12. Then Solomon prayed:“Our Lord, you said that youwould live in a dark cloud.
13. Now I have built a glorious templewhere you can live for ever.”
14. Solomon turned towards the people standing there. Then he blessed them
15-16. and said:Praise the Lord God of Israel! Long ago he brought his people out of Egypt. He later kept his promise to make my father David the king of Israel. The Lord also said that he had not chosen the city where his temple would be built.
17. So when David wanted to build a temple for the Lord God of Israel,
18. the Lord said, “It's good that you want to build a temple where I can be worshipped.
19. But you're not the one to do it. Your son will build a temple to honour me.”
20. The Lord has done what he promised. I am the king of Israel like my father, and I've built a temple for the Lord our God.
21. I've also made a place in the temple for the sacred chest. And in that chest are the two flat stones on which is written the solemn agreement the Lord made with our ancestors when he led them out of Egypt.