1 All the work Solomon had done for the house of the LORD was completed. Solomon brought in the things his father David had dedicated, and placed the silver, gold, and all the utensils in the treasuries of the house of God.

2 Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the ancestral families of the Israelites, in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD from the City of David, which is Zion. 3 All the men of Israel gathered before the king at the festival in the seventh month. 4 All the elders of Israel came, and the Levites took up the ark. 5 They brought up the ark, the tent of meeting, and all the sacred utensils in the tent. The Levitical priests brought them up. 6 King Solomon and the whole congregation of Israel who had gathered with him before the ark were sacrificing sheep and cattle, so many that they could not be counted or numbered. 7 The priests brought the ark of the covenant of the LORD to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the house, the Most Holy Place, beneath the wings of the cherubim. 8 The cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark and covered the ark and its poles from above. 9 The poles extended so far that their ends could be seen projecting from the ark in front of the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen from outside. It remains there to this day. 10 There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets Moses had placed there at Horeb, where the LORD made a covenant with the Israelites when they came out of Egypt.

11 The priests came out of the holy place. All the priests present had consecrated themselves, without regard to their divisions. 12 All the Levitical singers—Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, their sons, and their brothers—stood east of the altar, dressed in fine linen, with cymbals, harps, and lyres. With them were a hundred and twenty priests sounding trumpets. 13 The trumpeters and singers joined as one, making one sound to praise and thank the LORD. As they raised their voices with the trumpets, cymbals, and musical instruments, praising the LORD, “For he is good; for his faithful love endures forever,” the house, the house of the LORD, was filled with a cloud. 14 The priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of God.