And now Solomon must bring into the temple all the votive offerings his father David had made; silver and gold and lesser ware, all must be stored up in its treasure-chamber.

Then he sent for the elders of Israel, the chiefs of the tribes and the heads of clans; all must meet at Jerusalem to bring the Lord’s ark home from its resting-place in the Keep of David, which we call Sion.

It was on the great feast day of the seventh month that all Israel obeyed the king’s summons;

and when the last of the chieftains had arrived, the Levites took up the ark

and brought it in; the tabernacle, too, with all its equipment, and all the furniture of the sanctuary that remained still in the tabernacle, priests and Levites brought to the spot.

Meanwhile king Solomon, with the whole Israelite assembly, all that had gathered before the ark, offered rams and bulls; so many were the victims that there was no counting them.

So the ark that bears witness of the Lord’s covenant was borne by the priests to the place designed for it, there in the temple’s inner shrine where the cherubim spread their wings;

spread them over the very place where the ark rested, to protect it and protect the poles that bore it.

These poles jutted out indeed, being longer than the ark they bore, so that the ends of them could be seen by one standing before the shrine; but beyond the temple limits they were seen no more; and so they have remained to this day.

And nothing was in the ark except the two tablets Moses laid up there on mount Horeb, when the Lord gave the sons of Israel a law to live by, after their escape from Egypt.

At last the priests left the sanctuary; all of them who were present had purified themselves so as to gain admission, for as yet they had no times and manners of service planned out for them.

To the east of the altar stood Levites and singers, the clans of Asaph, Heman and Idithun alike, all robed in lawn, playing on their cymbals, zithers and harps; and now they had a hundred and twenty priests with them, sounding with trumpets.

Trumpet and voice, cymbals and flute, with all the other instruments, sounded aloud so that the noise of them could be heard far off, as they praised the Lord together; Praise the Lord, they sang, the Lord is gracious; his mercy endures for ever. And with that, the whole of the Lord’s house was wreathed in cloud;

lost in that cloud, the priests could not wait upon the Lord with his accustomed service; his own glory was there, filling his own house.✻