2 Chronicles 5

1 After Solomon’s workers had finished building the temple, Solomon put in the temple storage rooms everything that his father David had dedicated to Yahweh—all the silver and gold and all the other things that were used at the temple.

And Solomon brought in the holy things of his father David, the silver, and the gold, and the [other] vessels, and put them in the treasury of the house of the Lord.

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’.

Then Solomon assembled all the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, [even] the leaders of the families of the children of Israel, to Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, —this [is] Sion.

3 So all the leaders of Israel gathered together along with the king, during the Festival of [Living in Temporary] Shelters, in October.

And all Israel were assembled [to] the king in the feast, this [is] the seventh month.

4 When they had all arrived, the descendants of Levi lifted up the Sacred Chest,

And all the elders of Israel came; and all the Levites took up the ark,

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.

and the tabernacle of witness, and all the holy vessels that were in the tabernacle; and the priests and the Levites brought it up.

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].

And king Solomon, and all the elders of Israel, and the religious of them, and they of them that were gathered before the ark, [were] sacrificing calves and sheep, which could not be numbered or reckoned for multitude.

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.

And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord into its place, into the oracle of the house, [even] into the holy of holies, under the wings of the cherubs.

8 The wings of those statues spread out over the Sacred Chest and over the poles by which it was carried.

And the cherubs stretched out their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubs covered the ark, and its staves above.

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.

And the staves projected, and the heads of the staves were seen from the holy place in front of the oracle, they were not seen without: and there they were to this day.

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.

There was nothing in the ark except the two tables which Moses placed [there] in Choreb, which God gave in covenant with the children of Israel, when they went out of the land 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.

And it came to pass, when the priests when out of the holy place, (for all the priests that were found were sanctified, they were not [then] arranged according to their daily course, )

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.

that all the singing Levites [assigned] to the sons of Asaph, to Aeman, to Idithun, and to his sons, and to his brethren, of them that were clothed in linen garments, with cymbals and lutes and harps, [were] standing before the altar, and with them a hundred and twenty priests, 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.

And there was one voice in the trumpeting and in the psalm-singing, and in the loud utterance with one voice to give thanks and praise the Lord; and when they raised their voice together with trumpets and cymbals, and instruments of music, and said, Give thanks to the Lord, for [it is] good, for his mercy [endures] for ever: —then the house was filled with the cloud of the glory of the Lord.

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

And the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.