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 all the work that Solomon made for the house of YHWH is finished, and Solomon brings in the sanctified things of his father David, and the silver, and the gold, and all the vessels he has put among the treasures of the house of God.

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 assembles the elderly of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, princes of the fathers of the sons of Israel, to Jerusalem, to bring up the Ark of the Covenant of YHWH from the City of David—it [is] Zion.

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 the men of Israel are assembled to the king in the celebration—it [is] the seventh month;

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

and all [the] elderly of Israel come in, and the Levites lift 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 they bring up the Ark, and the Tent of Meeting, and all the holy vessels that [are] in the tent; the priests, the Levites, have brought them 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 congregation of Israel who are convened to him before the Ark are sacrificing sheep and oxen that are not counted nor numbered from 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 bring in the Ark of the Covenant of YHWH to its place, to the oracle of the house, to the Holy of Holies, to the place of the wings of the cherubim;

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

and the cherubim are spreading out wings over the place of the Ark, and the cherubim cover over the Ark, and over its poles, from 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 they lengthen the poles, and the heads of the poles are seen out of the Ark on the front of the oracle, and they are not seen outside; and it is there 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 is nothing in the Ark but the two tablets that Moses gave in Horeb, where YHWH covenanted with the sons of Israel, in their going out from 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 comes to pass, in the going out of the priests from the holy place—for all the priests who are present have sanctified themselves, there is none to watch by divisions,

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.

and the Levites, the singers, to all of them, to Asaph, to Heman, to Jeduthun, and to their sons, and to their brothers, clothed in white linen, with cymbals, and with psalteries, and harps, are standing on the east of the altar, and with them one hundred and twenty priests blowing with 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.

indeed, it comes to pass, trumpeters and singers [are] as one, to sound [with] one voice—to praise and to give thanks to YHWH, and at the lifting up of the sound with trumpets, and with cymbals, and with instruments of song, and at giving praise to YHWH, [saying], “For [He is] good, for His kindness [is] for all time,” that the house is filled with a cloud—the house of YHWH,

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 have not been able to stand to minister from the presence of the cloud, for the glory of YHWH has filled the house of God.