2. Everyone in Israel assembled before King Solomon in the seventh month, the month of Ethanim, during the festival.
3. When all of Israel’s elders had arrived, the priests picked up the chest.
4. They brought the Lord’s chest, the meeting tent, and all the holy equipment that was in the tent. The priests and the Levites brought them up,
5. while King Solomon and the entire Israelite assembly that had joined him before the chest sacrificed countless sheep and oxen.
6. The priests brought the chest containing the Lord’s covenant to its designated spot beneath the wings of the winged creatures in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the most holy place.
7. The winged creatures spread their wings over the place where the chest rested, covering the chest and its carrying poles.
8. The carrying poles were so long that their tips could be seen from the holy place in front of the inner sanctuary, though they weren’t visible from outside. They are still there today.
9. Nothing was in the chest except the two stone tablets Moses had placed there while at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites after they left Egypt.
10. When the priests left the holy place, the cloud filled the Lord’s temple,
11. and the priests were unable to carry out their duties due to the cloud because the Lord’s glory filled the Lord’s temple.
12. Then Solomon said, "The Lord said that he would live in a dark cloud,
13. but I have indeed built you a lofty temple as a place where you can live forever."
14. The king turned around, and while the entire assembly of Israel was standing there, he blessed them,
15. saying, “Bless Israel’s God, the Lord, who spoke directly to my father David and now has kept his promise:
16. ‘From the day I brought my people Israel out of Egypt I haven’t selected a city from any Israelite tribe as a site for the building of a temple for my name. But now I have chosen David to be over my people Israel.’