5. King Solomon and the entire congregation of Israel, who had gathered around him and were with him in front of the ark, were sacrificing sheep and cattle that could not be counted or numbered, because there were so many.
6. The priests brought the ark of the Lord’s covenant to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the temple, to the most holy place beneath the wings of the cherubim.
7. For the cherubim were spreading their wings over the place of the ark, so that the cherubim covered the ark and its poles from above.
8. The poles were so long that their ends were seen from the holy place in front of the inner sanctuary, but they were not seen from outside the sanctuary; they are there to this day.
9. Nothing was in the ark except the two stone tablets that Moses had put there at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites when they came out of the land of Egypt.
10. When the priests came out of the holy place, the cloud filled the Lord’s temple,
11. and because of the cloud, the priests were not able to continue ministering, for the glory of the Lord filled the temple.
12. Then Solomon said:The Lord said that He would dwell in thick darkness.