1 Kings 8:3-13

3 And all the elders of Israel came, and ¹the priests took up the ark.

4 And they brought up the ark of the LORD, ²the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the tent; the priests and the Levites brought them up.

5 And King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, who had assembled before him, were with him before the ark, ³sacrificing so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered.

6 ⁴Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the LORD ⁵to its place in ⁶the inner sanctuary of the house, in the Most Holy Place, underneath the wings of the cherubim.

7 For the cherubim spread out their wings over the place of the ark, so that the cherubim overshadowed the ark and its poles.

8 ⁷And the poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from the Holy Place before ⁸the inner sanctuary; but they could not be seen from outside. And they are there to this day.

9 There was nothing in the ark except ⁹the two tablets of stone that Moses put there at Horeb, where ¹⁰the LORD made a covenant with the people of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.

10 And when the priests came out of the Holy Place, ¹¹a cloud filled the house of the LORD,

11 so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD.

Solomon Blesses the Lord

12 ¹²Then Solomon said, "The LORD ^[a] has said that he would dwell ¹³in thick darkness.

13 ¹⁴I have indeed built you an exalted house, ¹⁵a place for you to dwell in forever."

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1 Kings 8:3-13 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 1 KINGS 8

This chapter gives an account of the introduction of the ark into the temple, 1Ki 8:1-9 of the glory of the Lord filling it, 1Ki 8:10,11 of a speech Solomon made to the people concerning the building of the temple, and how he came to be engaged in it, 1Ki 8:12-21, of a prayer of his he put up on this occasion, requesting, that what supplications soever were made at any time, or on any account, by Israelites or strangers, might be accepted by the Lord, 1Ki 8:22-53, and of his blessing the people of Israel at the close of it, with some useful exhortations, 1Ki 8:54-61, and of the great number of sacrifices offered up by him, and the feast he made for the people, upon which he dismissed them, 1Ki 8:62-66.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 15

1. [Numbers 4:15; Deuteronomy 31:9; Joshua 3:3, 6; 1 Chronicles 15:14, 15]
2. [1 Kings 3:4; 2 Chronicles 1:3]
3. [2 Samuel 6:13]
4. 2 Samuel 6:17
5. Exodus 26:33, 34
6. See 1 Kings 6:5
7. Exodus 25:13-15
8. [See ver. 6 above]
9. Exodus 25:21; Exodus 40:20; Deuteronomy 10:2, 5; Hebrews 9:4
10. Exodus 34:27, 28; Deuteronomy 4:13
11. Exodus 40:34, 35; 2 Chronicles 5:13, 14; 2 Chronicles 7:1, 2; [Ezekiel 10:3, 4]
12. For ver. 12-50, see 2 Chronicles 6:1-39
13. Psalms 18:11; Psalms 97:2; [Leviticus 16:2]
14. 2 Samuel 7:13
15. Exodus 15:17; [Psalms 132:14]

Footnotes 1

[a]. Septuagint The Lord has set the sun in the heavens, but

The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.