1 Kings 8:1-10

1 Then King Solomon summoned all the leaders of the tribes and clans of Israel to come to him in Jerusalem in order to take the Lord's Covenant Box from Zion, David's City, to the Temple. ¹

2 They all assembled during the Festival of Shelters in the seventh month, in the month of Ethanim. ²

3 When all the leaders had gathered, the priests lifted the Covenant Box

4 and carried it to the Temple. The Levites and the priests also moved the Tent of the Lord's presence and all its equipment to the Temple.

5 King Solomon and all the people of Israel assembled in front of the Covenant Box and sacrificed a large number of sheep and cattle - too many to count.

6 Then the priests carried the Covenant Box into the Temple and put it in the Most Holy Place, beneath the winged creatures.

7 Their outstretched wings covered the box and the poles it was carried by.

8 The ends of the poles could be seen by anyone standing directly in front of the Most Holy Place, but from nowhere else. (The poles are still there today.)

9 There was nothing inside the Covenant Box except the two stone tablets which Moses had placed there at Mount Sinai, when the Lord made a covenant with the people of Israel as they were coming from Egypt. ³

10 As the priests were leaving the Temple, it was suddenly filled with a cloud ⁴

1 Kings 8:1-10 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.

Cross References

• 1. 8.1 2 S 6.12-16;1 Chronicles 15.25-29.
• 2. 8.2Leviticus 23.34.
• 3. 8.9Deuteronomy 10.5.
• 4. 8.10, 11Exodus 40.34, 35.