51 So Solomon finished all his work on the Temple of the Lord . Then he brought all the gifts his father, David, had dedicated-the silver, the gold, and the various articles-and he stored them in the treasuries of the Temple of God.
2 Solomon then summoned to Jerusalem the elders of Israel and all the heads of tribes-the leaders of the ancestral families of Israel. They were to bring the Ark of the Lord 's Covenant to the Temple from its location in the City of David, also known as Zion. 3 So all the men of Israel assembled before the king at the annual Festival of Shelters, which is held in early autumn. 4 When all the elders of Israel arrived, the Levites picked up the Ark. 5 The priests and Levites brought up the Ark along with the special tent and all the sacred items that had been in it. 6 There, before the Ark, King Solomon and the entire community of Israel sacrificed so many sheep, goats, and cattle that no one could keep count! 7 Then the priests carried the Ark of the Lord 's Covenant into the inner sanctuary of the Temple-the Most Holy Place-and placed it beneath the wings of the cherubim. 8 The cherubim spread their wings over the Ark, forming a canopy over the Ark and its carrying poles. 9 These poles were so long that their ends could be seen from the Holy Place, which is in front of the Most Holy Place, but not from the outside. They are still there to this day. 10 Nothing was in the Ark except the two stone tablets that Moses had placed in it at Mount Sinai, where the Lord made a covenant with the people of Israel when they left Egypt.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on 2 Chronicles 5:1-10
Commentary on 2 Chronicles 5:1-10
(Read 2 Chronicles 5:1-10)
The ark was a type of Christ, and, as such, a token of the presence of God. That gracious promise, Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world, does, in effect, bring the ark into our religious assemblies, if we by faith and prayer plead that promise; and this we should be most earnest for. When Christ is formed in a soul, the law written in the heart, the ark of the covenant settled there, so that it becomes the temple of the Holy Ghost, there is true satisfaction in that soul.