Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 2 Chronicles · About this commentary
The Ark Brought In, and the Glory
2 Chronicles 5:1-14
1 Thus all the work that Solomon did for Yahweh’s house was finished. Solomon brought in the things that David his father had dedicated, even the silver, the gold, and all the vessels, and put them in the treasuries of God’s house. · WEB
The two halves of Israel's worship are joined at last, and the cloud arrives at the moment the singers and trumpeters become one sound.
The work is finished, and the first thing Solomon does with the finished house is fill its treasuries with his father's dedications 2 Chronicles 5:1. What David gathered goes in before anything else.
Then the ark is fetched from the city of David, and the Tent of Meeting with it 2 Chronicles 5:5. That second clause ends a division that had stood for a generation. The ark had been in one place and the tabernacle in another, with lawful ministry at both 1 Chronicles 16:37–40. Both now come into one building, and Israel has a single sanctuary again.
The carrying is done by Levites, as the law required and as David had learned the hard way 1 Chronicles 15:13. The writer notes it in half a verse and does not moralize.
Two details about the ark itself are recorded once it is in place. The poles are long enough that their ends can be seen from directly in front of the inner room, though not from outside it 2 Chronicles 5:9. And the ark is empty except for the two stone tablets Moses put there 2 Chronicles 5:10.
That second note is the more striking. At the center of the most expensive room in the country, under the wings of carved cherubim, there is a box containing two slabs of rock with writing on them. The gold is all around it. What it holds is the covenant text.
The dedication then turns on a single moment, and the sentence describing it is built to make the reader wait. The priests come out; the singers are named and arrayed; a hundred and twenty priests stand with trumpets; and then when the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking Yahweh, and the words are given — for he is good, for his loving kindness endures forever — the house fills with cloud 2 Chronicles 5:13.
The timing is stated, not implied. The glory arrives at the point where many voices and instruments become one sound. Unison is what the verse specifies, and the content of the unison is thanksgiving.
And the immediate effect is that the ministry stops. The priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud 2 Chronicles 5:14. The house built for a schedule of daily service opens by making that service temporarily impossible.
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