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Haftara Pekudey

I Kings 7.51-8.21

Thus all the work that King Solomon did on the house of God was finished. And Solomon brought in the things which David his father dedicated, the silver, the gold and vessels, and put them into the treasures of the house of God.

Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads off the tribes, the princes of the fathers’ houses of the people of Israel, before King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of God’s covenant out of Zion, the city of David. All the men of Israel assembled to King Solomon for the feast, in the month of Ethanim, which is the seventh month. All the elders of Israel came, and the priests took up the ark. So they brought up God’s ark, the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the tent; the priests and the Levites brought them up. And King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, who had assembled before him, were with him in front of the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and oxen, they could not be counted or numbered.

The priests brought in the ark of God’s covenant to its place, into the Sanctuary of the house, the most holy place, under the wings of the cherubim. For the cherubim spread out their wings over the place of the ark, and formed a covering of the ark and its poles.  The poles were so long that the ends of the poles were not seen outside. They are there to this day.

There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets of stone which Moses put there at Horeb, when God made the covenant with the Israelites when they came out of the land of Egypt.

And when the priests came out of the holy place, the cloud filled the house of God. The priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud; for God’s glory filled His House.

Then Solomon said, “God has said that He would dwell in the thick darkness. I have indeed built You a house of habitation, a place for You to dwell forever.”

Then the king turned around and blessed the whole congregation of Israel; and the congregation of Israel stood.

He said, “Blessed be God, the Lord of Israel, who spoke with his mouth to David my father, and with His hand fulfilled it, saying: Since the day I brought My people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city in all the tribes of Israel to build a house, that My name might be there, but I chose David to be over My people Israel. Now it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of God, the Lord of Israel. But God said to David, my father: Although it was in your heart to build a house for My name, and you did well that it was in your heart; nevertheless you will not build the house for My name. Now God has established His promise that He made; for I have risen in the place of David my father, and I sit on the throne of Israel, as God promised, and I have built the house for the name of God, the Lord of Israel. And I have made there a place for the ark, in which is God’s covenant, which He made with our fathers, when He brought them out of the land of Egypt.