2 Crônicas 5

ARC · Chapter 5/36

1Assim se acabou toda a obra, que Salomão fez para a casa do Senhor, então trouxe Salomão as coisas consagradas de seu pae David, e a prata, e o oiro, e todos os vasos, e pôl-os entre os thesouros da casa de Deus.

2Então Salomão convocou em Jerusalem os anciãos de Israel, e a todos os chefes das tribus, os principes dos paes entre os filhos d'Israel, para fazerem subir a arca do concerto do Senhor, da cidade de David, que é Sião.

3E todos os homens d'Israel se congregaram ao rei na festa, que era no setimo mez.

4E vieram todos os anciãos d'Israel; e os levitas levantaram a arca.

5E fizeram subir a arca, e a tenda da congregação, com todos os vasos sagrados, que estavam na tenda: os sacerdotes e os levitas os fizeram subir.

6Então o rei Salomão, e toda a congregação d'Israel, que se tinha congregado com elle diante da arca, sacrificaram carneiros, e bois, que se não podiam contar, nem numerar, por causa da sua multidão.

7Assim trouxeram os sacerdotes a arca do concerto do Senhor ao seu logar, ao oraculo da casa, á sanctidade das sanctidades, até debaixo das azas dos cherubins.

8Porque os cherubins estendiam ambas as azas sobre o logar da arca, e os cherubins por cima cobriam a arca e os seus varaes.

9Então os varaes sobresairam para que as pontas dos varaes da arca se vissem perante o oraculo, mas não se vissem de fóra: e esteve ali até o dia d'hoje.

10Na arca não havia, senão sómente as duas taboas, que Moysés tinha posto junto a Horeb, quando o Senhor fez concerto com os filhos d'Israel, saindo elles do Egypto.

11E succedeu que, saindo os sacerdotes do sanctuario (porque todos os sacerdotes, que se acharam, se sanctificaram, sem guardarem as suas turmas.

12E os levitas, cantores de todos elles, d'Asaph, d'Heman, de Jeduthun, e de seus filhos, e de seus irmãos, vestidos de linho fino, com cymbalos, e com alaudes, e com harpas, estavam em pé para o oriente do altar; e com elles até cento e vinte sacerdotes, que tocavam as trombetas),

13Elles uniformemente tocavam as trombetas, e cantavam para fazerem ouvir uma só voz, bemdizendo e louvando ao Senhor: e levantando elles a voz com trombetas, e cymbalos, e outros instrumentos musicos, e bemdizendo ao Senhor, porque era bom, porque a sua benignidade durava para sempre, a casa se encheu d'uma nuvem, a saber: a casa do Senhor.

14E não podiam os sacerdotes ter-se em pé, para ministrar, por causa da nuvem: porque a gloria do Senhor encheu a casa de Deus.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

After the temple is completed, the ark of the covenant is solemnly brought into the innermost sanctuary, the Most Holy Place. As priests and musicians praise God in unison, a cloud of God's glory fills the temple so intensely that the priests are unable to continue ministering.

Explanation

This is one of the most dramatic and visually powerful moments in the entire Old Testament: the visible, tangible presence of God, represented by the cloud of glory, physically fills the newly built space, confirming that the temple was accepted as a dwelling place for the divine. It is significant that this manifestation happens precisely when the priests and Levites praise 'as with one voice,' suggesting a connection between unified, sincere worship and the tangible experience of God's presence. The mention that only the two tablets of the Law of Moses were inside the ark, and nothing else, reinforces the centrality of the covenant and the law as the foundation of the relationship between God and his people.

Fun facts

  • The cloud of glory that filled the temple is the same manifestation, later called the 'Shekinah' in Jewish tradition, that had accompanied Israel in the wilderness and filled the tabernacle built by Moses in Exodus 40.
  • The mention of 120 priests sounding trumpets simultaneously during the celebration shows the impressive scale of the dedication ceremony, one of the largest religious gatherings recorded in the Old Testament.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. 2 Crônicas 5:1With the temple’s construction finished, Solomon stores there the treasures David himself had set aside earlier — silver, gold, and other objects — along with everything he himself had made.
  2. 2 Crônicas 5:2Solomon gathers all of Israel’s leaders in Jerusalem — elders, tribal chiefs, family heads — just to organize the solemn procession bringing the ark up to the new temple.
  3. 2 Crônicas 5:3This ceremony takes place during a great feast in the seventh month of the calendar — probably the Feast of Tabernacles, a weighty moment on the religious calendar.
  4. 2 Crônicas 5:4It is the Levites, not ordinary priests or the king himself, who carry the ark — following the rule established since the time of Moses.
  5. 2 Crônicas 5:5Along with the ark, the old tabernacle of the congregation and all the sacred vessels still in it are brought up too — the symbolic end of the wilderness’ portable system.
  6. 2 Crônicas 5:6As the ark goes up, Solomon and the whole people sacrifice so many sheep and oxen that the text doesn’t even try to count them — it just describes them as impossible to number.
  7. 2 Crônicas 5:7The priests finally set the ark in its permanent place, under the wings of the cherubim, inside the Most Holy Place of the new temple.
  8. 2 Crônicas 5:8The cherubim’s outstretched wings covered both the ark and the poles used to carry it, forming a kind of protective canopy above it.
  9. 2 Crônicas 5:9The poles were long enough for their ends to show only from inside the sacred chamber, never from outside — and the text notes they remained that way up to the time it was written.
  10. 2 Crônicas 5:10Inside the ark there was nothing but the two tablets of Moses’s law — no pot of manna or Aaron’s rod, which other passages of the Bible mention as having been kept there too. The text doesn’t explain why they’re missing, it just records what was actually there at that moment.
  11. 2 Crônicas 5:11Before the ceremony’s most striking moment, every priest present purifies himself ritually, without following the usual rotation of service divisions — the occasion called for everyone together.
  12. 2 Crônicas 5:12Levite singers, dressed in fine linen and playing cymbals, harps, and trumpets, position themselves east of the altar — a choir and orchestra assembled specifically for this moment.
  13. 2 Crônicas 5:13When the musicians and priests join in a single voice of praise, singing that the Lord’s mercy endures forever, a cloud fills the temple — the sign that precedes the chapter’s most famous scene.
  14. 2 Crônicas 5:14The cloud of God’s glory fills the temple with such force that the priests themselves cannot stand to continue their service. It is the same scene that had already happened at the tabernacle’s dedication in Moses’s time, now repeated to confirm that God approves this new place of worship.

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