en with the temple itself. He encompassed this also
with a building of a double row of cloisters, which stood on high
upon pillars of native stone, while the roofs were of cedar, and were
polished in a manner proper for such high roofs; but he made all the
doors of this temple of silver.

CHAPTER 4. How Solomon Removed The Ark Into The Temple How He Made
Supplication To God, And Offered Public Sacrifices To Him.

1. When king Solomon had finished these works, these large and beautiful
buildings, and had laid up his donations in the temple, and all this in
the interval of seven years, and had given a demonstration of his
riches and alacrity therein, insomuch that any one who saw it would
have thought it must have been an immense time ere it could have been
finished; and would be surprised that so much should be finished in so
short a time; short, I mean, if compared with the greatness of the work:
he also wrote to the rulers and elders of the Hebrews, and ordered all
the people to gather themselves together to Jerusalem, both to see the
temple which he had built, and to remove the ark of God into it;
and when this invitation of the whole body of the people to come to
Jerusalem was every where carried abroad, it was the seventh month
before they came together; which month is by our countrymen called
Thisri, but by the Macedonians Hyperberetoets. The feast of tabernacles
happened to fall at the same time, which was celebrated by the Hebrews
as a most holy and most eminent feast. So they carried the ark and the
tabernacle which Moses had pitched, and all the vessels that were for
ministration, to the sacrifices of God, and removed them to the temple.
[13] The king himself, and all the people and the Levites, went before,
rendering the ground moist with sacrifices, and drink-offerings, and the
blood of a great number of oblations, and burning an immense quantity of
incense, and this till the very air itself every where round about was
so full of these odors, that it met, in a most agreeable manner, persons
at a great distance, and was an indication of God's presence; and, as
men's opinion was, of his habitation with them in this newly built and
consecrated place, for they did not grow weary, either of singing hymns
or of dancing, until they came to the temple; and in this manner did
they carry the ark. But when they should transfer it into the most
secret place, the rest of the multitude went away, and only those
pr