Solomon brought the things that his father David had consecrated. This refers to whatever was left over after all the work had been done.

The Levites carried the Ark. But in the book of Kings it says, “The priests carried the Ark” (1 Kgs 8:3)! It was the priests who carried it: the “Levites” to whom the text refers are the priests. After all, the priests were Levites, and our Sages, of blessed memory (b. Yevamot 86b), say that priests are called “Levites” in twenty-four places, including: “But the priests—the Levites—descended from Zadok” (Ezek 44:15). However, when the text says just below “the priests the Levites” (v. 5), it means the priests and the Levites. Indeed, in Kings this [phrase] appears with the word “and”: “the priests and the Levites brought them up” (1 Kgs 8:4). The priests carried the Ark, and the Levites the Tent of Meeting.

They brought up the Ark and the Tent of Meeting. This means: the Ark from Zion and the Tent of Meeting from Gibeon, where it had been. Indeed, it says in Kings: “Then Solomon convoked … to bring up the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord from the City of David; that is, Zion” (1 Kgs 8:1). They hid away the Tent of Meeting in the treasuries of the House of the Lord with the consecrated things (v. 1); but they brought the Ark into its place—into the inner Sanctuary of the Temple (v. 7).

They extended (vayya’arikhu) the poles. If these are the poles that had been on the Ark initially, it is a wonder how they could have been seen upon the front of the inner Sanctuary. After all, the poles were no more than ten cubits long. For the Holy of Holies in the Tent of Meeting was only ten, and the Ark was placed in it, and it does not say in the Torah that the poles were visible from outside the curtain. So if the width of the inner Sanctuary [of Solomon’s Temple] was twenty cubits (2 Chr 3:8), how could [the poles] have been seen upon the front of it? Possibly, they made other poles for the Ark that were longer than those, in order that they be seen upon the front of the inner Sanctuary. That would explain why the text says vayya’arikhu, which is a transitive verb, and not vayya’arkhu. It is also possible to explain that these were the same poles that were on the Ark initially. It might be that they were ten cubits long, and that before they brought the Ark into the inner Sanctuary, the poles were inserted into the Ark symmetrically, extending behind it the same distance as in front of it. After all, four people would carry it, each pole by two people: one in front and one in back. But when they brought the Ark into the inner Sanctuary in that state—with its poles—and it was no longer to be carried by shoulder, they extended the poles, pulling them outward until their tips were seen upon the front of the inner Sanctuary, so that the high priest might enter there on the Day of Atonement to offer incense between the poles without shifting in one direction or the other. For this reason, then, they extended the poles until the front of the inner Sanctuary, although they could not be seen from the outside, [meaning] outside the front of the inner Sancutary. And if you will ask: Still, because the poles were only ten cubits long, and the width of the inner Sanctuary was twenty, then how could they have been seen upon the front of it? Possibly, they did not place the Ark close to the west wall but far away from it. The way the wingspread of the cherubim extended over the Ark and its poles (v. 8) is that it was twenty cubits wide, as it was long (2 Chr 3:13). Alternatively, the width of the wings was equal to the width of the Ark and its poles. In a midrashic vein, our Sages, of blessed memory (b. Yoma 54a), say: “It says ‘the tips of the poles were seen’ and ‘but they could not be seen from the outside.’ How so? They pressed up against the curtain and protruded outward, so that they looked like the two breasts of a woman, as it says, ‘he sleeps between my breasts’ (Song 1:13).” But we have no need for this midrashic interpretation; for the text says that they were seen upon the front of the inner Sanctuary. They were not, however, visible from outside its wall. Nor do I know why they say (b. Megillah 10b) that the space occupied by the Ark is not part of the dimensions and that it was situated there miraculously. For the text says that the wingspread of the cherubim extended over the Ark (v. 8). The Ark, then, was under the wings of the cherubim and need not be included in the calculation. So what reason is there to impose a miracle where it is not necessary? What they say (b. ibid.) is that there were ten cubits to each side of the Ark. But we do not find that, nor is it possible according to the verses! Those who said this, however, knew what they were saying, because their understanding was greater than ours.

It has remained there. [This means]: the poles have remained there: “it has” is meant in a collective sense. In Kings, [the text indeed says] “they have remained there” (1 Kgs 8:8). It is saying that the poles remained there in that they were not subsequently removed—as it says, “they shall not be removed from it” (Exod 25:16)—and also that they were not moved back toward the other side. Instead, they remained extended to the front of the inner Sanctuary forever: that is the meaning of “to this day.” It emerges, then, that the doors on the opening to the inner Sanctuary were not closed. That it why [Solomon] had to make a curtain (2 3:14)—to serve as a partition.

Without keeping to the set divisions. After all, although [the priests] had already been divided into shifts, there were at that point so many sacrifices and such a large gathering that every single one of the priests and Levites was needed to serve or to sing praises.