[278] The Temple was finished in the eighth month of Solomon's eleventh year, and dedicated in the seventh month (_Ethanim_, or Tisri) of the twelfth year. The first eight days (8th to 15th) were devoted to the Feast of Dedication, and then from the 15th to the 22nd they kept the Feast of Tabernacles. On the 23rd (the eighth day from the beginning of the Feast of Tabernacles, called _'atsereth_, 2 Chron. 10) Solomon dismissed the people. The עֲצֶרֶת, "solemn assembly," is not mentioned in Exodus or Deuteronomy, but in Lev. xxiii. 36. [279] It was perhaps stored away in one of the Temple chambers (2 Macc. ii. 4). The Gibeonites (_Nethinim_) were at the same time transferred to Jerusalem. The chronicler (2 Chron. v. 6) says that _the Levites_ took the Ark, according to the Levitic rule; but 1 Kings viii. 3 says that _the priests_ bore it, as in Deut. xxxi. 9, and in all the præ-exilic histories (Josh. iii. 3, vi. 6; 2 Sam. xv. 24-29, etc.). W. Robertson Smith, p. 144. [280] The sheykhs are heads of clans; the emîrs of tribes (Reuss, i. 444). [281] The Greek Ἐπιφάνεια. Solomon seems to have had some jurisdiction there (2 Chron. viii. 6). [282] The torrent (_nachal_) of Egypt. [283] The Holiest, being an unlighted cube, must always have been dim; but, as we have seen, we have no proof that in Solomon's Temple the entrance to it was shrouded by a curtain. In 1 Kings viii. 12, for "The Lord said that He would dwell _in the thick darkness_," the Targum had "_In Jerusalem_." [284] In 1 Kings viii. 4 we read that "the priests and the Levites" brought up to Jerusalem "the Tabernacle of the congregation." But the LXX. only has οἱ ἱερεῖς. In 2 Chron. v. 5 the Hebrew text has "the Levites" in some MSS., or "the priests, the Levites"--_i.e._, the Levitic priests. For "the priests took up the ark" (1 Kings viii. 3) the chronicler has "the Levites" (comp. Numb. iii. 31, iv. 15). It is at least doubtful whether the distinction between priests and Levites is older than the Priestly Code and the days of Ezekiel. Also, the LXX. in 1 Kings viii. 4 puts "witness" for "congregation," and some critics maintain that "congregation" (_'edah_) is post-exilic. (See Robertson Smith, Enc. Brit., s.v. Kings). See _infra_, pp. 189, 190. [285] Some psalm, like Psalm cxxxvi., was probably sung by alternate choirs, but hardly in the attitude of prostration which followed the sudden blaze of glory (2 Chron. vii. 3).