1 Kings 8:7 (DRB)

Passage

For the cherubims spread forth their wings over the place of the ark, and covered the ark, and the staves thereof above.

Nearby Context

1 Kings 8:5 And king Solomon, and all the multitude of Israel, that were assembled unto him, went with him before the ark, and they sacrificed sheep and oxen, that could not be counted or numbered.

1 Kings 8:6 And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord into its place, into the oracle of the temple, into the holy of holies, under the wings of the cherubims.

1 Kings 8:7 For the cherubims spread forth their wings over the place of the ark, and covered the ark, and the staves thereof above.

1 Kings 8:8 And whereas the staves stood out, the ends of them were seen without, in the sanctuary before the oracle, but were not seen farther out, and there they have been unto this day.

1 Kings 8:9 Now in the ark there was nothing else but the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb, when the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "cherubims", "spread", "forth", "wings", "over", "place", "covered", and "staves". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "cherubims" and "spread", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 6's "And the priests brought in the ark..." into verse 8's "And whereas the staves stood out the...", so "cherubims" and "spread" belong inside that flow. In 1 Kings context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "cherubims" and "spread" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.