1Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the chief fathers of the children of Israel, unto King Solomon at Jerusalem, that they might bring up the ark of the covenant of Jehovah out of the City of David, which is Zion. 2Therefore all the men of Israel assembled unto King Solomon at the feast in the month of Ethanim, which is the seventh month. 3So all the elders of Israel came, and the priests took up the ark. 4And they brought up the ark of Jehovah, the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the tent. The priests and the Levites brought them up. 5And King Solomon, and all the congregation of Israel who were assembled with him, were with him before the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen that could not be counted or numbered for multitude. 6And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of Jehovah to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the house, to the Holy of Holies, under the wings of the cherubim. 7For the cherubim spread their two wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim covered over the ark and its poles. 8The poles extended so that the ends of the poles could be seen from the holy place, in front of the inner sanctuary; but they could not be seen from outside. And they are there to this day. 9Nothing was in the ark except the two tablets of stone which Moses had put there at Horeb, when Jehovah had made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt. 10And it came to pass, when the priests came out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of Jehovah, 11such that the priests were not able to stand to minister before the cloud; for the glory of Jehovah had filled the house of Jehovah. 12Then Solomon spoke: Jehovah has said that He would dwell in the thick darkness. 13I have built to establish for You an exalted house, a fixed place for You to abide continually. 14And the king turned his face around and blessed the whole assembly of Israel, while all the assembly of Israel was standing. 15And he said: Blessed is Jehovah the God of Israel, who has spoke with His mouth to my father David, and with His hand has fulfilled it, saying, 16Since the day that I brought My people Israel out of Egypt, I have chosen no city from any tribe of Israel in which to build a house, for My name to be there; but I chose David to be over My people Israel. 17Now it was in the heart of my father David to build a house for the name of Jehovah the God of Israel. 18But Jehovah said to my father David, Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for My name, you did well that it was in your heart. 19Nevertheless you shall not build the house, but your son who shall come from your body, he shall build the house for My name. 20Thus Jehovah has fulfilled His word which He has spoken; and I have risen up in place of my father David, and sit on the throne of Israel, as Jehovah has promised; and I have built a house for the name of Jehovah the God of Israel. 21And there I have fixed a place for the ark, in which is the covenant of Jehovah which He had made with our fathers, when He brought them out from the land of Egypt. 22Then Solomon stood before the altar of Jehovah in front of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward the heavens; 23and he said: Jehovah the God of Israel, there is no god in the heavens above or on the earth below like You, who keeps Your covenant and mercy with Your servants who walk before You with all their hearts. 24You have kept what You have promised Your servant David my father; You have both spoken with Your mouth and fulfilled it with Your hand, as it is this day. 25Therefore, Jehovah the God of Israel, now keep what You have promised Your servant David my father, saying, You shall not fail to have a man sitting before Me on the throne of Israel, only if your sons take heed to their way, to walk before Me as you have walked before Me. 26And now I pray, O God of Israel, let Your word be confirmed, which You have spoken to Your servant David my father. 27But will God truly dwell on the earth? Behold, the heavens and the Heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this house which I have built! 28Yet regard the prayer of Your servant and his supplication, O Jehovah my God, and listen to the cry and the prayer which Your servant is praying before You today: 29that Your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, toward the place of which You have said, My name shall be there, that You may hear the prayer which Your servant prays toward this place. 30And may You hear the supplication of Your servant and of Your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. Hear in Heaven Your dwelling place; and when You hear, forgive. 31When anyone sins against his neighbor, and is required to take an oath, and has come to swear an oath before Your altar in this house, 32then hear in Heaven, and act, and judge Your servants, to condemn the wicked, to bring his way upon his head, and to justify the righteous, giving him according to his righteousness. 33When Your people Israel are struck down before an enemy because they have sinned against You, and when they turn back to You and confess Your name, and pray and make supplication to You in this house, 34then hear in Heaven, and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them back to the land which You have given to their fathers. 35When the heavens are restrained and there is no rain because they have sinned against You; when they have prayed toward this place and confessed Your name, and turned from their sin because You afflicted them, 36then hear in Heaven, and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel, that You may teach them the good way in which they should walk; and send rain upon Your land which You have given to Your people as an inheritance. 37When there is famine in the land, pestilence or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers; when their enemy besieges them in the land in their cities; whatever plague or whatever sickness there is; 38whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by anyone, or by all Your people Israel, when each one knows the plague of his own heart, and spreads out his hands toward this house: 39then hear in Heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and act, and give to everyone according to all his ways, whose heart You know (for You alone have known the hearts of all the sons of men), 40that they may fear You all the days that they are alive on the face of the land which You have given to our fathers. 41Moreover, concerning a foreigner, who is not of Your people Israel, but has come from a distant land on account of Your name 42(for they will hear of Your great name and Your strong hand and Your outstretched arm), when he has come and prayed toward this house, 43hear in Heaven Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls upon You, that all peoples of the earth may know Your name to fear You, as do Your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by Your name. 44When Your people go out to battle against their enemy, wherever You send them, and when they pray to Jehovah toward the city which You have chosen and the house which I have built for Your name, 45then hear in Heaven their prayer and their supplication, and attend to their cause. 46When they sin against You (for there is no one who does not sin), and You have become angry with them and delivered them to the enemy, and they have taken them captive to the land of the enemy, far or near; 47yet when they have returned in their minds in the land where they have been carried captive, and have repented in their hearts, and made supplication to You in the land of those holding them captive, saying, We have sinned and done perversely, we have committed wickedness; 48and when they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies who have taken them captive, and have prayed to You toward their land which You have given to their fathers, the city which You have chosen and the house which I have built for Your name: 49then hear in Heaven Your dwelling place their prayer and their supplication, and attend to their cause, 50and forgive Your people who have sinned against You, and all their transgressions which they have transgressed against You; and grant them compassion before those who took them captive, that they may have compassion on them 51(for they are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You have brought out of Egypt, out of the midst of the iron furnace), 52that Your eyes may be open to the supplication of Your servant and the supplication of Your people Israel, to listen to them whenever they call unto You. 53For as You have spoken by the hand of Your servant Moses, You have separated them from among all the peoples of the earth to be Your inheritance, when You brought our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord Jehovah. 54And so it was, when Solomon had finished praying all this prayer and supplication unto Jehovah, that he arose before the altar of Jehovah, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to the heavens. 55And he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying: 56Blessed is Jehovah, who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He has spoken. There has not failed one word of all His good word, which He has spoken by the hand of His servant Moses. 57Jehovah our God be with us, as He was with our fathers. May He not leave us nor forsake us, 58that He may incline our hearts unto Himself, to walk in all His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, which He has commanded our fathers. 59And may these words of mine, with which I have made supplication before Jehovah, be near Jehovah our God day and night, that He may attend to the cause of His servant and the cause of His people Israel, each matter from day to day, 60that all the peoples of the earth may know that Jehovah is God; there is no other. 61Let your heart therefore be perfect with Jehovah our God, to walk in His statutes and keep His commandments, as at this day. 62And the king and all Israel with him were offering sacrifices before Jehovah. 63And Solomon offered sacrifices of peace offerings, which he offered unto Jehovah, twenty-two thousand bulls and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep. Thus the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of Jehovah. 64And for that day the king consecrated the middle of the court that was in front of the house of Jehovah; for there he offered burnt offerings, grain offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar that was before Jehovah was too small to receive the burnt offerings, the grain offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings. 65And at that time Solomon held a feast, and all Israel with him, a great assembly from the entrance of Hamath to the Brook of Egypt, before Jehovah our God, seven days and seven more days; fourteen days. 66On the eighth day he sent the people away; and they blessed the king, and went to their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the good that Jehovah had done for His servant David, and for Israel His people.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 2 THE DEDICATION OF THE TEMPLE. (
1Kgs 8:1-12)
at the feast in the month Ethanim--The public and formal inauguration of this national place of worship did not take place till eleven months after the completion of the edifice. The delay, most probably, originated in Solomon's wish to choose the most fitting opportunity when there should be a general rendezvous of the people in Jerusalem (
1Kgs 8:2); and that was not till the next year. That was a jubilee year, and he resolved on commencing the solemn ceremonial a few days before the feast of tabernacles, which was the most appropriate of all seasons. That annual festival had been instituted in commemoration of the Israelites dwelling in booths during their stay in the wilderness, as well as of the tabernacle, which was then erected, in which God promised to meet and dwell with His people, sanctifying it with His glory. As the tabernacle was to be superseded by the temple, there was admirable propriety in choosing the feast of tabernacles as the period for dedicating the new place of worship, and praying that the same distinguished privileges might be continued to it in the manifestation of the divine presence and glory. At the time appointed for the inauguration, the king issued orders for all the heads and representatives of the nation to repair to Jerusalem and take part in the august procession [
1Kgs 8:1]. The lead was taken by the king and elders of the people, whose march must have been slow, as priests were stationed to offer an immense number of sacrifices at various points in the line of road through which the procession was to go. Then came the priests bearing the ark and the tabernacle--the old Mosaic tabernacle which was brought from Gibeon. Lastly, the Levites followed, carrying the vessels and ornaments belonging to the old, for lodgment in the new, house of the Lord. There was a slight deviation in this procedure from the order of march established in the wilderness (
Num 3:31;
Num 4:15); but the spirit of the arrangement was duly observed. The ark was deposited in the oracle; that is, the most holy place, under the wings of the cherubim--not the Mosaic cherubim, which were firmly attached to the ark (
Exod 37:7-
Exod 37:8), but those made by Solomon, which were far larger and more expanded.
8 they drew out the staves--a little way, so as to project (see on
Exod 25:15;
Num 4:6); and they were left in that position. The object was, that these projecting staves might serve as a guide to the high priest, in conducting him to that place where, once a year, he went to officiate before the ark; otherwise he might miss his way in the dark, the ark being wholly overshadowed by the wings of the cherubim.
9 There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone--Nothing else was ever in the ark, the articles mentioned (
Heb 9:4) being not in, but by it, being laid in the most holy place before the testimony (
Exod 16:33;
Num 17:10).
10 the cloud filled the house of the Lord--The cloud was the visible symbol of the divine presence, and its occupation of the sanctuary was a testimony of God's gracious acceptance of the temple as of the tabernacle (
Exod 40:34). The dazzling brightness, or rather, perhaps, the dense portentous darkness of the cloud, struck the minds of the priests, as it formerly had done Moses, which such astonishment and terror (
Lev 16:2-
Lev 16:13;
Deut 4:24;
Exod 40:35) that they could not remain. Thus the temple became the place where the divine glory was revealed, and the king of Israel established his royal residence.
12 SOLOMON'S BLESSING. (
1Kgs 8:12-21)
Then spake Solomon--For the reassurance of the priests and people, the king reminded them that the cloud, instead of being a sign ominous of evil, was a token of approval.
The Lord said--not in express terms, but by a continuous course of action (
Exod 13:21;
Exod 24:16;
Num 9:15).
13 I have surely built thee an house--This is an apostrophe to God, as perceiving His approach by the cloud, and welcoming Him to enter as guest or inhabitant of the fixed and permanent dwelling-place, which, at His command, had been prepared for His reception.
14 the king turned his face about--From the temple, where he had been watching the movement of the mystic cloud, and while the people were standing, partly as the attitude of devotion, partly out of respect to royalty, the king gave a fervent expression of praise to God for the fulfilment of His promise (
2Sam 7:6-16).
22 HIS PRAYER. (1Ki. 8:22-61)
Solomon stood before the altar--This position was in the court of the people, on a brazen scaffold erected for the occasion (
2Chr 6:13), fronting the altar of burnt offering, and surrounded by a mighty concourse of people. Assuming the attitude of a suppliant, kneeling (
1Kgs 8:54; compare
2Chr 6:24) and with uplifted hands, he performed the solemn act of consecration--an act remarkable, among other circumstances, for this, that it was done, not by the high priest or any member of the Aaronic family, but by the king in person, who might minister about, though not in, holy things. This sublime prayer [1Ki. 8:22-35], which breathes sentiments of the loftiest piety blended with the deepest humility, naturally bore a reference to the national blessing and curse contained in the law--and the burden of it--after an ascription of praise to the Lord for the bestowment of the former, was an earnest supplication for deliverance from the latter. He specifies seven cases in which the merciful interposition of God would be required; and he earnestly bespeaks it on the condition of people praying towards that holy place. The blessing addressed to the people at the close is substantially a brief recapitulation of the preceding prayer [
1Kgs 8:56-61].
62 HIS SACRIFICE OF PEACE OFFERING. (
1Kgs 8:62-64)
the king, and all Israel . . . offered sacrifice before the Lord--This was a burnt offering with its accompaniments, and being the first laid on the altar of the temple, was, as in the analogous case of the tabernacle, consumed by miraculous fire from heaven (see
2Chr 7:1). On remarkable occasions, the heathens sacrificed hecatombs (a hundred animals), and even chiliombs (a thousand animals), but the public sacrifices offered by Solomon on this occasion surpassed all the other oblations on record, without taking into account those presented by private individuals, which, doubtless, amounted to a large additional number. The large proportion of the sacrifices were peace offerings, which afforded the people an opportunity of festive enjoyment.
63 So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of the Lord--The dedication was not a ceremony ordained by the law, but it was done in accordance with the sentiments of reverence naturally associated with edifices appropriated to divine worship. [See on
2Chr 7:5.]
64 The same day did the king hallow the middle of the court--that is, the whole extent of the priests' court--the altar of burnt offerings, though large (
2Chr 4:1), being totally inadequate for the vast number of sacrifices that distinguished this occasion. It was only a temporary erection to meet the demands of an extraordinary season, in aid of the established altar, and removed at the conclusion of the sacred festival. [See on
2Chr 7:7.]
65 THE PEOPLE JOYFUL. (
1Kgs 8:65)
from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of Egypt--that is, from one extremity of the kingdom to the other. The people flocked from all quarters.
seven days and seven days, even fourteen days--The first seven were occupied with the dedication, and the other seven devoted to the feast of tabernacles (
2Chr 7:9). The particular form of expression indicates that the fourteen days were not continuous. Some interval occurred in consequence of the great day of atonement falling on the tenth of the seventh month (
1Kgs 8:2), and the last day of the feast of tabernacles was on the twenty-third (
2Chr 7:10), when the people returned to their homes with feelings of the greatest joy and gratitude "for all the goodness that the Lord had done for David his servant, and for Israel his people."
