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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0;"/><title>1 Kings 8 Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</title><link rel="canonical" href="https://biblehub.com/commentaries/expositors/1_kings/8.htm" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/5001com.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 4800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 4800px)" href="/4801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1550px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1550px)" href="/1551.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1250px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1250px)" href="/1251.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1050px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1050px)" href="/1051.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 900px), only screen and (max-device-width: 900px)" href="/901.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 800px)" href="/801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 575px), only screen and (max-device-width: 575px)" href="/501.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-height: 450px), only screen and (max-device-height: 450px)" href="/h451.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /><script type="application/javascript" src="https://scripts.webcontentassessor.com/scripts/8a2459b64f9cac8122fc7f2eac4409c8555fac9383016db59c4c26e3d5b8b157"></script><script src='https://qd.admetricspro.com/js/biblehub/biblehub-layout-loader-revcatch.js'></script><script id='HyDgbd_1s' src='https://prebidads.revcatch.com/ads.js' type='text/javascript' async></script><script>(function(w,d,b,s,i){var cts=d.createElement(s);cts.async=true;cts.id='catchscript'; 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The beauty and spiritual significance of this chapter—which from time immemorial has been made to yield teaching and encouragement for the consecration of Christian churches—stand in remarkable contrast with the mere technical detail of the preceding; yet each, in its own way, bears equally strong marks of historical accuracy.<p>Throughout the whole history, the sole majesty of the king is conspicuous. The priests perform only the ministerial functions of ritual and sacrifice. The prophetic order is absolutely unrepresented in the narrative. Solomon, and he alone, stands forth, both as the representative of the people before God in sacrifice and prayer, and as the representative of God in blessing and exhortation of the people. He is for the time king, priest, and prophet, in one—in this a type of the true “Son of David,” the true “Prince of Peace.” It is not unlikely that from this unequalled concentration on his head of temporal and spiritual dignity came the temptation to self-idolatry, through which he fell; and that the comparative abeyance of the counterbalancing influences wielded by the prophet and (in less degree) by the priest gave occasion to the oppressive, though splendid, despotism under which Israel groaned in his later days.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/1_kings/8-1.htm">1 Kings 8:1</a></div><div class="verse">Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel, unto king Solomon in Jerusalem, that they might bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of the city of David, which <i>is</i> Zion.</div>(1) <span class= "bld">The elders.</span>—If in this description—found also in <a href="/2_chronicles/5-2.htm" title="Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel, to Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of the city of David, which is Zion.">2Chronicles 5:2</a>, and taken, no doubt, from the original document—“the elders of Israel,” are to be distinguished from the “heads of the tribes,” and not (as in the LXX.) identified with them, the former expression probably refers to the chiefs of official rank, such as the princes and the counsellors of the king, and the latter to the feudal chiefs of the great families of the various tribes. These alone were specially summoned; but as the Dedication festival (being deferred for nearly a year after the completion of the Temple) was blended with the Feast of Tabernacles, “all the men of Israel” naturally “assembled at Jerusalem” without special summons.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/1_kings/8-2.htm">1 Kings 8:2</a></div><div class="verse">And all the men of Israel assembled themselves unto king Solomon at the feast in the month Ethanim, which <i>is</i> the seventh month.</div>(2) <span class= "bld">The month Ethanim</span> (called after the Captivity Tisri), corresponded with the end of September and beginning of October. The name is supposed (by Thenius) to be properly, as in the LXX., <span class= "ital">Athanim</span>, and to signify the “month of gifts,” so called as bringing with it the gathering in of the vintage, and of the last of the crops. According to the Chaldee Targum, it was in old times the beginning of the civil, as Abib of the ecclesiastical year. The feast in this month was the Feast of Tabernacles—of all feasts of the year the most joyful—marking the gathering in of all the fruits of the land, commemorating the dwelling in tabernacles in the wilderness, and thanking God for settlement and blessing in the land (<a href="/context/leviticus/23-33.htm" title="And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,">Leviticus 23:33-44</a>). It was, perhaps, the time when the Israelites could best be absent from their lands for a prolonged festival; but there was also a peculiar appropriateness in thus giving it a higher consecration, by celebrating on it the transference of the ark from the movable tabernacle to a fixed and splendid habitation. In this instance the festival was doubled in duration, from seven to fourteen days. (See <a href="/1_kings/8-65.htm" title="And at that time Solomon held a feast, and all Israel with him, a great congregation, from the entering in of Hamath to the river of Egypt, before the LORD our God, seven days and seven days, even fourteen days.">1Kings 8:65</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/1_kings/8-3.htm">1 Kings 8:3</a></div><div class="verse">And all the elders of Israel came, and the priests took up the ark.</div>(3) <span class= "bld">The priests took up the ark.</span>—To bear the ark on its journeys was properly the duty of the Levites of the family of Kohath (<a href="/numbers/3-31.htm" title="And their charge shall be the ark, and the table, and the candlestick, and the altars, and the vessels of the sanctuary with which they minister, and the hanging, and all the service thereof.">Numbers 3:31</a>; <a href="/numbers/4-5.htm" title="And when the camp sets forward, Aaron shall come, and his sons, and they shall take down the covering veil, and cover the ark of testimony with it:">Numbers 4:5</a>); but to bring it out of the Holy of Holies (or, as here, from whatever corresponded thereto in the tent erected for the ark on Mount Zion), and to replace it therein, was the work of the priests alone. Hence in this passage, with literal accuracy, it is said, first, that “the priests took up the ark;” then (<a href="/1_kings/8-4.htm" title="And they brought up the ark of the LORD, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and all the holy vessels that were in the tabernacle, even those did the priests and the Levites bring up.">1Kings 8:4</a>) that the priests and Levites brought up the ark and the holy things; and, lastly (<a href="/1_kings/8-6.htm" title="And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the LORD to his place, into the oracle of the house, to the most holy place, even under the wings of the cherubim.">1Kings 8:6</a>), that “the priests brought in the ark into the oracle.” Josephus, indeed, declares that, as was natural on this occasion of special solemnity—just as at the passage of the Jordan, and the circuit round the walls of Jericho (<a href="/context/joshua/3-6.htm" title="And Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, Take up the ark of the covenant, and pass over before the people. And they took up the ark of the covenant, and went before the people.">Joshua 3:6-17</a>; <a href="/joshua/6-6.htm" title="And Joshua the son of Nun called the priests, and said to them, Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of the LORD.">Joshua 6:6</a>)—the priests themselves bore the ark, while the Levites bore only the vessels and furniture of the Tabernacle.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/1_kings/8-4.htm">1 Kings 8:4</a></div><div class="verse">And they brought up the ark of the LORD, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and all the holy vessels that <i>were</i> in the tabernacle, even those did the priests and the Levites bring up.</div>(4) <span class= "bld">The tabernacle of the congregation</span> (see <a href="/context/1_chronicles/16-39.htm" title="And Zadok the priest, and his brothers the priests, before the tabernacle of the LORD in the high place that was at Gibeon,">1Chronicles 16:39-40</a>; <a href="/2_chronicles/1-3.htm" title="So Solomon, and all the congregation with him, went to the high place that was at Gibeon; for there was the tabernacle of the congregation of God, which Moses the servant of the LORD had made in the wilderness.">2Chronicles 1:3</a>) was still at Gibeon; and the priests and Levites had hitherto been divided between it and the lesser tabernacle over the ark on Mount Zion. Probably each section of the priests and Levites now brought up in solemn procession the sacred things entrusted to them. According to the order of the Mosaic law (<a href="/context/numbers/3-25.htm" title="And the charge of the sons of Gershon in the tabernacle of the congregation shall be the tabernacle, and the tent, the covering thereof, and the hanging for the door of the tabernacle of the congregation,">Numbers 3:25-37</a>), the Kohathites had charge on the march of the ark and the vessels, the Gershonites of the Tabernacle and its hangings, and the Merarites of the boards and pillars of the Tabernacle and the outer court. This order, no doubt, was followed, as far as possible, on this its last journey. What became of the Tabernacle and its furniture (so far as this was disused), we are not told; but all was probably deposited, as a sacred relic of antiquity, somewhere in the precincts of the Temple. This seems to be implied in the famous Jewish tradition (see <a href="//apocrypha.org/2_maccabees/2-4.htm" title="It was also contained in the same writing, that the prophet, being warned of God, commanded the tabernacle and the ark to go with him, as he went forth into the mountain, where Moses climbed up, and saw the heritage of God.">2 Maccabees 2:4-6</a>), that Jeremiah was enabled to hide by miracle “the Tabernacle and the ark and the altar of incense” on the destruction of the Temple.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/1_kings/8-5.htm">1 Kings 8:5</a></div><div class="verse">And king Solomon, and all the congregation of Israel, that were assembled unto him, <i>were</i> with him before the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen, that could not be told nor numbered for multitude.</div>(5) <span class= "bld">Sacrificing.</span>—This inaugural sacrifice corresponded on a grand scale to the ceremonial of the day, when David brought up the ark to Zion. “When they that bare the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed oxen and fatlings,” “seven bullocks and seven rams” (<a href="/2_samuel/6-13.htm" title="And it was so, that when they that bore the ark of the LORD had gone six paces, he sacrificed oxen and fatted calves.">2Samuel 6:13</a>; <a href="/1_chronicles/15-26.htm" title="And it came to pass, when God helped the Levites that bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD, that they offered seven bullocks and seven rams.">1Chronicles 15:26</a>). It was offered “before the ark,” either as it left Mount Zion, or on arrival in the Temple, before it passed out of sight into the oracle.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/1_kings/8-6.htm">1 Kings 8:6</a></div><div class="verse">And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the LORD unto his place, into the oracle of the house, to the most holy <i>place, even</i> under the wings of the cherubims.</div>(6-8) <span class= "bld">And the priests brought in the ark.</span>—It is clear from this description that the ark was placed lengthways between the cherubim, so that the staves by which it was borne, when drawn out (though still partly attached to the ark) were seen—probably by projections visible through the veil—in the Holy Place; although, as the narrative remarks with characteristic minuteness of accuracy, “not without” from the porch. The reason why this detail is dwelt upon is obvious. Up to this time it had been forbidden to withdraw the staves (<a href="/context/exodus/25-13.htm" title="And you shall make staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold.">Exodus 25:13-15</a>), so that the ark might always be ready for transference; now the withdrawal marked the entrance on a new period, during which it was to rest unmoved.<p><span class= "bld">There they are unto this day.</span>—This phrase—not unfrequently repeated in the narrative (see <a href="/1_kings/9-21.htm" title="Their children that were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel also were not able utterly to destroy, on those did Solomon levy a tribute of slavery to this day.">1Kings 9:21</a>; <a href="/1_kings/10-12.htm" title="And the king made of the almug trees pillars for the house of the LORD, and for the king's house, harps also and psalteries for singers: there came no such almug trees, nor were seen to this day.">1Kings 10:12</a>; <a href="/1_kings/12-19.htm" title="So Israel rebelled against the house of David to this day.">1Kings 12:19</a>, &c.)—is an interesting indication of quotation from older documents; for at the time of the compilation of the book the Temple and all that it contained had been destroyed or removed. It is remarkable that in the record of the successive spoilings of the Temple by the Chaldæans (<a href="/2_kings/24-13.htm" title="And he carried out there all the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king's house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the LORD, as the LORD had said.">2Kings 24:13</a>; <a href="/context/2_kings/25-13.htm" title="And the pillars of brass that were in the house of the LORD, and the bases, and the brazen sea that was in the house of the LORD, did the Chaldees break in pieces, and carried the brass of them to Babylon.">2Kings 25:13-17</a>), while the various vessels, the brazen pillars, and the sea are mentioned in detail, nothing is said of their carrying away the ark, which would have been the choicest, as most sacred, of all the spoils. (See Notes on these passages.) About the Jewish tradition, referred to above (see Note on <a href="/1_kings/8-4.htm" title="And they brought up the ark of the LORD, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and all the holy vessels that were in the tabernacle, even those did the priests and the Levites bring up.">1Kings 8:4</a>), setting aside the supposed miracle, there is no intrinsic improbability, considering the respect paid to Jeremiah by the Chaldæans. (See <a href="/context/jeremiah/39-11.htm" title="Now Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon gave charge concerning Jeremiah to Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, saying,">Jeremiah 39:11-14</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/1_kings/8-9.htm">1 Kings 8:9</a></div><div class="verse"><i>There was</i> nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb, when the LORD made <i>a covenant</i> with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.</div>(9) <span class= "bld">There was nothing.</span>—The emphasis of this (repeated in <a href="/2_chronicles/5-10.htm" title="There was nothing in the ark save the two tables which Moses put therein at Horeb, when the LORD made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of Egypt.">2Chronicles 5:10</a>) is remarkable, and seems intended to make it clear that the various things laid up “before the testimony”—the pot of manna (<a href="/context/exodus/16-33.htm" title="And Moses said to Aaron, Take a pot, and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay it up before the LORD, to be kept for your generations.">Exodus 16:33-34</a>), the rod of Aaron (<a href="/numbers/17-10.htm" title="And the LORD said to Moses, Bring Aaron's rod again before the testimony, to be kept for a token against the rebels; and you shall quite take away their murmurings from me, that they die not.">Numbers 17:10</a>), the copy of the Law (<a href="/context/deuteronomy/31-24.htm" title="And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished,">Deuteronomy 31:24-26</a>)—were not in the ark, but (as in the last case is actually stated), at “the side of the ark.” Unless any change afterwards took place—which is highly improbable—this clear statement must determine the interpretation of the well-known passage in the Epistle to the Hebrews (<a href="/1_kings/9-4.htm" title="And if you will walk before me, as David your father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep my statutes and my judgments:">1Kings 9:4</a>), in which no stress need be laid on the literal accuracy of the word “wherein;” for its purpose is simply a general description of the Temple, its chief parts, and its most sacred furniture. The command to deposit the tables in the ark is recorded in <a href="/exodus/25-16.htm" title="And you shall put into the ark the testimony which I shall give you.">Exodus 25:16</a>, and the actual deposit of them there in <a href="/exodus/40-20.htm" title="And he took and put the testimony into the ark, and set the staves on the ark, and put the mercy seat above on the ark:">Exodus 40:20</a>, immediately after the erection of the Tabernacle.<p>There is something singularly impressive in the especial hallowing of the granite tables of the Law of Righteousness, as the most sacred of all the revelations of the Nature of God; thus indissolubly binding together religion and morality, and showing that God is best known to man, not in His omnipotence, or even in His infinite wisdom, which man can only in slight degree imitate, but in His moral nature, as the very Truth and Righteousness, of which all that in man is called true and righteous is but the reflection. The one main object of all prophetic teaching was to bring out the truth here implied, thus writing the law on the heart and on the mind (<a href="/jeremiah/31-33.htm" title="But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, said the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.">Jeremiah 31:33</a>), and rebuking moral evil at least as strongly as religious error and apostasy. The very name of the Messiah for whom they prepared is “Jehovah our righteousness” (<a href="/jeremiah/23-6.htm" title="In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.">Jeremiah 23:6</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/1_kings/8-10.htm">1 Kings 8:10</a></div><div class="verse">And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy <i>place</i>, that the cloud filled the house of the LORD,</div>(10) <span class= "bld">The cloud.</span>—The bright Shechinah of the Divine Presence, at once cloud and fire—which had been the sign of the presence of God on Sinai (<a href="/context/exodus/24-15.htm" title="And Moses went up into the mount, and a cloud covered the mount.">Exodus 24:15-18</a>), and had hallowed the consecration of the Tabernacle (<a href="/context/exodus/40-34.htm" title="Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.">Exodus 40:34-35</a>)—now similarly descended on the Temple, as a sign of its acceptance with God. In the visions of Ezekiel the same glory is seen, first filling the house of the Lord, and then departing from it, as polluted by manifold idolatry (<a href="/ezekiel/10-4.htm" title="Then the glory of the LORD went up from the cherub, and stood over the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the LORD's glory.">Ezekiel 10:4</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/10-18.htm" title="Then the glory of the LORD departed from off the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubim.">Ezekiel 10:18</a>). Its return to the restored Temple is solemnly promised by Haggai (<a href="/haggai/2-7.htm" title="And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, said the LORD of hosts.">Haggai 2:7</a>; <a href="/haggai/2-9.htm" title="The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, said the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, said the LORD of hosts.">Haggai 2:9</a>) in distinct reference to the coming of the Messiah; and it is declared that it shall be even greater than in the magnificence of Solomon’s Temple. The symbol clearly implies a revelation of Divine glory, as it is seen, not in the unveiled brightness of heaven, but in the glorious cloud of mystery; through which it must always be seen on earth, and which, indeed, is all that the eye of man can bear to contemplate. Out of that glory comes the only revelation which can be distinct to man—the voice or the word of the Lord (<a href="/deuteronomy/4-12.htm" title="And the LORD spoke to you out of the middle of the fire: you heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only you heard a voice.">Deuteronomy 4:12</a>).<p>The record of the Chronicles (<a href="/context/2_chronicles/5-11.htm" title="And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place: (for all the priests that were present were sanctified, and did not then wait by course:">2Chronicles 5:11-13</a>)—dwelling, as usual, on the musical and ritual service of the Levites—notes here that this descent of the glory of the Lord came, as it were, in answer to a solemn burst of worship from the Levites and the people, “praising the Lord, because He is good; for His mercy endureth for ever.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/1_kings/8-11.htm">1 Kings 8:11</a></div><div class="verse">So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of the LORD.</div>(11) <span class= "bld">The priests could not stand to minister.</span>—So in <a href="/exodus/40-35.htm" title="And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud stayed thereon, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.">Exodus 40:35</a>, “Moses was not able to enter into the Tabernacle; for the cloud rested thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle.” They shrank from the glory of the Lord, whom none could see and live; just as Isaiah (<a href="/isaiah/6-5.htm" title="Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the middle of a people of unclean lips: for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.">Isaiah 6:5</a>) felt “undone” when he beheld the glory of the Lord in the Temple; and as even the Apostles trembled, when they entered into “the bright cloud which overshadowed them” on the Mount of Transfiguration, and “knew not what they said” (<a href="/context/luke/9-33.htm" title="And it came to pass, as they departed from him, Peter said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for you, and one for Moses, and one for Elias: not knowing what he said.">Luke 9:33-34</a>). But it was not so much from terror of the Lord, who is “a consuming fire,” as simply from awe and reverence of His unspeakable glory.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/1_kings/8-12.htm">1 Kings 8:12</a></div><div class="verse">Then spake Solomon, The LORD said that he would dwell in the thick darkness.</div>(12) <span class= "bld">The Lord said . . .</span>—The words of Solomon, though—as is natural in a moment of mingled awe and thankfulness—somewhat broken and abrupt, are clear enough in their general meaning and connection. He refers to the frequent declarations made in old time that the cloud is the symbol of God’s indwelling presence (such as <a href="/exodus/19-9.htm" title="And the LORD said to Moses, See, I come to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and believe you for ever. And Moses told the words of the people to the LORD.">Exodus 19:9</a>, and <a href="/leviticus/16-2.htm" title="And the LORD said to Moses, Speak to Aaron your brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place within the veil before the mercy seat, which is on the ark; that he die not: for I will appear in the cloud on the mercy seat.">Leviticus 16:2</a>);<p>he recognises in the appearance of the cloud the sign that the Divine presence is granted to the Temple; and accordingly he exults in the proof that his foreordained work is accomplished by the building of a house, a “settled habitation” for the Lord. The description of the cloud as “thick darkness,” in no way contradicts the idea of the glory shining through it; for human eyes are easily “darkened by excess of light.” This mingled light and darkness symbolises—perhaps more strikingly than even the literal darkness of the Most Holy Place—the mystery which veils the presence of God, known to be, and to be infinitely glorious, but in its nature incomprehensible.<p>Thenius, from a single Chaldee version, suggests for “thick darkness” the correction “Jerusalem;” dwelling on the closer harmony of the reading with <a href="/1_kings/8-16.htm" title="Since the day that I brought forth my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build an house, that my name might be therein; but I chose David to be over my people Israel.">1Kings 8:16</a>, quoting the promise of <a href="/context/psalms/132-13.htm" title="For the LORD has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his habitation.">Psalm 132:13-14</a> (closely connected there with the great promise of David), and urging the likelihood of the citation of this promise by Solomon, and the greater simplicity thus given to his whole utterance. The suggestion is ingenious; but it lacks authority, both external and internal. The LXX., in the Alexandrine MS. (for the Vatican MS. omits the whole), and the Vulg. agree with the Hebrew text; and Josephus, though he gives a verbose paraphrase of the prayer, evidently had our reading before him, for he contrasts the mystery and ubiquity of the Divine presence with the material shrine. Nor is it easy to conceive how from a passage so simple and prosaic, as this would be with the reading “Jerusalem,” the more difficult, but far more striking, reading of the present text could have arisen.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/1_kings/8-14.htm">1 Kings 8:14</a></div><div class="verse">And the king turned his face about, and blessed all the congregation of Israel: (and all the congregation of Israel stood;)</div>(14) <span class= "bld">And the king.</span>—We are told in the book of Chronicles (<a href="/2_chronicles/6-13.htm" title="For Solomon had made a brazen scaffold of five cubits long, and five cubits broad, and three cubits high, and had set it in the middle of the court: and on it he stood, and kneeled down on his knees before all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven.">2Chronicles 6:13</a>) that the king stood on a “brasen scaffold” three cubits high, in the midst of the court before the altar of sacrifice, so that he could alternately turn towards the Temple and towards the people in the outer court.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/1_kings/8-15.htm">1 Kings 8:15</a></div><div class="verse">And he said, Blessed <i>be</i> the LORD God of Israel, which spake with his mouth unto David my father, and hath with his hand fulfilled <i>it</i>, saying,</div>(15-21) His address to the people—apparently preceded by a silent blessing with the usual uplifting of the hands—is the counterpart and expansion of the few abrupt words which he had just uttered before God—calling them to bless God with him for the fulfilment of one part of His promise to David, in the present acceptance of the Temple. The record of that promise is given in <a href="/context/2_samuel/7-5.htm" title="Go and tell my servant David, Thus said the LORD, Shall you build me an house for me to dwell in?">2Samuel 7:5-16</a>; <a href="/context/1_chronicles/17-4.htm" title="Go and tell David my servant, Thus said the LORD, You shall not build me an house to dwell in:">1Chronicles 17:4-14</a>. Here it is freely cited with some variation, so far as it relates to the Temple. It is remarkable that in quoting it, David twice (<a href="/1_chronicles/22-8.htm" title="But the word of the LORD came to me, saying, You have shed blood abundantly, and have made great wars: you shall not build an house to my name, because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight.">1Chronicles 22:8</a>; <a href="/1_chronicles/28-3.htm" title="But God said to me, You shall not build an house for my name, because you have been a man of war, and have shed blood.">1Chronicles 28:3</a>) adds to it the instructive reason for the prohibition, that (unlike Solomon the Peaceful) he had “shed blood abundantly, and had made great wars.” With much grace of filial piety, Solomon refrains from mention of that reason, though there seems to be some allusion to it in his words to Hiram (<a href="/1_kings/5-3.htm" title="You know how that David my father could not build an house to the name of the LORD his God for the wars which were about him on every side, until the LORD put them under the soles of his feet.">1Kings 5:3</a>). On the other hand, he does add—what is not found in the earlier records—the declaration that, though David was not to build the Temple, “he did well that it was in his heart” to build it.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/1_kings/8-16.htm">1 Kings 8:16</a></div><div class="verse">Since the day that I brought forth my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build an house, that my name might be therein; but I chose David to be over my people Israel.</div>(16) <span class= "bld">I chose no city.</span>—In this verse, as in some other cases, for coherence of idea, it seems necessary to correct from the fuller version in <a href="/context/2_chronicles/6-5.htm" title="Since the day that I brought forth my people out of the land of Egypt I chose no city among all the tribes of Israel to build an house in, that my name might be there; neither chose I any man to be a ruler over my people Israel:">2Chronicles 6:5-6</a>, by an addition after the word “therein.” It should run: “Neither chose I any man to be ruler over my people, but I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there, and I have chosen David to be over my people Israel.” The parallel in the two points referred to is exact. As there were temporary resting places for the ark—such as Gilgal, Shiloh, Kirjathjearim, and Zion—so there were rulers raised up successively for a time, and then removed. Now there was to be one fixed place as the Sanctuary of God, and one royal house of David to continue for ever.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/1_kings/8-21.htm">1 Kings 8:21</a></div><div class="verse">And I have set there a place for the ark, wherein <i>is</i> the covenant of the LORD, which he made with our fathers, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.</div>(21) <span class= "bld">Wherein is the covenant of the Lord</span>—the Tables, that is, containing the “words of the covenant” (<a href="/exodus/34-28.htm" title="And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote on the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.">Exodus 34:28</a>). This remarkable application of the word “covenant” illustrates strikingly the characteristics of the Divine covenants with man. Such covenants are not (like most human covenants) undertakings of reciprocal engagements between parties regarded as independent. For such a conception of the relation between God and man is monstrous. God’s covenants proceed simply from His will, expressed in His call to an individual or a nation. They begin in free grace and blessing from Him; they require simply that men should believe and accept His call, and act in obedience to that belief. Thus the Decalogue opens with the words, “I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage,” describing the gift of salvation from the mercy of God, which constituted Israel afresh as His peculiar people. (See <a href="/context/exodus/3-7.htm" title="And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;">Exodus 3:7-15</a>.) On the ground of this salvation, rather than of His Omnipotence as Creator and Sustainer of the world, He calls for their obedience to the commandments, which are thus “the words of the covenant.” Similarly St. Paul, when (<a href="/romans/12-1.htm" title="I beseech you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.">Romans 12:1</a>) he calls Christians to absolute self-devotion, appeals to them by “the mercies of God,” on which he had so fully dwelt—the larger and more spiritual covenant in Christ.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/1_kings/8-23.htm">1 Kings 8:23</a></div><div class="verse">And he said, LORD God of Israel, <i>there is</i> no God like thee, in heaven above, or on earth beneath, who keepest covenant and mercy with thy servants that walk before thee with all their heart:</div>(23-53) The prayer of Solomon, uttered (see <a href="/1_kings/8-54.htm" title="And it was so, that when Solomon had made an end of praying all this prayer and supplication to the LORD, he arose from before the altar of the LORD, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven.">1Kings 8:54</a>) on his knees with hands uplifted to heaven, long and detailed as it is, is yet of extreme simplicity of idea. It begins (<span class= "ital">a</span>), in <a href="/context/1_kings/8-23.htm" title="And he said, LORD God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven above, or on earth beneath, who keep covenant and mercy with your servants that walk before you with all their heart:">1Kings 8:23-25</a>, with a thankful acknowledgment of the fulfilment of one part of the great promise to David, and a prayer for the like fulfilment of the other; next (<span class= "ital">b</span>), in <a href="/context/1_kings/8-26.htm" title="And now, O God of Israel, let your word, I pray you, be verified, which you spoke to your servant David my father.">1Kings 8:26-30</a>, acknowledging that God’s presence can be limited to no Temple, it yet Asks that His peculiar blessing may rest on prayer uttered toward the place which He has hallowed; and then (<span class= "ital">c</span>), in <a href="/context/1_kings/8-31.htm" title="If any man trespass against his neighbor, and an oath be laid on him to cause him to swear, and the oath come before your altar in this house:">1Kings 8:31-53</a>, applies that petition to the various contingencies, of oath taken in His name, of rain withheld, of disaster in battle, of famine and pestilence, of captivity in a foreign land, and extends it not only to Israel, but to the stranger who shall acknowledge and invoke the Lord Jehovah. Its constantly recurring burden is, “Hear Thou from heaven thy dwelling-place, and when Thou hearest, Lord, forgive.” It is plain that before Solomon’s mind there are continually present in some form the blessing and the curse pronounced in the Law (see Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28); and it is most true to human nature, and especially characteristic of the thoughtfulness of his philosophic temper, that over the bright hour of exultation there seems to hover a constant foreboding of evils and trials to come.<p>(23) <span class= "bld">There is no God like Thee.</span>—These words, often used in the Psalms (<a href="/psalms/71-19.htm" title="Your righteousness also, O God, is very high, who have done great things: O God, who is like to you!">Psalm 71:19</a>; <a href="/psalms/86-8.htm" title="Among the gods there is none like to you, O Lord; neither are there any works like to your works.">Psalm 86:8</a>; <a href="/psalms/89-6.htm" title="For who in the heaven can be compared to the LORD? who among the sons of the mighty can be likened to the LORD?">Psalm 89:6</a>), and especially found in the thanksgiving of David after the great promise (<a href="/2_samuel/7-22.htm" title="Why you are great, O LORD God: for there is none like you, neither is there any God beside you, according to all that we have heard with our ears.">2Samuel 7:22</a>), are evidently suggested by more ancient utterances of devotion; as for example, in the first recorded Psalm at the Red Sea (<a href="/exodus/15-11.htm" title="Who is like to you, O LORD, among the gods? who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?">Exodus 15:11</a>). In them we trace the spiritual process by which the Israelites were trained from the polytheism of their forefathers to the knowledge of the One only God. He is known to them, first, in the close personal relation of “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” to whom “none is like” of all gods whom others worshipped; but next, in His universal relation to the universe as the “God Almighty, and the Judge of the whole earth” (<a href="/genesis/17-2.htm" title="And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.">Genesis 17:2</a>; <a href="/genesis/18-25.htm" title="That be far from you to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from you: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?">Genesis 18:25</a>); lastly, as Jehovah, “God,” indeed, “of Israel,” but, by the very meaning of the name, the One Self-existent Being, source of all other life. Thus, in the thanksgiving of David to the words, “none is like Thee,” is added at once the higher belief, “there is no God beside Thee.” In this prayer of Solomon there follows at once the striking confession that the “heaven of heavens cannot contain” His Infinity.<p><span class= "bld">Who keepest covenant and mercy.</span>—This phrase, again, familiar in prayer (see <a href="/deuteronomy/7-9.htm" title="Know therefore that the LORD your God, he is God, the faithful God, which keeps covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;">Deuteronomy 7:9</a>; <a href="/nehemiah/1-5.htm" title="And said, I beseech you, O LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keeps covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments:">Nehemiah 1:5</a>; <a href="/daniel/9-4.htm" title="And I prayed to the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;">Daniel 9:4</a>), is clearly traceable to the conclusion of the Second Commandment (<a href="/exodus/20-6.htm" title="And showing mercy to thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.">Exodus 20:6</a>), and the special revelation of God to Moses in the Mount (<a href="/context/exodus/34-6.htm" title="And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,">Exodus 34:6-7</a>). It is notable, not merely because it describes God as manifesting Himself “most chiefly by showing mercy and pity,” but also because it declares this manifestation of mercy to be pledged to man as a chief part of His covenant. So in the New Testament it is said that, to those who claim His covenant in Christ, “He is faithful and just to forgive sins.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/1_kings/8-25.htm">1 Kings 8:25</a></div><div class="verse">Therefore now, LORD God of Israel, keep with thy servant David my father that thou promisedst him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel; so that thy children take heed to their way, that they walk before me as thou hast walked before me.</div>(25) <span class= "bld">Therefore now.</span>—The larger and grander part of the promise to David extends beyond Solomon’s quotation of it. For (see <a href="/context/2_samuel/7-12.htm" title="And when your days be fulfilled, and you shall sleep with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, which shall proceed out of your bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.">2Samuel 7:12-16</a>; <a href="/context/psalms/89-28.htm" title="My mercy will I keep for him for ever more, and my covenant shall stand fast with him.">Psalm 89:28-37</a>) it expressly declares that, even if the seed of David fall away, they shall indeed be chastised, but they shall not be cast off. The prophet Jeremiah (<a href="/jeremiah/31-36.htm" title="If those ordinances depart from before me, said the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever.">Jeremiah 31:36</a>; <a href="/context/jeremiah/33-20.htm" title="Thus said the LORD; If you can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season;">Jeremiah 33:20-26</a>) as well as the Psalmist (<a href="/context/psalms/89-36.htm" title="His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me.">Psalm 89:36-37</a>) enforce the declaration by comparing the certainty of its fulfilment with the fixity of “the ordinances of the sun and moon.” Like the ordinary dispensations of His Providence, it is in itself fixed and immutable, although the actual enjoyment of its blessing by each individual, or each age, is conditional on right reception of it.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/1_kings/8-27.htm">1 Kings 8:27</a></div><div class="verse">But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?</div>(27, 28) <span class= "bld">Will God indeed dwell.</span>—The thought expressed here exemplifies a constant antithesis which run through the Old Testament. On the one hand, there is the most profound and unvarying conception of the Infinity, eternal, invisible, incomprehensible, of the Lord, as “the High and Holy One who inhabiteth eternity,” whom “the heaven of heavens”—the heaven, that is, in all its vastest extent—“cannot contain;” and the spirituality of this conception is guarded by the sternest prohibition of that idolatry which limited and degraded the idea of God, and by rebuke of the superstition which trusted in an intrinsic sacredness of the Ark or the Temple. On the other hand, there is an equally vivid conviction that the Infinite Jehovah is yet pleased to enter into a special covenant with Israel, beyond all other nations, to reveal Himself by the cloud in the midst of His people, to bless, with a peculiar blessing, “the place which He chooses to place His Name there.” The two conceptions co-exist, as in the text, in complete harmony, both preparing for the perfect manifestation of a “God with us” in that kingdom of the Messiah, which was at once to perfect the covenant with Israel, and to include all peoples, nations, and languages for ever and ever. The words of Solomon in spirit anticipate the utterance of the prophet (<a href="/isaiah/66-1.htm" title="Thus said the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that you build to me? and where is the place of my rest?">Isaiah 66:1</a>), quoted by St. Stephen against idolatry of the Temple (<a href="/acts/7-48.htm" title="However, the most High dwells not in temples made with hands; as said the prophet,">Acts 7:48</a>), and even the greater declaration of our Lord (<a href="/context/john/4-21.htm" title="Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, the hour comes, when you shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.">John 4:21-24</a>) as to the universal presence of God to all spiritual worship. Yet he feels the reality of the consecration of the House raised by the command of God; and prays that all who recognise it by prayer “toward this house,” may enter into the special unity with God which it symbolises, and be heard by Him from heaven. By an instructive contrast, the Temple is described as the place where God’s “Name”—that is, His self-revelation—is made to dwell; but heaven, and it alone, as the true dwelling- place of God Himself.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/1_kings/8-31.htm">1 Kings 8:31</a></div><div class="verse">If any man trespass against his neighbour, and an oath be laid upon him to cause him to swear, and the oath come before thine altar in this house:</div>(31, 32) <span class= "bld">If any man trespass.</span>—These verses deal with the simplest exemplification of the sacredness of the Temple in the case of the oath of expurgation of one accused of crime (see <a href="/exodus/22-7.htm" title="If a man shall deliver to his neighbor money or stuff to keep, and it be stolen out of the man's house; if the thief be found, let him pay double.">Exodus 22:7</a>). Of these oaths, and the sophistical distinctions between the various forms of them, we have Our Lord’s notice in <a href="/context/matthew/23-16.htm" title="Woe to you, you blind guides, which say, Whoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!">Matthew 23:16-22</a>. Such an oath has a twofold force—a force purely spiritual, inasmuch as it solemnly recognises the Presence of God, and by such recognition shames all falsehood as a kind of sacrilege; and a force which is “of the Law,” inasmuch as the invocation of God’s punishment in case of falsehood appeals to godly fear. Solomon prays that God will accept the oath under both aspects, and by His judgment distinguish between the innocent and the guilty.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/1_kings/8-33.htm">1 Kings 8:33</a></div><div class="verse">When thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee, and shall turn again to thee, and confess thy name, and pray, and make supplication unto thee in this house:</div>(33, 34) <span class= "bld">When thy people.</span>—From the individual, the prayer turns to those which touch the whole nation. It pictures various national calamities, and in each recognises not mere evils, but chastisements of God, who desires by them to teach, and is most ready to forgive. First it naturally dwells on disaster in battle, which, in the whole history of the Exodus, of the Conquest, of the troubled age of the Judges, and of the reigns of Saul and David, is acknowledged as a sign of unfaithfulness in Israel, either through sin or through idolatry, to the covenant of God, on which the victorious possession of the promised land depended. On that history the blessing and the curse of the Law (<a href="/leviticus/26-17.htm" title="And I will set my face against you, and you shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and you shall flee when none pursues you.">Leviticus 26:17</a>; <a href="/context/leviticus/26-32.htm" title="And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it.">Leviticus 26:32-33</a>; <a href="/deuteronomy/28-25.htm" title="The LORD shall cause you to be smitten before your enemies: you shall go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them: and shall be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.">Deuteronomy 28:25</a>) form a commentary of emphatic warning, and the Psalms again and again bring the same lesson home (<a href="/context/psalms/44-1.htm" title="We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work you did in their days, in the times of old.">Psalm 44:1-3</a>; <a href="/context/psalms/44-9.htm" title="But you have cast off, and put us to shame; and go not forth with our armies.">Psalm 44:9-17</a>; <a href="/context/psalms/60-9.htm" title="Who will bring me into the strong city? who will lead me into Edom?">Psalm 60:9-11</a>; <a href="/context/psalms/89-42.htm" title="You have set up the right hand of his adversaries; you have made all his enemies to rejoice.">Psalm 89:42-46</a>). With characteristic seriousness, Solomon looks back from his peaceful prosperity on the stormy past, and from it learns to pray for the future.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/1_kings/8-35.htm">1 Kings 8:35</a></div><div class="verse">When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou afflictest them:</div>(35, 36) <span class= "bld">When heaven is shut up.</span>—Next, Solomon dwells on the plague of famine, from rain withheld, by which, in the striking language of the Law (<a href="/leviticus/26-19.htm" title="And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass:">Leviticus 26:19</a>; <a href="/context/deuteronomy/28-23.htm" title="And your heaven that is over your head shall be brass, and the earth that is under you shall be iron.">Deuteronomy 28:23-24</a>), “the heaven should be as brass, and the earth as iron,” and all vegetation perish from the parched land of Palestine, as now it seems actually to have failed in many places once fertile. In such plague he acknowledges the chastisement of God, sent to “teach Israel the right way,” and then to be withdrawn in mercy. The whole history of the famine in the days of Elijah is in all parts a striking commentary on this clause of the prayer.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/1_kings/8-37.htm">1 Kings 8:37</a></div><div class="verse">If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, <i>or</i> if there be caterpiller; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities; whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness <i>there be</i>;</div>(37-40) <span class= "bld">If there be pestilence</span>.—He then passes on to the various plagues threatened in the Law—famine, pestilence, blasting of the corn, mildew on the fruit, locust and caterpillar (see <a href="/context/leviticus/26-25.htm" title="And I will bring a sword on you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when you are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.">Leviticus 26:25-26</a>; <a href="/context/deuteronomy/28-22.htm" title="The LORD shall smite you with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue you until you perish.">Deuteronomy 28:22-24</a>; <a href="/context/deuteronomy/28-38.htm" title="You shall carry much seed out into the field, and shall gather but little in; for the locust shall consume it.">Deuteronomy 28:38-42</a>), the distress of siege, so terribly depicted (<a href="/context/deuteronomy/28-52.htm" title="And he shall besiege you in all your gates, until your high and fenced walls come down, wherein you trusted, throughout all your land: and he shall besiege you in all your gates throughout all your land, which the LORD your God has given you.">Deuteronomy 28:52-57</a>), and so often terribly fulfilled (not least in the last great siege of Jerusalem), and adds, to sum up all, “whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be.” Through any, or all of these, he pictures each man as brought to “know the plague of his own heart”—that is, as startled into a consciousness of sin, and recognition of it as the true “plague,” the cause of all outward plagues, and so drawn to prayer of penitence and of godly fear.<p><span class= "bld">Thou only, knowest the hearts . . .</span> of men. The emphasis laid on this knowledge of the heart (as in <a href="/psalms/11-4.htm" title="The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD's throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men.">Psalm 11:4</a>; <a href="/context/psalms/139-2.htm" title="You know my sitting down and my rising up, you understand my thought afar off.">Psalm 139:2-4</a>; <a href="/context/jeremiah/17-9.htm" title="The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?">Jeremiah 17:9-10</a>) as the special attribute of Deity, though, of course, belonging to all vital religion, yet marks especially the leading thought of the Psalms and the Proverbs, which always realise the presence of God, not so much in the outer spheres of Nature and history, as in the soul of man itself. It carries with it, as here, the conviction that, under the general dealings of God’s righteousness with man, there lies an individuality of judgment, making them to each exactly what his spiritual condition needs. The plague, for example, which cuts off one man unrepentant in his sins, may be to another a merciful “deliverance out of the miseries of this sinful world.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/1_kings/8-41.htm">1 Kings 8:41</a></div><div class="verse">Moreover concerning a stranger, that <i>is</i> not of thy people Israel, but cometh out of a far country for thy name's sake;</div>(41-43) <span class= "bld">Moreover, concerning a stranger.</span>—These verses in a striking digression (perhaps suggested by the general acknowledgment in the previous verse of God’s knowledge of every human heart), interpose in the series of references to Israel a prayer for the acceptance of the prayer of the “stranger” who should come from afar to confess the Lord Jehovah, and to “pray toward this house.” Such recognition of the stranger, not as an enemy or even a complete alien, but as in some sense capable of communion with the true God, was especially natural in Solomon; first, because in his days many strangers came from afar, drawn by the fame of his wisdom and magnificence, so that the old exclusiveness of the Israelites must have been greatly broken down; and next, because the character of the thought and writing of his age, searching (as in the books of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes) into the great religious problems which belong to man as man, naturally led to that wider view of the kingdom of God over all nations, which is worked out so strikingly in the writings of the prophets. That the case contemplated is probably not imaginary, is shown by the examples of King Hiram and the Queen of Sheba. Admiration of the glory of Israel would lead inevitably to some belief in, and “fear” of, the God of Israel; and it might well go on to the further result, here contemplated, of a fuller acknowledgment of the Lord Jehovah, and of the sacredness of the worship of His appointed Temple, which would tell silently on all the religions of the East. It was expressly provided for in the Law (<a href="/context/numbers/15-14.htm" title="And if a stranger sojourn with you, or whoever be among you in your generations, and will offer an offering made by fire, of a sweet smell to the LORD; as you do, so he shall do.">Numbers 15:14-16</a>): and in spite of the greater exclusiveness of the ages after the Captivity, heathen princes were often allowed to offer in the Temple. This recognition of the stranger from afar is different from the frequent recognition of the resident “stranger within their gates,” as being under the protection of God, and to be “loved” by those who had been “strangers in the land of Egypt” (<a href="/context/deuteronomy/10-18.htm" title="He does execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loves the stranger, in giving him food and raiment.">Deuteronomy 10:18-19</a>). But, like it, it nobly distinguished the Law of Israel from most ancient codes; it stood out as a striking, though often unheeded, protest against the hard exclusiveness of the Jewish temper; it was a tacit anticipation of the future gathering in of all nations to enjoy the blessing which was from the beginning expressly destined for “all families of the earth.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/1_kings/8-44.htm">1 Kings 8:44</a></div><div class="verse">If thy people go out to battle against their enemy, whithersoever thou shalt send them, and shall pray unto the LORD toward the city which thou hast chosen, and <i>toward</i> the house that I have built for thy name:</div>(44-50) <span class= "bld">If thy people goout.</span>—The prayer here returns once more to invoke God’s aid against earthly enemies. It is characteristic of the foreboding tone of sadness, which runs through the whole prayer, that it touches but lightly on the first petition, for God’s blessing on the arms of Israel, so often granted in days gone by, and enlarges on the second petition, for mercy and deliverance in the event of defeat and captivity. The spirit, and in the confession of <a href="/1_kings/8-47.htm" title="Yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land where they were carried captives, and repent, and make supplication to you in the land of them that carried them captives, saying, We have sinned, and have done perversely, we have committed wickedness;">1Kings 8:47</a> the very words, of this prayer of Solomon are strikingly reproduced in the solemn supplication of Daniel, when the close of the Babylonish captivity drew near (<a href="/context/daniel/9-4.htm" title="And I prayed to the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;">Daniel 9:4-15</a>).There we find a confession of sin, perverseness, and wickedness, literally the same; we find also a similar pleading with God, as “keeping covenant and mercy,” a similar reference to the deliverance from Egypt, and a similar emphasis on the consecration of the city and its people by God’s “great name.” There is a striking pathos of circumstance in the fact, that over “the sanctuary that was desolate” (<a href="/daniel/9-17.htm" title="Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of your servant, and his supplications, and cause your face to shine on your sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake.">Daniel 9:17</a>), with “his windows open towards Jerusalem,” Daniel utters the same prayer, which had marked the day of its consecration in all magnificence and prosperity.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/1_kings/8-50.htm">1 Kings 8:50</a></div><div class="verse">And forgive thy people that have sinned against thee, and all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed against thee, and give them compassion before them who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them:</div>(50) <span class= "bld">Forgive . . . and give them compassion </span>This prayer was singularly fulfilled at the captivity of Judah in Babylon, though we hear of no such thing in relation to the captivity of the “lost tribes” of Israel in Assyria. We see this in the exceptional favour of Nebuchadnezzar and of the Ahasuerus of the Book of Esther to the Jews in Babylon; we see it still more in the greater boon of restoration granted them by Cyrus and Darius, and the Artaxerxes of the Book of Nehemiah. Like the whole course of the fortunes of the Jews in their subsequent dispersion, these things,—however they may be accounted for—are certainly unique in history.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/1_kings/8-51.htm">1 Kings 8:51</a></div><div class="verse">For they <i>be</i> thy people, and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest forth out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron:</div>(51-53) <span class= "bld">For they be thy people.</span>—This pleading with God by His deliverance of the people from Egypt, and by His promise to Moses to make them His inheritance (see <a href="/exodus/19-5.htm" title="Now therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure to me above all people: for all the earth is mine:">Exodus 19:5</a>; <a href="/deuteronomy/9-26.htm" title="I prayed therefore to the LORD, and said, O Lord GOD, destroy not your people and your inheritance, which you have redeemed through your greatness, which you have brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand.">Deuteronomy 9:26</a>; <a href="/deuteronomy/9-29.htm" title="Yet they are your people and your inheritance, which you brought out by your mighty power and by your stretched out arm.">Deuteronomy 9:29</a>; <a href="/deuteronomy/14-2.htm" title="For you are an holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a peculiar people to himself, above all the nations that are on the earth.">Deuteronomy 14:2</a>), although especially suggested by the last petition for deliverance from captivity, may be held to apply to the whole of Solomon’s prayer. It implies the belief not only that the declared purpose of God cannot fail, but that, even for the manifestation of His glory to man, it must needs be visibly fulfilled before the eyes of the world. This same conviction breathes in many of the utterances of Moses for Israel (see <a href="/context/exodus/32-12.htm" title="Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from your fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against your people.">Exodus 32:12-13</a>; <a href="/context/numbers/14-13.htm" title="And Moses said to the LORD, Then the Egyptians shall hear it, (for you brought up this people in your might from among them;)">Numbers 14:13-14</a>); it is expressed in the “Help us, O Lord, and deliver us for Thy name’s sake,” of <a href="/context/psalms/79-9.htm" title="Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name: and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for your name's sake.">Psalm 79:9-10</a>, or the “Defer not for Thine own sake, O my God” of <a href="/daniel/9-19.htm" title="O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, listen and do; defer not, for your own sake, O my God: for your city and your people are called by your name.">Daniel 9:19</a> : it is declared on the part, of the Lord again and again in <a href="/ezekiel/20-9.htm" title="But I worked for my name's sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, among whom they were, in whose sight I made myself known to them, in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt.">Ezekiel 20:9</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/20-14.htm" title="But I worked for my name's sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, in whose sight I brought them out.">Ezekiel 20:14</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/20-22.htm" title="Nevertheless I withdrew my hand, and worked for my name's sake, that it should not be polluted in the sight of the heathen, in whose sight I brought them forth.">Ezekiel 20:22</a>, “I wrought for my name’s sake.” It may, indeed, seem to jar upon our fuller conception of the infinite majesty of God, incapable of being augmented or lessened, and of the infinite love which does all for the sake of His creatures. Yet it is not wholly unlike our Lord’s prayer (<a href="/john/12-28.htm" title="Father, glorify your name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.">John 12:28</a>), “Father, glorify thy name,” or the Apostolic declarations of the great purpose of redemption, as designed for “the praise of God’s glory” (<a href="/ephesians/1-6.htm" title="To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he has made us accepted in the beloved.">Ephesians 1:6</a>; <a href="/ephesians/1-12.htm" title="That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.">Ephesians 1:12</a>; <a href="/ephesians/1-14.htm" title="Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of his glory.">Ephesians 1:14</a>), and of all Christian life as commanded to “do all to the glory of God” (<a href="/1_corinthians/10-31.htm" title="Whether therefore you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.">1Corinthians 10:31</a>). In some respects it is like the pleading with our Lord, in the Litanies of the Church in all ages, by all the various acts of His redemption, and the prayer of the old Latin hymn—<p>“ Redemisti crucem passus;<p>Tantus labor ne sit cassus.”<p>But, indeed, all that might seem to us strange or unworthy in such prayers vanishes at once, when we consider that the knowledge of God in His self-manifestation is the highest happiness of man; on which, indeed, depend all depth and harmony of human knowledge, and all dignity and purity of human life. Hence, in the Lord’s Prayer, the three petitions “for Gods glory,” preceding all special petitions for our own needs, are really prayers for the highest blessing of all mankind. God’s care for His glory is not for His own sake, but for ours.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/1_kings/8-54.htm">1 Kings 8:54</a></div><div class="verse">And it was <i>so</i>, that when Solomon had made an end of praying all this prayer and supplication unto the LORD, he arose from before the altar of the LORD, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven.</div>(54) <span class= "bld">And it was so.</span>—At this point occurs in <a href="/context/2_chronicles/7-1.htm" title="Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the LORD filled the house.">2Chronicles 7:1-3</a> a striking passage, describing the kindling of the sacrifice by fire from heaven, and, apparently, a second manifestation of the cloud of glory. (See Note on the passage.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/1_kings/8-55.htm">1 Kings 8:55</a></div><div class="verse">And he stood, and blessed all the congregation of Israel with a loud voice, saying,</div>(55) <span class= "bld">Blessed all the children of Israel.</span>—To bless the congregation was the special duty and privilege of the priests (see <a href="/context/numbers/6-23.htm" title="Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, On this wise you shall bless the children of Israel, saying to them,">Numbers 6:23-27</a>); but throughout the whole of this narrative the king, and the king alone, is conspicuous. It is, however, to be noted that Solomon’s words here are not strictly of blessing, but rather of praise and prayer to God, and exhortation to the people.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/1_kings/8-56.htm">1 Kings 8:56</a></div><div class="verse">Blessed <i>be</i> the LORD, that hath given rest unto his people Israel, according to all that he promised: there hath not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant.</div>(56) <span class= "bld">That hath given rest.</span>—Now for the first time the frequent promise of rest (<a href="/exodus/33-14.htm" title="And he said, My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.">Exodus 33:14</a>; <a href="/deuteronomy/12-10.htm" title="But when you go over Jordan, and dwell in the land which the LORD your God gives you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety;">Deuteronomy 12:10</a>, &c.)—partially fulfilled after the conquest of the days of Joshua (<a href="/context/joshua/21-44.htm" title="And the LORD gave them rest round about, according to all that he swore to their fathers: and there stood not a man of all their enemies before them; the LORD delivered all their enemies into their hand.">Joshua 21:44-45</a>; <a href="/joshua/23-1.htm" title="And it came to pass a long time after that the LORD had given rest to Israel from all their enemies round about, that Joshua waxed old and stricken in age.">Joshua 23:1</a>; <a href="/joshua/23-14.htm" title="And, behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth: and you know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing has failed of all the good things which the LORD your God spoke concerning you; all are come to pass to you, and not one thing has failed thereof.">Joshua 23:14</a>), and after the establishment of the kingdom of David (<a href="/2_samuel/7-1.htm" title="And it came to pass, when the king sat in his house, and the LORD had given him rest round about from all his enemies;">2Samuel 7:1</a>)—was perfectly accomplished under Solomon the Peaceful, and the whole charter of gift of the promised land (<a href="/context/joshua/1-3.htm" title="Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread on, that have I given to you, as I said to Moses.">Joshua 1:3-4</a>) for the first time thoroughly entered upon. Of the “rest” of Israel, the transfer of the Ark of the Lord from the shifting Tabernacle to the fixed Temple was at once a sign and a pledge. Yet Solomon’s subsequent words imply that “entering into that rest” was conditional on fulfilment of Israel’s part in the covenant, by “walking in the ways of the Lord.” That condition, which he knew so well, he himself broke, and all Israel with him. Hence the fulfilment of the foreboding which emerges so constantly in his prayer. The glory of rest and happiness of his age was but a gleam of prosperity, soon to be swallowed up in dissension and disaster.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/1_kings/8-58.htm">1 Kings 8:58</a></div><div class="verse">That he may incline our hearts unto him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and his statutes, and his judgments, which he commanded our fathers.</div>(58) <span class= "bld">That he may incline . . .</span>—Comparing this verse with the exhortation of <a href="/1_kings/8-61.htm" title="Let your heart therefore be perfect with the LORD our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, as at this day.">1Kings 8:61</a>, we find exemplified the faith which pervades all Holy Scripture and underlies the whole idea of covenant with God. It is a faith in the true, though mysterious, co-operation of the “preventing grace” of God, which must be recognised in all adequate conceptions of Him, as the Source of all life and action, physical and spiritual, and of that free responsibility of man which is the ultimate truth of the inner human consciousness. God “inclines the heart” and yet the heart must yield itself. The conviction of this truth naturally grows deeper and plainer, in proportion as man realises better the inner life of the soul as contrasted with the outer life of event and action, and realises accordingly the dominion of God over the soul by His grace, over and above His rule over the visible world by His providence. Hence it comes out especially in the Psalms, the Proverbs, and the Prophetic books. It is instructive, for example, to observe how through the great “psalm of the Law” (Psalms 119) the conviction again and again expresses itself that only by His gift can the heart be enabled to obey it. (See <a href="/context/1_kings/8-26.htm" title="And now, O God of Israel, let your word, I pray you, be verified, which you spoke to your servant David my father.">1Kings 8:26-27</a>; <a href="/context/1_kings/8-32.htm" title="Then hear you in heaven, and do, and judge your servants, condemning the wicked, to bring his way on his head; and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness.">1Kings 8:32-33</a>; <a href="/1_kings/8-36.htm" title="Then hear you in heaven, and forgive the sin of your servants, and of your people Israel, that you teach them the good way wherein they should walk, and give rain on your land, which you have given to your people for an inheritance.">1Kings 8:36</a>, &c.) In the New Testament, the “covenant of the Spirit,” the truth is brought out in all its fulness; perhaps most vividly in the celebrated paradox of <a href="/context/philippians/2-12.htm" title="Why, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.">Philippians 2:12-13</a>, “Work out your own salvation . . . For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/1_kings/8-59.htm">1 Kings 8:59</a></div><div class="verse">And let these my words, wherewith I have made supplication before the LORD, be nigh unto the LORD our God day and night, that he maintain the cause of his servant, and the cause of his people Israel at all times, as the matter shall require:</div>(59) <span class= "bld">And Solomon offered.</span>—The idea that the king on this occasion, and on others, performed the priest’s ministerial office is manifestly improbable. At all times he who brought the sacrifice was said to “offer” it. (See, for example, <a href="/leviticus/2-1.htm" title="And when any will offer a meat offering to the LORD, his offering shall be of fine flour; and he shall pour oil on it, and put frankincense thereon:">Leviticus 2:1</a>; <a href="/leviticus/3-2.htm" title="And he shall lay his hand on the head of his offering, and kill it at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation: and Aaron's sons the priests shall sprinkle the blood on the altar round about.">Leviticus 3:2</a>; <a href="/leviticus/3-7.htm" title="If he offer a lamb for his offering, then shall he offer it before the LORD.">Leviticus 3:7</a>, &c.) The priest accepted it in the name of the Lord, and poured the blood at the foot of the altar of sacrifice, or sprinkled it on the altar of incense. But still the absence of all mention of the priests, even as to the “hallowing” of the court for sacrifice, is characteristic of the tone of the whole narrative, in which the king alone is prominent.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/1_kings/8-63.htm">1 Kings 8:63</a></div><div class="verse">And Solomon offered a sacrifice of peace offerings, which he offered unto the LORD, two and twenty thousand oxen, and an hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of the LORD.</div>(63) <span class= "bld">And Solomon offered.</span>—The number here given, enormous as it is, can hardly be supposed due to any error in the text; for it is exactly reproduced in the Chronicles and by Josephus. Much explanation of it has been wasted through misunderstanding of the real difficulty involved. It is comparatively easy to conceive how such a mass of victims could be brought as offerings or consumed, when we consider the vastness of the assembled multitude from the whole of the great dominions of Solomon, dwelling in or encamped about the city. Even at the Passovers of the last days of Jerusalem the multitude of worshippers seems to have been numbered by hundreds of thousands. The real difficulty is to conceive how, even through the fourteen days of the festival, and over the whole of the hallowed portion of the court, the victims could have been offered. But it is not unlikely that on such an occasion it might be deemed sufficient actually to sacrifice only certain representative victims of each hecatomb, and simply to dedicate the rest to the Lord, leaving them to be killed and eaten elsewhere.<p>This profusion of sacrifices, good as expressing the natural desire of all to offer at such a time, may perhaps have involved something of the idea, so frequent in heathen sacrifice, and so emphatically condemned by the prophets, that the Lord would be “pleased with thousands of rams and ten thousands of rivers of oil”—something also of that display of the magnificence of the king and his people, even in the very act of homage to God, which the history throughout seems to imply. If so, in these ideas lurked the evils which hereafter were to overthrow the prosperity of Israel, and make the Temple a heap of stones.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/1_kings/8-65.htm">1 Kings 8:65</a></div><div class="verse">And at that time Solomon held a feast, and all Israel with him, a great congregation, from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of Egypt, before the LORD our God, seven days and seven days, <i>even</i> fourteen days.</div>(65) <span class= "bld">The entering in of Hamath</span>, is the significant name given to the great valley between Lebanon and Anti - Lebanon, which the Greeks called <span class= "ital">Cœle- Syria</span>; for it was the main entrance to Palestine from the north, down which the hosts of Assyria and Babylon so constantly poured. Evidently it extended at this time beyond Damascus.<p><span class= "bld">The river of Egypt </span>is not, as might naturally be thought, the Nile, or any of its branches; for the word used signifies rather a “brook” or “torrent,” and the torrent, described in <a href="/numbers/34-5.htm" title="And the border shall fetch a compass from Azmon to the river of Egypt, and the goings out of it shall be at the sea.">Numbers 34:5</a> and <a href="/joshua/15-4.htm" title="From there it passed toward Azmon, and went out to the river of Egypt; and the goings out of that coast were at the sea: this shall be your south coast.">Joshua 15:4</a> as the border of Israel, is identified by all authorities with the torrent falling into the sea at El-Arish.<p>(65, 66) <span class= "bld">Seven days and seven days, even fourteen days. On the eighth day. . . .</span>—The origin of this curious phrase is singularly illustrated by the account in <a href="/context/2_chronicles/7-9.htm" title="And in the eighth day they made a solemn assembly: for they kept the dedication of the altar seven days, and the feast seven days.">2Chronicles 7:9-10</a>, for it tells us that the people were dismissed on “the three and twentieth day” of the month, which was the day after the close of the Feast of Tabernacles. Hence it is clear that the festival week of the Dedication preceded the regular feast; and the day of dismissal was the “eighth day,” regularly so-called, of the close of the Feast of Tabernacles.<p><span class= "bld">Unto their tents.</span>—The old memory of the wandering life of Israel still lingers in this expression, as in the well-known phrase “To your tents, O Israel!” (<a href="/2_samuel/20-1.htm" title="And there happened to be there a man of Belial, whose name was Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjamite: and he blew a trumpet, and said, We have no part in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: every man to his tents, O Israel.">2Samuel 20:1</a>; <a href="/1_kings/12-16.htm" title="So when all Israel saw that the king listened not to them, the people answered the king, saying, What portion have we in David? neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: to your tents, O Israel: now see to your own house, David. So Israel departed to their tents.">1Kings 12:16</a>.) It may have been suggested to the writer in this place by the ideas symbolised in the Feast of Tabernacles, of which he had just recorded the observance.<p> <div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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