The dedication of the temple
8
📚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 King Solomon in Jerusalem, that they might bring up the ark 📖 of the covenant of the LORD from the city of David, which is Zion. 2 📚And all the men of Israel assembled in King Solomon’s presence at the feast 📖 in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month.3 📚And all the elders of Israel came, and the priests took up the ark, 4 📚and they brought up the ark of the LORD, and the tabernacle of the congregation and all the holy articles that were in the tabernacle 📖. The priests and the Levites brought these up. 5 📚And King Solomon, and all the congregation of Israel, who were assembled in his presence, were with him before the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen that were so many they could not be counted or numbered.
8:5 All these sacrifices symbolized Christ (See notes at Lev 1:2), just as the ark, the tent, and the temple did.⚜
6 📚And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the LORD to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the house, to the Most Holy Place, under the wings of the cherubim. 7 For the cherubim spread out their two wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim 📖 covered the ark and its poles from above. 8 📚And they drew out the poles, so that the ends of the staves were seen out in the Holy Place before the inner sanctuary, but they were not seen outside. And they are there to this day. 9 📚There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets 📖 of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb 📖, when the LORD made a covenant with the children of Israel when they came out of the land of Egypt.
10 📚And it came about, when the priests had come out of the Holy Place, that the cloud filled the house of the LORD, 11 📚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.
Solomon’s speech to the people
12 📚Then Solomon said, “The LORD said that he would dwell in the thick darkness 📖. 13 📚I have surely built you a house to dwell in, a settled place for you to stay in forever 📖”.
14 📚And the king turned his face around, and blessed all the congregation of Israel (and all the congregation of Israel stood),
15 📚and he said, “Blessed is the LORD God of Israel, who spoke with his mouth to my father David, and with his hand has fulfilled it, saying, 16 📚‘Since the day that I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I did not choose any city from all the tribes of Israel to build a house, that my name might be in it; but I chose David to be over my people Israel.’
17 📚“And it was in the heart of my father David to build a house for the name of the LORD God of Israel. 18 📚And the LORD said to my father David, ‘Because it was in your heart to build a house to my name, you did well that it was in your heart. 19 📚Nevertheless you shall not build the house, but your son who will come from your body will build the house for my name.’
20 📚“And the LORD has fulfilled his word that he spoke, and I have risen up in the place of my father David and sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised, and have built a house for the name of the LORD God of Israel. 21 📚And I have made there a place for the ark, in which is the covenant 📖 of the LORD, which he made with our fathers when he brought them out of the land of Egypt”.
Solomon’s prayer
22 📚And Solomon stood 📖 before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven, 23 📚and said,
“LORD God of Israel, there is no God like you 📖, in heaven above, or on earth below, who keeps covenant and mercy 📖 with your servants who walk before you with all their heart. 24 📚You have kept with your servant David my father what you promised him. You spoke also with your mouth, and have fulfilled it with your hand, as it is today.
25 📚“Therefore, now, LORD God of Israel, keep with your servant, my father David, what you promised him, saying, ‘You will not lack a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel; so that your children might be careful about their way, so that they walk in my presence as you have walked in my presence.’ 26 📚And now, O God of Israel, I pray you, let your word which you spoke to your servant, my father David, come true.
27 📚“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Look, the heavens and heaven of heavens cannot contain you. How much less this house that I have built!
8:27 2 Chron 2:6; Ps 139:7-16; Isa 66:1; Jer 23:24; Acts 7:49; 17:24-25. Solomon and the human authors of the Bible knew something of the grandeur of God. Because the visible sign of God’s presence appeared in tabernacle or temple, that did not make them have small views of God, or cause them to think that the whole of God could be contained in space.⚜
28 📚Yet have regard for the prayer of your servant and for his supplication, O LORD my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which your servant prays before you today, 29 📚that your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, toward this place of which you have said, ‘My name will be there’, that you may listen to the prayer which your servant makes toward this place. 30 📚And listen to the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place, and hear in heaven, your dwelling place 📖; and when you hear, forgive.
31 📚“If any man sins against his neighbour, and he is put under oath to cause him to swear, and the oath comes before your altar in this house,
8:31 Solomon looks into the future, knows that the people will sin, and begs God for mercy.⚜
32 📚then hear in heaven and act and judge your servants, condemning the wicked, to bring his conduct on his own head; and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness.
33 📚“When your people Israel are struck down before the enemy, because they have sinned against you, and turn back to you and confess your name, and pray and plead with you in this house, 34 📚then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them back 📖 to the land which you gave to their fathers.
35 📚“When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain 📖, because they have sinned against you, if they pray toward this place, and confess your name and turn from their sin, when you afflict them, 36 📚then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, and of your people Israel. So teach them 📖 the good way in which they should walk, and give rain 📖 on your land, which you have given to your people as an inheritance.
37 📚“If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, blight, mildew, locust, or if there is the caterpillar, if their enemy besieges them in the land of their cities, whatever plague, whatever disease there may be, 38 📚whatever prayer and supplication is made by any man, or by all your people Israel, each one knowing the plague 📖 of his own heart, spreading out his hands toward this house, 39 📚then hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and forgive, and act and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart you know (for you, you alone, know the hearts of all the children of men), 40 📚so that they may fear 📖 you all the days that they live in the land which you gave to our fathers.
41 📚“Also, as for the foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, but comes from a far country for your name’s sake
8:41 Solomon wanted the God of Israel to be known as the God of all people, as indeed, in some sense, He is (Isa 44:6; Jer 32:26-27).⚜
42 📚(for they will hear 📖 of your great name, and of your strong hand and of your stretched out arm), when he comes and prays toward this house, 43 📚hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calls to you, so that all peoples of the earth may know your name, to fear you, as your people Israel do, and so that they may know that this house, which I have built, is called by your name.
44 📚“If your people go out to battle against their enemy, wherever you send them, and pray to the LORD toward the city which you have chosen, and toward the house that I have built for your name, 45 📚then in heaven hear their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.
46 📚“If they sin against you (for there is no one who does not sin) 📖, and you are angry with them and hand them over to the enemy, so that they carry them away captives 📖 to the land of the enemy, far or near, 47 📚and if they turn their hearts back to you in the land where they were carried captives, and repent and plead with you in the land of those who carried them away captives, saying, ‘We have sinned and have done wrong; we have committed wickedness’, 48 📚and so turn back to you with all their heart and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies who led them away captive, and pray to you toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, the city which you have chosen and the house which I have built for your name, 49 📚then in heaven, your dwelling place, hear their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause, 50 📚and forgive your people who have sinned against you and all their transgressions in which they have transgressed against you, and grant them compassion in the presence of those who carried them away captive, so that they may have compassion on them; 51 📚for they are your people 📖 and your inheritance, whom you brought out of Egypt, from the midst of the iron furnace 📖; 52 📚that your eyes may be open to the supplication of your servant, and to the supplication of your people Israel, to listen to them in everything about which they call to you.
53 📚“For you separated them from among all the people of the earth, to be your inheritance 📖, as you spoke through Moses your servant, when you brought our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord God”.
54 📚And it came about, 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. 55 📚And he stood and blessed all the congregation of Israel with a loud voice, saying,
8:55 Verse 14.⚜
56 📚“Blessed be the LORD who has given rest to his people Israel, in accordance with all that he promised. Not one word has failed of all his good promise which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant.
57 📚The LORD our God be with us, as he was with our fathers. Let him not leave us or forsake us. 58 📚So may he incline our hearts 📖 to him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, which he commanded our fathers. 59 📚And may these my words, with which I have made supplication before the LORD, be near to the LORD our God day and night, so that he maintains the cause of his servant, and the cause of his people Israel at all times, as each day requires,
8:59 Solomon wanted his prayer to have a continuing effect.⚜
60 📚so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God, and that there is no one else. 61 📚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”.
8:61 He could know from portions of God’s Word such as Leviticus chapter 26 and Deuteronomy chapter 28 that the only way to blessing was obedience, and that disobedience meant disaster.⚜
62 📚And the king, and all Israel with him, offered sacrifice before the LORD. 63 📚And Solomon offered a sacrifice of peace offerings 📖, which he offered to the LORD, twenty-two thousand oxen and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of the LORD.
64 📚The same day the king consecrated the middle of the courtyard that was in front of the house of the LORD; for there he offered burnt offerings and grain offerings and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar that was before the LORD was too small to take the burnt offerings and meat offerings and the fat of the peace offerings.
8:64 Notes on these offerings at Leviticus chapters 1–3.⚜
65 📚And at that time Solomon, and all Israel with him, a great congregation from the entering in of Hamath 📖 to the river of Egypt 📖, celebrated a feast 📖 before the LORD our God, seven days, then seven days more, fourteen days. 66 📚On the eighth day 📖 he sent the people away; and they spoke a blessing on the king, and went to their tents joyful 📖 and glad of heart for all the good that the LORD had done for David his servant, and for Israel his people.