THE DEDICATION OF THE TEMPLE. SOLOMON'S PRAYER 1. The chief of the fathers] i.e. heads of families. OUT OF THE CITY] The Temple and Palace were built on the site of Araunah's threshing floor (2 Chronicles 3:1), which would naturally be outside the city walls and on higher ground: cp. 1 Kings 9:24.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE FLOOD (CONTINUED) 4. The mountains of Ararat] Ararat is the Assyrian 'Urardhu,' the country round Lake Van, in what is now called Armenia; but the word also signifies 'highlands,' and perhaps it is a general expression for the hilly country which lay to the N. of Assyria. Mt. Masis, now called... [ Continue Reading ]
ETHANIM] The later Tishri, corresponding to Sept.-Oct. The feast referred to was Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:34).... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PRIESTS] 2 Chronicles 5:4 has 'the Levites,' certain of whom (the Kohathites) had, according to Numbers 4:15, the special duty of bearing the ark. But the priests are likewise represented as bearing the ark in Joshua 3:6; Joshua 3:13; Joshua 4:9, etc.... [ Continue Reading ]
TABERNACLE OF THE CONGREGATION] RV 'tent of meeting': i.e. the sanctuary in which the Lord used to commune with His worshippers (Exodus 33:9; Numbers 11:25). This, which (according to 2 Chronicles 1:3) was at Gibeon, may have been preserved for its sacred associations, for the ark had long been sepa... [ Continue Reading ]
THE STAVES] the poles, inserted in rings, by means of which the ark was carried: see Exodus 25:12.... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY DREW OUT THE STAVES] RV 'the staves were so long': owing to their length they could be seen from the Holy Place, though not WITHOUT (i.e. outside it). UNTO THIS DAY] The date implied is that of a narrator living before the destruction of the Temple, whose language the compiler (who lived after... [ Continue Reading ]
_There was_.. STONE] The writer of Hebrews (Hebrews 9:4) mentions also the golden pot that contained manna, and Aaron's rod; but, in strictness, these were placed before the ark (Exodus 16:34; Numbers 17:10).... [ Continue Reading ]
THE CLOUD] cp. Exodus 40:34; Exodus 33:9; Numbers 11:2; Numbers 12:5. This was called by the later Jews the Shechinah.... [ Continue Reading ]
COULD NOT STAND] for the awe which the near Presence of the Lord inspired: cp. Exodus 3:6; Isaiah 6:5; Ezekiel 1:28. THE OLIVE LEAF indicated that the tree was above water, and as the olive does not grow at a great elevation, the inference was that the waters had greatly abated.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE THICK DARKNESS] cp. Leviticus 16:2. Hitherto the Lord had dwelt not in an habitation made by human hands, but in Nature's cloudpavilions (Psalms 18:11).... [ Continue Reading ]
WHICH SPAKE.. UNTO DAVID] through the prophet Nathan (2 Samuel 7:5).... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD SMELLED A SWEET SAVOUR] A common expression for the favourable acceptance of an offering, cp. Leviticus 1:9; Leviticus 1:13; Leviticus 1:17. I WILL NOT AGAIN CURSE, ETC.] An acknowledgment of man's innate propensity to evil. If wicked thoughts, desires, and actions were always to be follow... [ Continue Reading ]
THE ALTAR] The altar of burnt offering, in the court before the Temple. Practically there are but two seasons in the land where this was written: one may be called Seed-time, Cold, Winter (middle of Sept. to middle of March); the other, Harvest, Heat, Summer (the rest of the year).... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE SAID] The passage that follows is full of a sense of God's infinitude (1 Kings 8:27), righteousness (1 Kings 8:32), and omniscience (1 Kings 8:39), whilst at the same time it manifests faith in His constancy and forgivingness (1 Kings 8:25; 1 Kings 8:29; 1 Kings 8:34, etc.); and though it con... [ Continue Reading ]
SO THAT] i.e. provided that (as in 1 Kings 6:12).... [ Continue Reading ]
The HEAVEN.. CONTAIN THEE] cp. Isaiah 66:1; Jeremiah 23:24.... [ Continue Reading ]
MAKE TOWARD THIS PLACE] In later times the Jews, when praying in foreign lands, turned their faces toward Jerusalem (Daniel 6:10).... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE OATH COME] RV 'And he come and swear.'... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THE LAND OF THEIR CITIES]. LXX 'in one of their cities.'... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PLAGUE OF HIS OWN HEART] i.e. the plague or chastisement which each is conscious of suffering: cp. 1 Kings 2:44; Exodus 9:14.... [ Continue Reading ]
CONCERNING A STRANGER, etc.] for the future worship of the Lord by the Gentiles, cp. Isaiah 2:3; Isaiah 56:7; Zechariah 8:20.... [ Continue Reading ]
IS CALLED BY THY NAME] i.e. belongs to Thee: cp. 2 Samuel 12:27... [ Continue Reading ]
GIVE THEM COMPASSION.. CAPTIVE] The prayer was fulfilled when Cyrus allowed the Jews, who were captives in Babylon, to return to their home (Ezra 1:8).... [ Continue Reading ]
FURNACE OF IRON] i.e. a furnace hot enough to melt iron.... [ Continue Reading ]
O LORD GOD] better, 'O Lord Jehovah.'... [ Continue Reading ]
HATH GIVEN REST] cp. Exodus 33:14.... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT ALL THE PEOPLE, ETC.] Israel had a mission to discharge to the other nations of the world, partly by exhibiting conspicuously in its fortunes the moral principles on which God governed mankind (Joshua 4:24; Isaiah 55:5; Psalms 67:7) and partly through the agency of its spiritual teachers the pr... [ Continue Reading ]
PERFECT WITH] i.e. not divided between the Lord and other gods: see 1 Kings 9:6; 1 Kings 11:4.... [ Continue Reading ]
TWO AND TWENTY THOUSAND, etc.] The quantity seems enormous, but numbers in the OT., as in other ancient writings, cannot always be relied on, and profuse sacrifices were common in antiquity.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE MIDDLE OF THE COURT] On what is believed to be the site of the Temple court there is a large slab of rock, which would form a natural altar. Meat offerings] RV 'meal offerings,' and so elsewhere.... [ Continue Reading ]
A FEAST] i.e. of Tabernacles (1 Kings 8:2). THE ENTERING IN OF HAMATH] Hamath was situated on the Orontes, the approach to it from the S. being by the gorge between Lebanon and Hermon. THE RIVER OF EGYPT] the modern Wâdy el Arish, a stream flowing from the Sinaitic peninsula into the Mediterranean.... [ Continue Reading ]
ON THE EIGHTH DAY] i.e. at the close of the seven days' feast of Tabernacles. UNTO THEIR TENTS] The phrase is a survival from the tent-life which prevailed before the settlement in Canaan.... [ Continue Reading ]