1 Kings 8:1

CHAPTER VIII

Solomon assembles the elders of Israel, and brings up the ark,

and the holy vessels, and the tabernacle, out of the city of

David, and places them in the temple; on which account a vast

number of sheep and oxen are sacrificed, 1-8.

There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone, which

Moses put there at Horeb, 9.

The cloud of God's glory fills the house, 10, 11.

Solomon blesses the people, 12-21.

His dedicatory prayer, 22-53.

Afterwards he blesses and exhorts the people, 54-61.

They offer a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand oxen, and one

hundred and twenty thousand sheep, 62, 63.

He hallows the middle of the court for offerings; as the brazen

altar which was before the Lord was too little, 64.

He holds the feast of the dedication for seven days; and for

other seven days, the feast of tabernacles; and on the eighth

day blesses the people, and sends them away joyful, 65, 66.

NOTES ON CHAP. VIII

Verse 1 Kings 8:1. Then Solomon assembled] It has already been observed that Solomon deferred the dedication of the temple to the following year after it was finished, because that year, according to Archbishop Usher, was a jubilee. "This," he observes, "was the ninth jubilee, opening the fourth millenary of the world, or A.M. 3001, wherein Solomon with great magnificence celebrated the dedication of the temple seven days, and the feast of tabernacles other seven days; and the celebration of the eighth day of tabernacles being finished, upon the twenty-third day of the seventh month the people were dismissed every man to his home. The eighth day of the seventh month, viz., the thirtieth of our October, being Friday, was the first of the seven days of dedication; on the tenth day, Saturday, November 1, was the fast of expiation or atonement held; whereon, according to the Levitical law, the jubilee was proclaimed by sound of trumpet. The fifteenth day, Friday, November 6, was the feast of tabernacles; the twenty-second, November 13, being also Friday, was the feast of tabernacles, which was always very solemnly kept, 2 Chronicles 7:9; Leviticus 23:36; John 7:37; and the day following, November 14, being our Saturday, when the Sabbath was ended, the people returned home.

"In the thirteenth year after the temple was built, Solomon made an end also of building his own house, having spent full twenty years upon both of them; seven and a half upon the temple, and thirteen or twelve and a half upon his own."-Usher's Annals, sub. A.M. 3001.