Chapter Eight

The Dedication of Solomon’s Temple

1–9. The bringing of the Ark. 10–13. The cloud of light in the Temple. 14–61. Solomon’s speech and prayer. 62–66. Sacrifices and celebrations.

1 Kings 8:1. Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the leaders of the tribes, the heads of the families of the sons of Israel, to King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord from the City of David, that is, Zion. 1 Kings 8:2. And all Israel assembled with King Solomon at the festival in the month of Ethanim, which is the seventh month. In accordance with the importance of the Temple built for the entire theocracy, for the whole people, Solomon invited all representatives of the people to its dedication (“leaders of the tribes, heads of families” – terms characterizing the ancestral way of life of the people). The dedication was set for the 7th month – according to the ancient Canaanite name “Ethanim” (Hebrew Ethanim – the month of “gifts or fruits,” or “perennial streams”), later Tishri (in Josephus VIII, 4, 1. Θισρί), in which the solemn festival of Tabernacles (Lev 23:39-43) was celebrated, which attracted a large multitude of pilgrims to Jerusalem, and therefore the 7th month was most suitable for the celebration of the Temple’s dedication. But in what year did this dedication take place? The immediate connection (1 Kgs 8:1) with (1 Kgs 7:51), as well as the nature of the matter itself, require us to recognize that the Temple was dedicated soon after its completion. If according to (1 Kgs 6:38) the Temple was completed in the 8th month (Bul) of Solomon’s eleventh year of reign, then the dedication, naturally, could take place only in the 7th month of the following, 12th year of Solomon’s reign, and the intervening period (about 11 months) could be used for furnishing the Temple with vessels and generally for its interior decoration (cf. 1 Kgs 7:14-51). It is difficult to agree with the view of Ewald, Prof. Gulyaev, that the Temple was dedicated in the 7th month of the year of its completion, that is, before the completion of the work (in the 8th month). But one cannot at all accept the date in the accepted text of the LXX, according to which the Temple’s dedication took place after the completion of Solomon’s palace, that is, 13 years after the Temple’s construction: καὶ ἐγένετο, ὠς σονέτελεσεν Σαλομὼν τὸν οῖκον Κυρίου καὶ τὸν οῖκον αύτο῀υ μετὰ εἴκοσι ἔτη; the last words are clearly an insertion from (1 Kgs 9:1), disrupting the connection between chapters VIII and VII and introducing an incongruous idea that the Temple remained undecorated for 13 years. On the contrary, according to the Hebrew text, Josephus (Jewish Antiquities VIII, 4, 1) and Jewish tradition (Midrash Vayikra Rabba on Lev 10), the Temple’s dedication took place soon after its completion.

1 Kings 8:3. And all the elders of Israel came; and the priests carried the Ark, 1 Kings 8:4. and they carried the Ark of the Lord and the tabernacle of the congregation and all the sacred vessels that were in the tabernacle; and the priests and Levites carried them. The accepted LXX text here is shorter than the Hebrew, Vulgate, and Slavonic-Russian texts: it does not have the beginning of verse 3 and the end of verse 4. But other Greek manuscripts (Complutensian, Alexandrian, no. 247 and others in Holmes) have these words: the priority, evidently, is with the Hebrew text. The Ark of the Covenant, when it was carried in the wilderness, was ordinarily covered with coverings, and was carried by priests with Levites (Num 4:5) or by priests alone (Josh 3:6). In this case, the priests carried the Ark of the Covenant (v. 6), the Levites carried the other sacred items preserved in the tabernacle. The latter was also brought into the Temple; until now it had been in Gibeon (2 Chr 1:3-4).

1 Kings 8:5. And King Solomon and with him the whole congregation of Israel, gathered with him, walked before the Ark, offering sacrifices of flocks and herds that could not be counted or determined, because of their multitude. “All the congregation of Israel” (Hebrew: kol-adat Isra’el) is rendered in the accepted LXX text as πᾶς Ισραηλ, but in the Alexandrian manuscript and in text no. 247 in Holmes: πᾶσα ἠ συναγωὴ ´Ισραήλ, hence also the Slavonic: “the whole assembly of Israel.”

1 Kings 8:6. And the priests brought the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the Temple, to the Holy of Holies, under the wings of the cherubim. 1 Kings 8:7. For the cherubim spread their wings over the place of the Ark, and the cherubim covered the Ark and its poles from above. “Under the wings of the cherubim”: The Ark of the Covenant with the two small cherubim placed upon it, (Exod 25:18), was placed in the Holy of Holies of the Temple – under the wings of a new pair of colossal cherubim (1 Kgs 6:23-28), whose wings overshadowed not only the Ark of the Covenant itself but also the carrying poles that were inserted through rings attached to it (Exod 25:13-16; Num 4:6).

1 Kings 8:8. And the poles extended so that the ends of the poles were visible from the sanctuary before the inner sanctuary, but they were not seen outside; and they are there to this day. The direction of the carrying poles, now remaining immovably with the Ark of the Covenant, in the opinion of most scholars, was from north to south, that is, across the width of the Holy of Holies, though it is more natural, judging from this passage, to think otherwise (from west to east) (A. A. Olesnitsky, 172). The remark “they (the poles) are there to this day” evidently could not belong to the author of the sacred text of 3 and 4 Kings himself, who survived not only the repeated plundering of the Temple and its treasures (1 Kgs 14:26; 2 Kgs 16:17), but also its complete destruction and burning (2 Kgs 25:9-17), but could belong only to a contemporary of the Temple’s construction or someone living not long after Solomon, who compiled the “book of the acts of Solomon” (1 Kgs 11:41). See Prof. P.A. Yungerov. The Origin and Historicity of the Third and Fourth Books of Kings (“Orthodox Conversationalist” 1905, July-August, p. 417).

1 Kings 8:9. In the Ark there was nothing except the two stone tablets which Moses put there at Horeb, when the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel after they came out of the land of Egypt. Cf. (Deut 10:5; Heb 9:4).

1 Kings 8:10. And when the priests came out of the sanctuary, the cloud filled the house of the Lord; 1 Kings 8:11. and the priests could not stand to serve because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. (2 Chr 5:11-14). The cloud (verse 10), which filled the Temple, or the glory of Jehovah, which filled the Temple (verse 11), is a Theophanic cloud (in the later language – “Shekinah,” see Prof. A. A. Olesnitsky, p. 798), like that which filled the tabernacle at its dedication (Exod 40:34-35, cf. Exod 19:9; Deut 4:11; Ps 96:2), but different from the cloud of incense (Lev 16:2). “The glory of the Lord” (Hebrew kavod-Jehovah) is the usual designation for Jehovah’s self-revelation in the world.

1 Kings 8:12. Then Solomon said, The Lord said that He chooses to dwell in darkness; Speaking of God’s choosing to dwell in darkness, Solomon might have had in mind biblical passages (like (Exod 19:9; Lev 16:2)) about the inaccessible mysteriousness of God; in accordance with this, the Holy of Holies of the Temple had no windows “and no access for material light, since Jehovah chose to surround Himself with darkness for the Old Testament people” (A. A. Olesnitsky, p. 249).

1 Kings 8:13. I have built a temple as a dwelling for You, a place for You to dwell in forever. An expression of strong joy and delight at the awareness that henceforth there is a place of perpetual dwelling of Jehovah among His people. Verses 12–13 in the accepted LXX text are placed in the second half of verse 53 with some additions (see below note on verse 53).

1 Kings 8:14. And the king turned his face and blessed the whole assembly of Israel; the whole assembly of Israel was standing – 1 Kings 8:15. and he said, Blessed is the Lord, the God of Israel, who has told my father David with His own mouth, and has now fulfilled it with His own hand! He said, 1 Kings 8:16. “Since the day I brought My people Israel out of Egypt, I have not chosen a city among any of the tribes of Israel for a house to be built, that My name might be there; [but I chose Jerusalem for My name to dwell there] and I chose David to be over My people Israel. 1 Kings 8:17. My father David had it in his heart to build a temple for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel; 1 Kings 8:18. but the Lord said to David, my father, “You have it in your heart to build a temple for My name; this is good, that it is in your heart; 1 Kings 8:19. but you shall not build the temple; rather, your son, who will come from your body, he shall build the temple for My name. 1 Kings 8:20. And the Lord has fulfilled His word that He spoke. I have taken the place of my father David and am seated on the throne of Israel, as the Lord said, and have built the temple for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel; 1 Kings 8:21. and I have prepared a place there for the Ark, in which is the Covenant of the Lord that He made with our fathers when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. 2 Chronicles 6:4–11. (cf. 2 Chron. 6:4–11). If the words of verses 12–13 were spoken by Solomon facing the sanctuary of the Temple, then the speech of verses 14–21 was addressed by him to the people; the “congregation” (Hebrew kahal, Greek ἐκκλησία, Slavonic: “assembly”) was standing in reverence. The speech recounts briefly but fully the entire history of the Temple’s construction from the moment when David conceived the idea (cf. 2 Sam 7:2; 1 Kgs 5:16; 1 Chr 22:6-11). In the expression “a temple for the dwelling of... the name of Jehovah” (verses 16–19, 29; 1 Kgs 9:3; 2 Kgs 21:4; cf. Deut 12:5; 2 Sam 7:13), the name (Hebrew shem) is the revelation of the essence of Jehovah (Exod 3:14) on the side of His holiness and the sanctification of Israel (Exod 29:43-46). 1 Kings 8:22. And Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands to heaven, As he begins his prayer, Solomon turns again toward the Temple, stretches out his hands to heaven and bends his knees (verse 54) on the bronze platform (2 Chr 6:13). The raising of hands in prayer, see verse 38, is an ancient and constant custom, a natural expression of prayer’s disposition (cf. Exod 9:29; Isa 1:15; Job 11:13 and others). The kneeling in prayer is just as natural an expression of reverent prayer’s feeling, found in the Bible long before the Babylonian captivity (Gen 24:26; Isa 45:23; Job 1:20 and others), contrary to the opinion (of Benzinger and others) that the custom of kneeling prayer is of post-captivity origin and therefore Solomon’s prayer could have arisen only after the captivity.

1 Kings 8:23. and said, O Lord, God of Israel! There is no God like You in heaven above or on earth below; You keep covenant and mercy toward Your servants who walk before You with all their heart. 1 Kings 8:24. You have fulfilled to Your servant David, my father, what You spoke to him; what You said with Your own mouth, You have fulfilled with Your own hand this day. 1 Kings 8:25. And now, O Lord, God of Israel, fulfill to Your servant David, my father, what You said to him, saying, “There shall not fail you a man before Me on the throne of Israel, if only your sons keep to their way, to walk before Me as you have walked before Me. 1 Kings 8:26. And now, O God of Israel, let Your word be trustworthy, which You have spoken to Your servant David, my father! (cf. 2 Chr 6:14-17): the introduction to Solomon’s prayer. Thanksgiving to God for the fulfillment of the promised construction of the Temple to David (verses 23–24) and a petition for the strengthening of the Davidic dynasty on the throne (cf. (1 Kgs 2:4) the blessed Theodoret, question 27).

1 Kings 8:27. But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You, much less this Temple which I have built [for Your name]; 1 Kings 8:28. but look upon the prayer of Your servant and his petition, O Lord my God; hear the cry and the prayer which Your servant is praying before You now. 1 Kings 8:29. Let Your eyes be open toward this Temple day and night, toward this place of which You have said, “My name shall be there”; hear the prayer which Your servant will pray toward this place. 1 Kings 8:30. And hear the petition of Your servant and Your people Israel, when they pray toward this place; hear from Your dwelling place in heaven, hear and forgive. (cf. 2 Chr 6:18-21): petitions for the Lord to accept the prayers in the Temple. But first an answer is given to a possible objection from a believing and thoughtful person: heaven in all its boundlessness (such is the meaning of the expression “heaven and heaven of heavens” (cf. Deut 10:14); certainly there is no thought here of a definite number of heavens, as the rabbis taught) cannot contain the transcendent God, much less can a man-made Temple be considered such a dwelling place of Jehovah, to which His dwelling was as it were attached (cf. Isa 40:22): Jehovah’s relation to His Temple – is absolutely free condescension of grace and mercy to the chosen people (verse 27); but for the sake of this selection of the people and the Temple (cf. Deut 12:11; 1 Kgs 9:3; 2 Kgs 21:4), Solomon beseeches Jehovah to accept graciously the prayers in His Temple at all times (verses 28–30), particularly for the forgiveness of sins (verses 30, 34, 36, 39, 46, 50). This general petition (verse 29) is followed by seven separate and more specific petitions (verses 31–53); the sevenfold number of these petitions may denote the whole aggregate of possible prayers; 7 is a sacred number, the number of completeness and perfection (Gen 21:28; Exod 37:23; Lev 4:6) and, moreover, in this case is fully analogous in meaning to the seven petitions of the Lord’s Prayer (Matt 6:9-13).

1 Kings 8:31. When someone sins against his neighbor and is made to take an oath, and he comes and takes the oath before Your altar in this Temple, 1 Kings 8:32. then You hear from heaven and judge Your servants, condemn the wicked and bring his conduct down on his own head, and vindicate the righteous, repaying him according to his righteousness. (cf. 2 Chr 6:22-23). The first case when there will be need for the Lord’s gracious acceptance of prayers in the Temple concerns cases of transgressions with insufficiently clear evidence. By the law, one accused of such a transgression came together with the injured party to the altar of Jehovah and testified to his innocence by oath, while the priest who stood here pronounced curses that were to fall upon him in case of guilt and impenitence (Exod 22:8; Num 5:19-21, cf. Prof. Gulyaev, cited work, p. 222). These oaths are included here among the prayers, since an oath, by its very nature, is a reverent invocation of the name of Jehovah, similar to prayer, (Lev 19:12; Deut 6:13; Isa 48:1; Jer 12:16 and others), to which the Temple was dedicated, and were even placed first as an expression of Israel’s zeal for the holiness of the name of Jehovah, which zeal constituted Israel’s duty (Sir 23:9). Therefore Solomon’s first petition (verses 31–32) may be compared with the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer: “Hallowed be Your name” (Matt 6:9).

1 Kings 8:33. When Your people Israel are defeated by an enemy because they have sinned against You, and they turn back to You and confess Your name and pray and plead with You in this Temple, 1 Kings 8:34. then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them back to the land which You gave to their fathers. (cf. 2 Chr 6:24-25). The second case: defeated because of his sins by an enemy’s invasion and the removal of some of his people into captivity, Israel will beseech Jehovah in Solomon’s Temple. The fear of being removed from the sacred land chosen by God troubled the ancient Israelite more than anything else (cf. God’s threats (Lev 26:17; Deut 28:25)). Here, however, it is not the Babylonian captivity that is meant, with which Solomon’s Temple was destroyed, while verse 33 speaks of Israel’s prayer precisely in the Temple; it is probably one of the frequent attacks on Israel by neighboring peoples, during which the capture of some Hebrews was possible (cf. (Judg 2:14-15) and others).

1 Kings 8:35. When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You, yet if they pray in this place and confess Your name and turn from their sin because You have afflicted them, 1 Kings 8:36. then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants and Your people Israel, when You teach them the good way in which they should walk, and send rain on Your land which You have given to Your people for an inheritance. (cf. 2 Chr 6:26-27). The third example of public prayer: in case of a prolonged drought in the land because of the people’s sins. In nothing else did ancient Israel feel its dependence on Jehovah so vividly as in the climate conditions of the land: in timely rains or their absence, which determined the fertility or barrenness of the Palestinian soil (Deut 11:10-12; Ezek 34:26; Joel 2:23; Ps 64 and others); drought appeared as a terrible heavenly punishment (Lev 26:3-5; Deut 28:15-23; Amos 4:7; Hag 1:11).

1 Kings 8:37. If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight, mildew, locust, caterpillar, if his enemy besieges him in the land of his gate, if there is any plague, any sickness, 1 Kings 8:38. for any prayer or petition made by anyone of all Your people Israel, when each one knows the affliction in his own heart and spreads out his hands toward this Temple, 1 Kings 8:39. then hear from heaven, from Your dwelling place, and forgive, and do and give to each one according to all his ways, since You alone know the hearts of all the children of men; 1 Kings 8:40. that they may fear You all the days that they live in the land which You gave to our fathers. (cf. 2 Chr 6:28-31). The fourth case: famine, epidemic, destructive hot wind (for example, the “simoom” – the southeast wind of the Arabian desert), locust plague, and worm (Hebrew arbe, yasil – two names for different kinds of locust, (cf. Joel 1:4); LXX: βροῦχος, ἐρισύβη, Vulgate: locusta vel rubigo) and similar calamities (cf. Lev 26:16; Deut 28:22; Amos 4:9-10; Jer 14:12) will turn the people inward (“heart,” Hebrew lebav, in verse 38, in Biblical language means not just the physical heart, but also conscience) (1 Sam 25:31; Deut 28:65). Righteous recompense to each is possible only for the Heart-knower – God (verse 39). Cf. (1 Sam 16:7; Ps 7:10; Jer 17:10); and the ultimate purpose of God’s wise acts through His Providence is to teach people fear of God (verse 4), cf. (Deut 4:10).

1 Kings 8:41. If also a foreigner, who is not of Your people Israel, comes from a distant land because of Your name – 1 Kings 8:42. for they will hear of Your great name and of Your strong hand and Your outstretched arm – and he comes and prays toward this Temple, 1 Kings 8:43. then hear from heaven, from Your dwelling place, and do all for which the foreigner calls to You, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know Your name, that they may fear You as Your people Israel do, and that they may know that Your name is called upon this Temple which I have built. (cf. 2 Chr 6:32-33). The fifth case: the Temple of Jehovah may be visited by a foreigner from a distant land (as the Queen of Sheba in (1 Kgs 10:1), Naaman the Syrian in (2 Kgs 5:1-15)), having heard of the greatness and power of the name of Jehovah – “the strong hand and... the outstretched arm” (verse 42, in relation to the history of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt (Exod 6:6; Deut 4:34)). God will fulfill the prayer of such a foreigner so that he might be convinced that the Temple is indeed called by the name of Jehovah (verse 43), (cf. Jer 7:10-11), just as by this same name is called the city of Jerusalem (Jer 25:29) and the Israelite people (Deut 28:10; Isa 63:19); that in this people, in its capital, in its Temple, Jehovah manifests His presence in a special way, so that here people enter into special graceful communion with Him.

1 Kings 8:44. When Your people go out to battle against their enemy, by whatever way You will send them, and they pray to the Lord, turning toward the city which You have chosen and the Temple which I have built for Your name, 1 Kings 8:45. then hear from heaven their prayer and their petition, and maintain their cause. (cf. 2 Chr 6:34-35). The sixth case: war against an enemy sent by God upon Israel.

1 Kings 8:46. If they sin against You – for there is no one who does not sin – and You are angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, and they are taken captive to a foreign land, far or near; 1 Kings 8:47. and when they come to themselves in the land where they are captive, and repent and plead with You in the land of those who took them captive, saying, “We have sinned, we have done wrong, we are guilty”; 1 Kings 8:48. and when they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies who took them captive, and pray to You turning toward their land which You gave to their fathers, and toward the city which You have chosen and the Temple which I have built for Your name, 1 Kings 8:49. then hear from heaven, from Your dwelling place, their prayer and their petition, and maintain their cause; 1 Kings 8:50. and forgive Your people who have sinned against You, and all the transgressions which they have committed against You, and grant them compassion before those who took them captive, that they may have compassion on them; (cf. 2 Chr 6:36-39). The seventh case: the captivity of all Israel to the land of foreigners (cf. verses 33–34): in both cases, the prayerful repentant turning of Israel to Jehovah, to the holy land, Jerusalem, and the Temple (verses 44, 48) is to bring down God’s mercy on those who pray and repent: in both cases – to give the people what they need (verses 45, 49–50). In this section scholars (Thenius, Benzinger, Kittel and others) pointed out signs of a later post-captivity origin: a) The custom of turning in prayer toward the holy land, Jerusalem, and the Temple was supposedly only of post-captivity origin (Dan 6:10; 1 Esd 4:58). However, this such a natural position for one praying could have been customary long before the captivity (cf. Ps 5:8) and was only formulated as a legal obligation in later rabbinic legislation (according to the Midrash Sifre 71, one praying outside the land of Israel turns in the direction of the holy land, and one praying in the holy land turns toward the Temple), b) The Babylonian Captivity, which supposedly is described with such clarity in verses 46–50, could not have been foreseen by Solomon; therefore, it is claimed, this description could have arisen only after the captivity. But captivity and mass relocation of conquered peoples to other lands were a common custom of ancient Eastern despots, and there is nothing incomprehensible in the fact that Solomon, after mentioning a series of other calamities, names possible captivity, all the more since it is foretold in the Pentateuch (Lev 26:33; Deut 28:25), and as in the latter, so in Solomon’s account, the description of captivity has a general character, without the specific features of the Babylonian captivity; c) It is also wrongly asserted by some interpreters that the confession formula “We have sinned, we have done wrong, we are guilty” (verse 47) arose only during the Babylonian captivity. In reality, this confession, so natural for a repentant sinner, was used not only during and after captivity (Dan 9:5), but also before captivity, and for a long time before it (Num 14:18-19; 1 Sam 7:6; Ps 50:6). In this passage, this confession is all the more fitting since here is clearly expressed the biblical teaching on humanity’s universal inclination toward sin: “there is no one who does not sin” (verse 46), cf. (Job 14:4; Prov 20:9; Eccl 7:20; Ps 50:7; Sir 7:5; 2 Esd 8:35; 1 John 1:8).

1 Kings 8:51. for they are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You have brought out of Egypt, from the iron furnace. 1 Kings 8:52. May Your eyes be open to the prayer of Your servant and to the prayer of Your people Israel, to listen to them whenever they call upon You, 1 Kings 8:53. for You have set them apart for Yourself as Your own portion out of all the peoples of the earth, as You spoke through Moses, Your servant, when You brought our fathers out of Egypt, O Sovereign Lord! The ground of Solomon’s hope, together, of course, and of the whole people, for God’s mercy and forgiveness – is Israel’s election by Jehovah as His own portion (Exod 19:5-6; Deut 4:20). Verse 53 in the accepted Greek text has an addition compared with the Hebrew Masoretic: not only verses 12–13, which are present in the Hebrew text in their place, are placed here, but also a special addition: τότε ἐλάλησε Σαλομὼν ὑπὲρ τοῦ οἴκου, ώς συνετέλεσε οίκοδομησαι αὐτόν. Ἥλιον ἐγνιπισεν ἐν οὐρανῶ (Κύριος), Slavonic: “then Solomon spoke concerning the Temple, when he finished building it: the sun has been made known in heaven.” At the end of the verse there is another addition in the Greek-Slavonic text: οὐκ ἰδυὺ γέγραπται ἐν βιβλίω τῆς ὠδῆς; “Is not this written in the book of the song.” On the first addition, which artistically completes the thought (verse 12) about Jehovah’s choosing to dwell in darkness, the blessed Theodoret (question 28) says: “Darkness and gloom signify the invisibility of God’s essence. Therefore Solomon said that He who Set the sun in heaven, that people might enjoy light, Himself said He would dwell in darkness. I think, however, that here the Temple is understood symbolically, because it had very small windows, as it was surrounded by other small buildings” (question 28). “The book of the song” the blessed Theodoret (question 29) considers to be one of the prophetic writings. In modern times this book is brought close to the “book of the righteous” (Josh 10:13; 2 Sam 1:18 and further), since, according to an ingenious and not improbable conjecture of Wellhausen, the expression “book of the song” was formed from the expression “book of the righteous” through a possible transposition of letters: yashar (righteous) was changed to shir (song). In (2 Chr 6:41-42) Solomon’s prayer has a different conclusion, very close to the words of a psalm (Ps 131:8-10) and possibly borrowed from that psalm.

1 Kings 8:54. And when Solomon had finished all these prayers and petitions to the Lord, he rose from before the altar of the Lord, where he had been kneeling with his hands spread out toward heaven. 1 Kings 8:55. And standing, he blessed the whole assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying, 1 Kings 8:56. Blessed is the Lord [God], who has given rest to His people Israel, as He promised! Not one word has failed of all the good words that He spoke through His servant Moses; 1 Kings 8:57. may the Lord our God be with us, as He was with our fathers, and may He not leave us or forsake us, 1 Kings 8:58. that He may turn our hearts to Himself, so that we may walk in all His ways and keep His commandments and His statutes and His laws, which He commanded our fathers; 1 Kings 8:59. And may these words of mine, which I have prayed [now] before the Lord, be near to the Lord our God day and night, that He may provide for His servant and for His people Israel, day by day, 1 Kings 8:60. so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God, and that there is no other; 1 Kings 8:61. and that your heart may be wholly devoted to the Lord our God, to walk in His statutes and keep His commandments, as at this time. The epilogue to Solomon’s prayer: thanksgiving to God (verse 56), blessings, good wishes, and instructions from the king to the people (verses 57–61). Jehovah “has given rest to His people” (verse 56): rest in the promised land, promised by Jehovah, (Deut 12:10-11), was fully realized only with the construction of a permanent Temple bearing His name, and the dedication of the Temple, filled at this time with the glory of Jehovah (verses 10–11), was factual proof that the rest promised to the people had been achieved through the construction of a permanent Temple by the “man of rest” (1 Chr 22:9) – Solomon. (2 Chr 7:1) supplements the book of Kings with the account that after Solomon’s prayer, fire fell from heaven and consumed the sacrifices (this is also mentioned by Josephus, Jewish Antiquities VIII, 4, 4), which was the expression of the acceptance of the sacrifices and the reality of the graceful presence of Jehovah (cf. Lev 9:24; Judg 6:20-21; 1 Kgs 18:38; 2 Macc 2:10).

1 Kings 8:62. And the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices to the Lord. 1 Kings 8:63. And Solomon offered peace offerings which he offered to the Lord: twenty-two thousand cattle and one hundred twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the sons of Israel dedicated the Temple of the Lord. 1 Kings 8:64. On that same day, the king consecrated the middle of the courtyard, which was before the Temple of the Lord, and performed there burnt offerings and grain offerings and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar which was before the Lord was too small to accommodate the burnt offerings and grain offerings and the fat of the peace offerings. 1 Kings 8:65. And Solomon held a festival, and all Israel with him – a great assembly, gathered from the entrance of Hamath to the River of Egypt, before the Lord our God; [and they ate and drank and made merry before the Lord our God at the Temple that had been built] – for seven days and seven more days, fourteen days in all. 1 Kings 8:66. On the eighth day, Solomon sent the people away. And they blessed the king and went to their tents, rejoicing and glad in heart for all the goodness that the Lord had shown to His servant David and to His people Israel. The enormous number of sacrifices (verse 63), predominantly peace offerings (Hebrew shlamim), which as is well known, were associated with feasts of those offering them and their invited guests (Lev 7:11 and further; Deut 12:7), is fully understandable given the huge gathering of people (verse 65) at the celebration lasting not less than two weeks (65, cf. the blessed Theodoret, question 30). In light of the abundance of sacrifices, additional altars were also set up and dedicated in the courtyard of the Temple. The expression “from the entrance of Hamath to the River of Egypt” reminds us of the already known “from the River Euphrates to the land of the Philistines and to the borders of Egypt” (1 Kgs 4:21); both expressions define the borders of the Hebrew kingdom under Solomon from the extreme northeast to the extreme southwest. Hamath (Hebrew Hamah, LXX: Ημάθ, Εμάθ, Αιμάθ; Vulgate: Emath) – in Moses’ time – the northern boundary of the promised land (Num 13:22); (Onomastics 424–425), north of the Anti-Lebanon or Hermon mountains, on the Orontes River. Under David, Hamath with its region was an independent state, and a friendly prince Toi ruled there (2 Sam 8:9-10; 1 Chr 18:9-10); Solomon occupied it (2 Chr 8:3-4) and fortified it (1 Kgs 9:19; cf. 2 Kgs 14:28). The Greeks later called Hamath Επιφάνεια (Reland. Palästina, 119). “The River of Egypt” or “the Stream (Hebrew nachal) of Egypt” is not the Nile, but the southwestern boundary of Palestine (Num 34:5), where the city of Rhinocorura was located, now El-Arish, near Gaza (Onomastics 797). “Seven days and seven more days, fourteen days”: the first seven days – from the 8th to the 14th of the 7th month of Ethanim or Tishri, and then the 15th–22nd of the same month – the celebration of the seven-day festival (Lev 23:39-43) of Tabernacles (2 Chr 7:8-10), on the concluding day of which (the 8th day, the 23rd, verse 66), (cf. 2 Chr 7:10) Solomon dismissed the people. * * * Similar gatherings of people in Jerusalem took place later, for example, at the Passover festival. According to Josephus (“The Jewish War,” VI, 9, 3), in the fateful year for Judea (70 A.D.) of Jerusalem’s fall, at the Passover festival, about 2 million people gathered: 256,000 Passover lambs alone were slaughtered.