1 Kingschapter 8
66 verses · Jeremiah, by tradition · 6th century BC · History
But will God indeed dwell upon the earth? Even heaven, the highest heaven, cannot contain You, much less this temple I have built.
Introduction
Jeremiah, by tradition, History, 1 Kings Overview.
The historian writes this chapter for a people who would one day pray toward a ruined house from a foreign land. It records a national gathering at the autumn feast, the high point of the whole book. Its first hearers knew the feast of shelters and the account of the cloud in the wilderness. Listen for the question the king asks about whether any house can hold God. Then follow the prayer through its cases, from a neighbour's oath to a nation carried captive. Its petitions were written for every later generation, the exiles most of all.
Context
- Who
- Israelites gathered from the whole country for the largest religious event of their lives
- What
- The bringing of the ark into the temple, the cloud of the LORD's glory filling it, Solomon's prayer of dedication, his blessing of the people and the great offerings of the feast.
- Where
- The temple courtyard in Jerusalem, with the assembly of Israel gathered from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt.
- When
- The seventh month at the feast of tabernacles, about 959 BC, nearly a year after the house was finished.
- Why
- To show the LORD taking up His dwelling in the house built for His Name and to teach Israel to pray toward it in every trouble, exile included.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to Solomon acting in a priestly office. He assembles the elders and the tribal heads, blesses the congregation twice, and prays the dedication kneeling on a platform in the middle of the court.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
The time is the seventh month, the feast of tabernacles, placed at about 959 BC. The house had stood finished since the eighth month of the previous year at 6:38, so the dedication waited nearly a year for the week the whole nation was already required in Jerusalem.
The place is the courtyard of the new house on Mount Moriah, ground David had bought as a threshingfloor at 2 Samuel 24:24 and 2 Chronicles 3:1 names by that hill.
The occasion is the ark's move from the city of David up to the house. Priests carry it on poles, the way the law required, and set it in the inner room under the wings of the cherubim. The note that only the two stone tablets were inside is a witness statement about what the chest actually held.
A first hearer knew what he was watching in the king's posture. A king standing in the middle of the court, spreading his hands toward heaven and kneeling before the whole nation, was a public statement about who ruled Israel. He also knew the feast he had come for. Housing the ark permanently during the week families camped in temporary shelters remembering the wilderness is a piece of timing he would have felt without being told. The scale of the offerings meant something to him too. Twenty-two thousand cattle and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep over a fourteen-day festival was more than the bronze altar could take, so the middle of the court was hallowed for the overflow.
Significance
For the generation standing there the cloud was the answer. The same glory that had filled the tent in the wilderness at Exodus 40:34 and 35 had moved into the building, and the priests could not stand to minister.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
For the generation that read this book from exile in Babylon the prayer was a lifeline. Their own king's dedication speech had already told them what to do once they were carried away to the land of the enemy. They were to turn, pray toward this place, and be heard from heaven and forgiven.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
One rite alone hears this chapter, and the difference matters. The reading from the Prophets that follows the portion of the accounts of the tabernacle, the portion called Pekudei, begins in the chapter before. In the Ashkenazi rite it runs on into this chapter and carries the ark into the house and the cloud filling it. In the Sephardi rite the reading stops inside the chapter before, so a Sephardi congregation hears none of this chapter in the yearly cycle. The helper printed rite Ashkenazi for this chapter and rite both for every other chapter of 1 to 11, and those values were read rather than reasoned out. The dedication of the temple is the chapter a reader is most likely to assume the whole synagogue hears, and half of it does.
How it is read
Rashi is quoted here from the Metsudah Tanach series of Lakewood, New Jersey, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. The date is the first thing the classical reading settles. Rashi gives Targum Jonathan on the month called Ethanim, that the ancients called it the first month and that it is now counted the seventh. The house had been finished in the eighth month of the year before, and Solomon held the dedication back until the festival in Tishrei (Rashi on I Kings 8:2:1). The tent of meeting that Moses made was brought up with the ark. Rashi says Solomon stored it away once the house stood, citing the Tosefta of the tractate Sotah (Rashi on I Kings 8:4:1).
Two things inside the house are kept carefully apart. The cherubim whose wings cover the ark here are the ones Solomon made, standing on their feet on the floor. Rashi marks them off from the pair worked into the cover of the ark itself (Rashi on I Kings 8:6:1). The poles are the strangest note in the chapter. The text says their ends were seen and yet were not seen outside, and Rashi holds that they pressed against the curtain and bulged it without tearing through. He ends the note with the line from the Song about the beloved lying between the breasts (Rashi on I Kings 8:8:1). The translation notes Ralbag there, that Solomon made new poles twice the length of the ones Moses made, so that more priests could share the carrying.
The cloud is read as an arrival with a moment. As the priests who carried the ark were leaving the holy place, the Presence came to rest in the house at once (Rashi on I Kings 8:10:1). Rashi then puts Solomon's opening words into the form of a recognition. Seeing the cloud, the king understood that the Presence had come to the house he built, because God had promised to appear in a cloud. Rashi cites the promise in Leviticus and the teaching in Sifre for it (Rashi on I Kings 8:12:1).
The consequence Rashi draws from the dedication settles a question this book raised five chapters earlier. Once the place was chosen, offering on improvised altars became forbidden, and the Presence dwelt in no other place (Rashi on I Kings 8:13:1). The high places that were lawful before the house was built are closed by the house being built. The prayer itself opens with a word about God keeping covenant, which Rashi reads as storing up reward to keep a promise made to the fathers (Rashi on I Kings 8:23:1 and 8:24:1). On Solomon's posture, Rashi brings Chronicles, where the king stands on a bronze platform and kneels. The translation notes that a king of Israel was allowed to sit in the temple, and that Solomon chose to stand (Rashi on I Kings 8:22:1). Ten further notes stand in the corpus without an English text and are cited and unquoted. Radak stands at Radak on I Kings 8:3:1, 8:9:1, 8:14:1 and 8:21:1. Metzudat David stands at 8:5:1, 8:11:1, 8:18:1 and 8:19:1, and Malbim at 8:17:1 and 8:20:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. The assembly and the month draw the opening set. On the first verse it holds Kohelet Rabbah 1:1:2, on the second Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Rosh Hashanah 1:3, and on the third the Glick Edition again at Rosh Hashanah 1:12. On the fourth, the tent of meeting brought up, it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 4:26.
The ark in the holy of holies draws the heaviest weight. On the sixth verse the corpus holds Sotah 33b:12, on the seventh Ruth Rabbah 5:4, and on the eighth, the verse of the poles, Bamidbar Rabbah 11:3. On the ninth, the two tablets, it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 4:20. The cloud draws Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 10:5:5 on the tenth and Bamidbar Rabbah 14:19 on the eleventh. On the twelfth, the thick darkness, it holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Pischa 12:26, and on the thirteenth Bamidbar Rabbah 14:3.
The prayer carries the longest run of the chapter. On the nineteenth verse it holds Bereshit Rabbah 42:3, on the twentieth Sifrei Devarim 345:1, and on the twenty-first Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 33:4:1. On the twenty-second it holds Megillah 31a:15, on the twenty-third Midrash Aggadah, Exodus 30:12:1, and on the twenty-fourth Bereshit Rabbah 53:5. On the twenty-sixth it holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 822:1. On the twenty-seventh, where Solomon asks whether God will dwell on the earth, it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 12:3, and on the twenty-eighth Aggadat Bereshit 9:1. On the thirtieth it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Berakhot 4:9.
The seven petitions draw one or two each. On the thirty-first verse the corpus holds Midrash Lekach Tov, Exodus 20:7:1, and on the thirty-second Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Nasso 1:1. On the thirty-fourth it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Taanit 1:22, and on the thirty-fifth Berakhot 30a:8. On the thirty-seventh it holds Ein Yaakov, Taanit 2:1, and on the thirty-ninth Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Toldot 14. On the fortieth it holds Megillah 31a:17. The petition for the foreigner draws Bamidbar Rabbah 1:3 on the forty-first and Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 35:7 on the forty-second, which is the place a Christian reader will want to look first.
The captivity and the close carry the rest. On the forty-sixth verse the corpus holds Midrash Tanchuma, Mishpatim 9:7, on the forty-seventh Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Yoma 3:6, and on the forty-eighth Ein Yaakov, Berakhot 4:15. On the fiftieth it holds Aggadat Bereshit 73:3, and on the fifty-fourth Berakhot 34b:2. On the fifty-sixth it holds Midrash Aggadah, Numbers 33:1:2, on the fifty-seventh Midrash Tehillim 26:3, and on the fifty-ninth Avodah Zarah 2b:3. The sacrifices of the dedication draw Bamidbar Rabbah 13:1 on the sixty-third. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and this site reports it as theirs. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on I Kings 8:1:1 to 8:24:1, the Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J, reported CC-BY; Radak, Radak on I Kings 8:3:1, 8:9:1, 8:14:1 and 8:21:1, cited by ref because Sefaria holds no English version; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on I Kings 8:5:1, 8:11:1, 8:18:1 and 8:19:1, cited by ref because Sefaria holds no English version; Malbim, Malbim on I Kings 8:17:1 and 8:20:1, cited by ref because Sefaria holds no English version; Ralbag, noted at Rashi on I Kings 8:8:1 by the Metsudah translation; Targum Jonathan, cited by Rashi at Rashi on I Kings 8:2:1 for the month Ethanim; The Sefaria corpus on disk, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/1-kings/8.json, fetched 2026-09-19, the forty Midrash and Talmud locators cited above, 2026; MannaFest, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, the Haftarah use and the rite Ashkenazi, printed in this lane, 2026.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
The cloud fills the house so the priests cannot stand
1 Kings 8:1-2
Solomon summons the tribal heads and “the elders of Israel”, a statelier gathering than the popular procession that brought the ark at 2 Samuel 6:1. The house was finished in the eighth month at 6:38, yet the dedication waits for “the feast in the seventh month”, nearly a year later.
1 Kings 8:1
“There seems to be a contrast here between the more popular proceedings of David 2Sa 6:1, and the statelier system of his son, who merely summons the chief men as representatives of the nation. The rest of the people “assembled themselves” 1Ki 8:2, and were mere spectators of the solemnity.”
the month of Ethanim: Albert Barnes names the feast as Tabernacles, which recalled the booths of the Exodus and gave thanks for the finished harvest. Every man of Israel was bound to appear. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown add that it also remembered the wilderness tabernacle, where God first came to dwell with His people.
1 Kings 8:2
“But the temple was not finished till the eighth month, chap. vi, 38, how then could he invite them in the seventh month? This was the seventh month of the next year. For although the house in all its parts was finished the year before, yet the utensils of it were not then fully finished: and many preparations were to be made for this great and extraordinary occasion.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 8:2
“That annual festival had been instituted in commemoration of the Israelites dwelling in booths during their stay in the wilderness, as well as of the tabernacle, which was then erected, in which God promised to meet and dwell with His people, sanctifying it with His glory.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 Kings 8:3-5
the priests took up the ark: The priests themselves carry the ark, since the law kept ordinary Levites out of the Most Holy Place, as John Wesley and John Gill note. They also bring up “the Tent of Meeting with all its sacred furnishings”, so the wilderness sanctuary moves from Gibeon into the new house.
1 Kings 8:3
“In 2Ch 5:4, ““the Levites” took up the ark;” and by the Law the ark was the special charge of the Kohathites Num 3:31; Num 4:15. But all priests were Levites Jos 3:3, though all Levites were not priests. And as Joshua had done Jos 3:6; Jos 6:6, so Solomon called upon the priests to bear the holy structure, allowing to mere Levites only the inferior honor of helping to transport the tabernacle and the vessels of the sanctuary.”
the Tent of Meeting: Two tents stood, the tabernacle of Moses at Gibeon and the tent David had pitched for the ark on Zion. Adam Clarke and Albert Barnes both name the tent of Moses. John Wesley held that it was laid up in the temple treasuries, which kept it from superstitious use.
1 Kings 8:4
“They brought up - the tabernacle - It is generally agreed that there were now two tabernacles at Gibeon, and the other in the city of David, which one David had constructed as a temporary residence for the ark, in the event of a temple being built. Which of these tabernacles was brought into the temple at this time, is not well known; some think both were brought in, in order to prevent the danger of idolatry. I should rather suppose that the tabernacle from Gibeon was brought in, and that the temporary one erected by David was demolished.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 8:4
“The tabernacle - That made by Moses, which doubtless before this time had been translated from Gibeon to Zion, and now together with other things, was put into the treasuries of the Lord's house, to prevent all superstitious use of it, and to oblige the people to come up to Jerusalem, as the only place where God would now be worshipped.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
sacrificed so many sheep and oxen: John Wesley reads this verse as a forward glance at the offerings in verses 62 to 64, made once the ark was in its place. John Gill takes the words could not be counted or numbered as a figure of speech for a vast number. Verse 63 gives the count.
1 Kings 8:5
“And King Solomon, and all the congregation of Israel, that were assembled together,.... On this solemn occasion: were with him before the ark; while it was in the court of the priests, before it was carried into the most holy place: sacrificing sheep and oxen, that could not be told nor numbered for multitude; the phrase seems to be hyperbolical, and designed to denote a great number.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 8:5
“Sacrificing - When the ark was seated in its place: for although they might in the way offer some sacrifices, as David did; yet that was not a proper season to offer so many sacrifices as could not be numbered. This is more particularly related below, ver. 62, 63, 64, which is here signified by way of anticipation.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Kings 8:6-8
to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple: The priests set the ark “beneath the wings of the cherubim” in the inner sanctuary. Its poles reach far enough to be seen “from the Holy Place in front of the inner sanctuary”. The words “they are there to this day” place the writer before the first temple fell.
1 Kings 8:6
“The staves of the ark were drawn out, so as to be seen from under the wings of the cherubim, to direct the high priest to the mercy-seat, over the ark, when he went in, once a year, to sprinkle the blood there; so that still they continued of some use, though there was no longer occasion for them to carry it by.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
overshadowed the ark and its poles: These are the two great cherubim of olive wood Solomon set at 6:23 to 28, standing apart from the small cherubim on the mercy seat. John Gill notes that their wings reached from wall to wall. The ark and its poles lay hidden beneath them.
1 Kings 8:7
“For the cherubim spread forth their two wings over the place of the ark,.... The most holy place where the ark stood, even from wall to wall: and the cherubim covered the ark, and the staves thereof above; so that neither could be seen.”
their ends were visible from the Holy Place: The law at Exodus 25:15 kept the poles in the rings of the ark, so John Wesley reads them as drawn forward in part. Albert Barnes explains how the ends were seen. The doorway of the inner sanctuary or of the temple itself stood off the line of the ark.
1 Kings 8:8
“Drew out - Not wholly, which was expressly forbidden, Exod. xxv, 15, Num. iv, 6, but in part. Seen out - In the most holy place, which is oft called by way of eminency, the holy place, and the Hebrew words rendered before the oracle, may be as well rendered, within the oracle.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 8:8
“And there they are unto this day - This proves that the book was written before the destruction of the first temple, but how long before we cannot tell.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the two stone tablets that Moses had placed: Kings states “There was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets”. Hebrews 9:4 lists the ark as holding also the golden pot of manna and Aaron's rod that budded. Both passages place the same objects in the same room, and they differ only on what the chest held.
1 Kings 8:9
“Nothing - Strictly and properly: but in a more large sense, the pot of manna, and Aaron's rod were also in it, Heb. ix, 4, that is, by it, in the most holy place, before the ark of the testimony, where God commanded Moses to put them.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 8:9
“Comparing this statement with Heb 9:4, it would seem that Solomon, now that the sacred chest had reached its final resting-place, and stood in a large chamber surrounded by tables 2Ch 4:8, removed the pot of manna and the rod from the interior, and set them elsewhere in the holy of holies.”
1 Kings 8:10-11
the cloud filled the house: The scene repeats Exodus 40:34-35 in shape and nearly in words, where the same glory kept Moses out of the finished tabernacle. It answers the promise of Deuteronomy 12 of a place for the Name with a sign that the LORD has taken up residence.
1 Kings 8:10
“The cloud - The usual token of God's glorious presence. Filled - In testimony of his gracious acceptance of this work, and their service; and to beget an awe and reverence in them, and in all others, when they approach to God.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 8:10
“But the glory of God appeared in a cloud, a dark cloud, to signify, (1.) The darkness of that dispensation in comparison with the light of the gospel, by which, with open face, we behold, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord. (2.) The darkness of our present state in comparison with the vision of God, which will be the happiness of heaven, where the divine glory is unveiled.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
ConnectionsExodus 40:34
the priests could not stand there to minister: Adam Clarke held that the cloud filled the whole house, court and all, so that the people saw it too. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown weigh whether blazing light or a dense and fearful darkness drove the priests out. Verse 12 takes up the darkness.
1 Kings 8:11
“As in the case of Moses Exo 40:35, so now the glory of the Lord, the manifestation of the divine presence, which the cloud usually veiled, shone forth from it with such brilliancy, that mortal man could not bear the sight.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 8:11
“The dazzling brightness, or rather, perhaps, the dense portentous darkness of the cloud, struck the minds of the priests, as it formerly had done Moses, which such astonishment and terror (Le 16:2-13; Ex 40:35) that they could not remain. Thus the temple became the place where the divine glory was revealed, and the king of Israel established his royal residence.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Jehovah hath performed the word that he spake
1 Kings 8:12-13
He would dwell in the thick cloud: Solomon says, “The LORD has said that He would dwell in the thick cloud”, recalling the cloud of Sinai at Exodus 20:21. He calls the house “a place for You to dwell forever”. That claim stands beside his own question at verse 27, and the prayer leaves both in place.
1 Kings 8:12
“The Lord said - he would dwell - It was under the appearance of a cloud that God showed himself present with Israel in the wilderness; see Exo 14:19, Exo 14:20. And at the dedication of the tabernacle in the wilderness, God manifested himself in the same way that he did here at the dedication of the temple; see Exo 40:34, Exo 40:35.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 8:12
“Then spake - Perceiving both priests and people struck with wonder at this darkness, he minds them, that this was no sign of God's disfavour, as some might possibly imagine; but a token of his approbation, and special presence among them.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown hear Solomon turning to address God directly, welcoming Him as a guest seen arriving in the cloud. Matthew Henry reads forever as a pledge that the house would never be put to another use. Solomon asks God to keep what He has taken.
1 Kings 8:13
“I have surely built thee an house--This is an apostrophe to God, as perceiving His approach by the cloud, and welcoming Him to enter as guest or inhabitant of the fixed and permanent dwelling-place, which, at His command, had been prepared for His reception.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
1 Kings 8:13
“The house is thy own, entirely thy own, I have surely built it for thee, and furnished it for thee; it is for ever thy own, a settled place for thee to abide in for ever; it shall never be alienated nor converted to any other use; the ark shall never be removed from it, never unsettled again." It is Solomon's joy that God has taken possession; and it is his desire that he would keep possession.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Kings 8:13
“I have surely built thee a house - He was now fully convinced that the thing pleased God, and that he had taken this place for his settled habitation.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Kings 8:14-15
the king turned around and blessed them all: As the assembly stands, “the king turned around and blessed them all”, an act Adam Clarke sets beside Aaron's blessing at Numbers 6:24-26. Solomon praises the LORD, who has fulfilled “with His own hand what He spoke with His mouth to my father David”.
1 Kings 8:14
“Blessed all the congregation - Though this blessing is not particularly stated, yet we may suppose that it was such as the high priest pronounced upon the people: “The Lord bless thee, and keep thee! The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee! The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace!” (see Num 6:24-26), for Solomon seems now to be acting the part of the high priest.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
fulfilled with His own hand: Albert Barnes notes that Solomon gives the sense of what the LORD spoke to David in 2 Samuel 7, without the exact words. Barnes adds that verse 18 treats as spoken what the LORD only implied, that David had done well to have the house in his heart.
1 Kings 8:15
The exact words of 2 Sam. 7 are not reproduced; only their general sense is given. In 1Ki 8:18, what was merely tacitly implied was regarded as actually “said.”
1 Kings 8:16-18
I have not chosen a city from any tribe of Israel: Solomon recalls God's word that since the exodus He had “not chosen a city from any tribe of Israel”. This answers Deuteronomy's formula of the place the LORD would choose for His Name. The choice of a man comes first, “I have chosen David”, and the city follows the king.
1 Kings 8:16
“Since the day, etc. - Mention is here made, says Dr. Kennicott, of some one place and some one person preferred before all others; and the preference is that of Jerusalem to other places, and of David to other men. In consequence of this remark, we shall see the necessity of correcting this passage by its parallel in 2Ch 6:5, 2Ch 6:6, where the thirteen Hebrew words now lost in Kings are happily preserved.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
in the heart of my father David: Matthew Henry sees Solomon crediting his father. David drew up the first design of the house, though he never lived to lay its first stone. John Gill points to 2 Samuel 7:3, where Nathan at first told David to do all that was in his heart.
1 Kings 8:17
“And it was in the heart of David my father,.... His mind was disposed to it, his heart was set upon it, he had taken up a resolution: to build an house for the name of the Lord God of Israel; for his worship and service, for his honour and glory, 2Sa 7:3.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 8:17
“It was not a project of his own, for the magnifying of himself; but his good father, of blessed memory, laid the first design of it, though he lived not to lay the first stone. [3.] He recites God's promise concerning himself.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
you have done well: Matthew Henry draws a general rule from the verse. God accepts what is in a man's heart to do for His Name, even when He keeps the man from building it. John Gill adds that David's purpose pleased the LORD, though the house fell to his son to build.
1 Kings 8:18
“And the Lord said unto David my father,.... By Nathan the prophet: whereas it was in thine heart to build an house unto my name, thou didst well that it was in thine heart; his design was good, and so far it was acceptable to the Lord, that he thought of such a thing, though it was not his pleasure that should do it, as follows.”
1 Kings 8:19-21
your son, your own offspring, will build the house: Solomon repeats the promise of 2 Samuel 7:12-13 almost word for word, “your son, your own offspring, will build the house for My Name”. The ark “contains the covenant of the LORD”, and John Gill identifies it as the two tablets of verse 9.
1 Kings 8:19
“Nevertheless, thou shall not build the house,.... Which is implied in the question in 2Sa 7:5. but thy son that shall come forth out of thy loins, he shall build the house unto my name; which is expressed in 2Sa 7:12.”
I have succeeded my father David: Nathan's promise had two parts, a son on David's throne and a house for the Name, and Solomon claims both here. John Gill counts each as kept to the letter. Adonijah had contested that throne in chapter 1.
1 Kings 8:20
“And the Lord hath performed his word that he spake,.... To David, concerning his son's building the temple: and I am risen up in the room of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised; succeeded him in the kingdom: and have built an house for the name of the Lord God of Israel; the temple he had now finished; and thus the promise to David was punctually fulfilled, that he should have a son that should succeed him in the throne, and build the house of the Lord.”
a place for the ark: Adam Clarke explains why stone tablets can be called the covenant. The tablets were its sign, as Jesus called the cup the new covenant in His blood. Matthew Henry reads the temple as a house of prayer for all the nations, as Isaiah 56:7 later names it.
1 Kings 8:21
“And I have set there a place for the ark,.... The most holy place: wherein is the covenant of the Lord; the two tables of stone, on which were the covenant of the Lord, as the Targum: which he made with our fathers, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt; as in 1Ki 8:9.”
2 more voices on this verse
1 Kings 8:21
“Wherein is the covenant of the Lord - As it is said, 1Ki 8:9, that there was nothing in the ark but the two tables of stone, consequently these are called the Covenant, i.e., a sign of the covenant; as our Lord calls the cup the new covenant in his blood, that is, the sign of the new covenant: for This is my body implies, This is the sign or emblem of my body.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Kings 8:21
“In short, it is his request that this temple may be deemed and taken, not only for a house of sacrifice (no mention is made of that in all this prayer, that was taken for granted), but a house of prayer for all people; and herein it was a type of the gospel church; see Isa. lvi.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Solomon's prayer with hands spread out: hear thou in heaven
1 Kings 8:22-24
spread out his hands toward heaven: Solomon stands before the altar and “spread out his hands toward heaven”, and 2 Chronicles 6:13 adds he stood on a bronze platform and knelt. His first words, “there is no God like You”, confess before they ask. The phrase “keeping Your covenant of loving devotion” takes up Deuteronomy 7:9.
1 Kings 8:22
“Stood - He ascended the brazen scaffold, five cubits long, and five cubits broad, and three cubits high, and then kneeled down upon his knees, with his hands spread up to heaven, and offered up the following prayer: see 1Ki 8:54, and 2Ch 5:12, 2Ch 5:13. And spread forth his hands toward heaven - This was a usual custom in all nations: in prayer the hands were stretched out to heaven, as if to invite and receive assistance from thence; while, humbly kneeling on their knees, they seemed acknowledge at once their dependence and unworthiness.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
1 Kings 8:22
“The posture in which he prayed was very reverent, and expressive of humility, seriousness, and fervency in prayer. He stood before the altar of the Lord, intimating that he expected the success of his prayer in virtue of that sacrifice which should be offered up in the fulness of time, typified by the sacrifices offered at that altar.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Kings 8:22
“He specifies seven cases in which the merciful interposition of God would be required; and he earnestly bespeaks it on the condition of people praying towards that holy place. The blessing addressed to the people at the close is substantially a brief recapitulation of the preceding prayer [1Ki 8:56-61]. HIS SACRIFICE OF PEACE OFFERING.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
there is no God like You: The covenant is kept with servants who walk before God with the whole heart, and verse 24 names David as one. Matthew Henry reads the promise to David as kept by the same faithfulness God shows all His servants. The wholehearted walk returns as a condition in verse 25.
You have fulfilled with Your hand this day: Adam Clarke ties the verse to 2 Samuel 7:13, where God said David's son would build the house. The finished temple stood before the crowd as the proof. Matthew Henry calls the performance the crown of the promise, and holds each fresh proof of God's word calls for larger praise.
1 Kings 8:24
“Who hast kept with thy servant David my father that thou promisedst him..... Concerning a son, his successor, and the builder of the temple: thou, spakest also with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with thine hand, as it is this day; the temple being now finished by him, see 1Ki 8:15.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 8:24
“Who has kept with thy servant David - This is in reference to 2Sa 7:13, where God promises to David that Solomon shall build a house for the name of the Lord. The temple being now completed, this promise was literally fulfilled.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Kings 8:25-26
Solomon asks the LORD to keep the promise “You will never fail to have a man to sit before Me on the throne of Israel”. It was given at 2 Samuel 7:16 and echoed at Psalm 132:12. The promise carries a condition, “if only your descendants guard their way”.
1 Kings 8:25
“Solomon’s prayer is, perhaps, generally for the fulfillment of all the promises made to David in connection with the building of the temple. But there seems to be special allusion in this verse to the promise recorded in Psa 132:14.”
please confirm what You promised: Matthew Henry takes this plea as the pattern for all prayer. God's promises set what the one praying asks for, and they give him the ground to expect it. Solomon asks for nothing beyond what God had already said to David.
1 Kings 8:26
“And now, O God of Israel, let thy word, I pray thee, be verified,.... Truly made good, and punctually performed: which thou spakest unto thy servant David my father; the same request in other words, repeated to show his ardent and vehement desire to have it fulfilled.”
will God indeed dwell upon the earth?: Solomon asks, “will God indeed dwell upon the earth”, of the house he has finished. He answers that “Even heaven, the highest heaven, cannot contain You, much less this temple I have built”. The petitions treat the house as the place where God hears prayer, while heaven remains His dwelling.
1 Kings 8:27
Solomon the son of David, in the books styled The Reigns of the Kings, comprehending not only that the structure of the true temple was celestial and spiritual but had also a reference to the flesh, which he who was both the son and the Lord of David was to build up, both for his own presence, where, as a living image, he resolved to make his shrine, and for the church that was to rise up through the union of faith, says expressly, "Will God in very deed dwell with humans on the earth?"
Clement of Alexandria · written before 215 · Fragments Not Given in the Oxford Editionpatristic
1 Kings 8:28-30
regard the prayer and plea of Your servant: Solomon asks, “May Your eyes be open toward this temple night and day”. The plea “May You hear from heaven, Your dwelling place” becomes the refrain of the seven petitions. Albert Barnes notes the Jews prayed toward the temple wherever they were, so the house gave prayer its direction.
1 Kings 8:28
“Yet have thou respect to the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O Lord my God,.... Meaning himself, who, though a king acknowledged himself, and esteemed it an honour to be the servant of the Lord, and who was also an humble suppliant of his, and desired his prayers and supplications might be attended to: to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer which thy servant prayeth before thee this day; the particulars of which follow.”
May Your eyes be open toward this temple: John Wesley reads open eyes as God looking on with favor, and the Name as His presence, glory and grace in the place. Albert Barnes holds that Jerusalem was chosen by a revelation given to David. Psalm 78:68 and Psalm 132:13 record that choice.
1 Kings 8:29
“The choice of Jerusalem as the place seems to have been made by special revelation to David. See Psa 78:68; Psa 132:13; and compare 1Ch 22:1. Toward this place - Better (here and in 1Ki 8:30) than the marginal “in.” Wherever they were, the Jews always worshipped toward the temple. (See margin reference.)”
May You hear and forgive: John Wesley reads heaven here as a call to lift the eye above the temple to God's true dwelling. Albert Barnes renders the close both hear and forgive. Adam Clarke takes the temple as a type of Christ, the one through whom every accepted prayer reaches God.
1 Kings 8:30
“Toward this place - Both tabernacle and temple were types of our Lord Jesus, or of God manifested in the flesh; and he was and is the Mediator between God and man. All prayer, to be acceptable, and to be entitled to a hearing, must go to God through Him.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Kings 8:31-32
When a man sins against his neighbor: The first case is a dispute settled by an oath “before Your altar in this temple”, the practice John Wesley finds in Exodus 22:11. Solomon asks God to judge, “condemning the wicked man” and “justifying the righteous man”. It is the shortest of the seven petitions.
1 Kings 8:31
“The oath come before ... - “The oath” is equivalent to “the man who swears the oath.” A slight alteration in the present Hebrew text gives the sense “and he (the accused) go and swear before thine altar,” etc. The threats and the promises, the punishments and calamities of 1Ki 8:31-38 were distinctly named in the Law. See the margin reference.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 8:31
“Trespass - If he be accused of a trespass. Laid on him - Either by the judge, or by the party accusing him, or by the accused person himself: which was usual, when there were no witnesses. Thine altar - For here God, who was appealed to as witness, was especially present.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
condemning the wicked man: An altar oath called down a curse on a liar. John Gill reads the condemning as God bringing that same curse on the false swearer's head. To justify the righteous is to show openly that his cause is just.
1 Kings 8:32
“Then hear thou in heaven,.... When the injured person makes supplication to have justice done him: and do, and judge thy servants; contending with one another, the one affirming, the other denying condemning the wicked, by bringing his way upon his head: inflicting upon him the punishment imprecated by him in his oath: and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness; by making it appear that his cause is just.”
1 Kings 8:33-34
Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy: Here defeat before an enemy is covenant discipline, and the cause is named first, “because they have sinned against You”. The petition asks that God “forgive the sin of Your people Israel”. Adam Clarke counts it the second of seven cases, each a trouble the nation had not yet suffered.
1 Kings 8:33
“When thy people Israel be smitten down, etc. - The Second case. When their enemies make inroads upon them, and defeat them in battle, and lead them into captivity, because God, being displeased with their transgressions, has delivered them up; then if they shall turn again, confess the name of God, which they had in effect denied, by either neglecting his worship, or becoming idolatrous; and pray and make supplication; then, says Solomon, hear thou in heaven - and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest unto their fathers.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 8:33
“Confess - Give glory to thy name, by acknowledging their sins, and by justice; and by accepting the punishment of their iniquity; and by trusting to thy power and goodness alone, for their deliverance.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
restore them to the land: John Gill reads the sin here as the nation's public sin, the kind that brings defeat on a whole army. The plea to bring them back to the land implies that some were carried off as prisoners after the loss. Verse 46 widens this to a full exile.
1 Kings 8:34
“Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel,.... It being not personal, but public sins, which would be the cause of such a calamity: and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest unto their fathers; as had been often their case in the time of the judges.”
1 Kings 8:35-36
When the skies are shut and there is no rain: The third petition, “When the skies are shut and there is no rain”, names ahead of time the drought Elijah announces at 17:1. Solomon asks God to forgive “so that You may teach them the good way in which they should walk”, so the drought serves as teaching.
1 Kings 8:35
“When the heaven is shut up, and there is no rain - The Third case. When, because of their sin, and their ceasing to walk in the good way in which they should have walked, God refuses to send the early and latter rain, so that the appointed weeks of harvest come in vain, as there is no crop: then, if they pray and confess their sin, hear thou in heaven, etc.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 8:35
“Heaven - The lower heaven in which the clouds are. Shut up - Heaven is compared to a great store-house in God's keeping, out of which nothing can be had, so long as it is close shut up.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
as an inheritance: The rain is asked for the land as an inheritance, which ties the drought to the covenant terms of Deuteronomy 11:13 to 17. There the LORD promised rain for obedience and a shut sky for turning to other gods. Israel held the land on those terms, as John Gill notes.
1 Kings 8:37-40
When famine or plague comes upon the land: The fourth petition gathers “famine or plague” and siege into one list, the curses Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 attach to unfaithfulness. Solomon turns to the single man, “each knowing his own afflictions”. The petition ends on God's own knowledge, “for You alone know the hearts of all men”.
1 Kings 8:37
In the land of their cities - literally, “in the land of their gates.” Hence, the marginal translation “jurisdiction,” because judgments were pronounced in the town gates Deu 16:18. Another reading gives “in one of their cities.”
The word rendered afflictions is the Hebrew for a plague or a stroke, and the verse joins it to the heart. Albert Barnes reads it as a man seeing his suffering as God's chastening and his sin as its cause. Ishodad of Merv places that knowledge after rescue.
1 Kings 8:38
“Know every man the plague of his own heart - i. e. perceive one’s sinfulness, or recognize one’s sufferings as divine chastisements, and sin as their cause.”
You alone know the hearts of all men—: John Wesley reads the knowledge as reaching past a man's needs to the intent of his heart, whether sincere or false. God repays by what He sees there. The same knowledge belongs to Jesus at John 2:24 to 25, where John Chrysostom explains why He would not entrust Himself.
1 Kings 8:39
"But Jesus did not commit Himself unto them." For they were the more perfect among His disciples, who came to Him not only because of His miracles, but through His teaching also. The grosser sort the miracles attracted, but the better reasoners His prophecies and doctrines; and so they who were taken by His teaching were more steadfast than those attracted by His miracles. And Christ also called them "blessed," saying, "Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed."
John Chrysostom · written before 407 · Homilies on the Gospel of John 24.1patristic
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 8:39
“Thou knowest - Not only the plagues of their hearts, their several wants and burdens, (these he knows! but he will know them from us,) but the desire and intent of the heart, the sincerity or hypocrisy of it.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
fear You all the days they live: The fear here follows the hearing and forgiving of verse 39, the order Psalm 130:4 gives, and Matthew Henry and John Gill cite that psalm. Gill stretches it across all their days in the land they live in. Forgiven people fear the God who forgave.
1 Kings 8:40
“That they may fear thee,.... For his goodness sake in hearing their prayer, removing their affliction, and bestowing his blessings on them, particularly in forgiving their sins, see Psa 130:4. all the days that they live in the land which thou gavest unto our fathers; not only for the present, while the mercy is fresh, but all the days of their lives; to which they were the more obliged by the good land they possessed as a divine gift, and which they held by the tenure of their obedience, Isa 1:19.”
1 Kings 8:41-43
the foreigner who is not of Your people Israel: The fifth petition turns to “the foreigner who is not of Your people Israel”. Solomon asks the same hearing that he has asked for Israel's. The stated purpose is that “all the peoples of the earth will know Your name and fear You, as do Your people Israel”.
1 Kings 8:41
“Moreover, concerning a stranger that is not of thy people Israel,.... One of another country, not belonging to any of the tribes of Israel, yet having some knowledge of, and disposition to, the true worship of God: but cometh out of a far country for thy name's sake; as the Ethiopian eunuch did, to pray to him, worship him, and offer such sacrifices as were allowed a Gentile to do, Lev 22:18 led thereunto by the fame of him, as follows.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 8:41
“Nothing is more remarkable in the Mosaic Law than its liberality with regard to strangers, both in general Exo 22:21; Lev 25:35; Deu 10:19 and in religious matters Num 15:14-16; Deu 31:12. It is quite in the spirit of these enactments that Solomon, having first prayed to God on behalf of his fellow-countrymen, should next go on to intercede for the strangers, and to ask for their prayers the same acceptance which he had previously begged for the prayers of faithful Israelites.”
Your great name and mighty hand: Albert Barnes notes the phrase great name never occurs in the five books of Moses and only rarely before the exile, once at Joshua 7:9. The mighty hand and outstretched arm are the Exodus words of Exodus 6:6 and Deuteronomy 9:29. Foreigners hear of the God of the Exodus.
1 Kings 8:42
“Great name - A somewhat rare expression. It does not occur at all in the Pentateuch; though “mighty hand” and the “stretched out arm” are so frequent Exo 6:6; Exo 13:9; Deu 9:29: only once in Joshua Jos 7:9; and twice in the Psalms Psa 76:1; Psa 99:3. About the time of the captivity the use of the phrase became more common Eze 36:23; Jer 10:6; Jer 44:26.”
all the peoples of the earth: Albert Barnes reads the hope as the turning of the whole world to worship the LORD, the theme of Psalms 96 and 98. The last clause carries a Hebrew idiom. A house called by God's Name is one where He is present, upholding and sanctifying it.
1 Kings 8:43
“That all people of the earth may know thy name, to fear thee - Solomon prays that the result of Yahweh’s hearing the prayers of pagans addressed toward the temple may be the general conversion of the world to the worship of Him. Compare Psa 96:1-13; Psa 98:1-9. This house ... - literally, as in the margin. In Scripture, when God’s Name is said to be “called upon” persons or things, it seems to be meant that God is really present in them, upholding them and sanctifying them.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 8:43
“Calleth for - Agreeable to thy will and word. It is observable, that his prayer for the strangers is more large, and comprehensive, than for the Israelites; that thereby he might both shew his public- spiritedness, and encourage strangers to the worship of the true God. Thus early were the indications of God's favour, toward the sinners of the Gentiles.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Kings 8:44-45
When Your people go to war against their enemies: The sixth petition covers Israel's armies at war “wherever You send them”, so the campaign is one the LORD directs. The soldiers pray “in the direction of the city You have chosen and the house I have built for Your Name”, even far from it.
1 Kings 8:44
“If thy people go out to battle - The Sixth case refers to wars undertaken by Divine appointment: whithersoever thou shalt send them; for in no other wars could they expect the blessing and concurrence of the Lord; in none other could the God of truth and justice maintain their cause. There were such wars under the Mosaic dispensation, there are none such under the Christian dispensation: nor can there be any; for the Son of man is come, not to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
may You uphold their cause: The Hebrew for their cause is their judgment, the ruling a judge gives for one side, as in verse 32. John Gill, following the Targum, reads it as God doing justice for His people against their enemies. Victory would show their cause was right.
1 Kings 8:45
“Then hear thou in heaven their prayer and their supplication,.... For success: and maintain their cause; do them justice, and avenge their injuries, as the Targum; let it appear that their cause is right, by giving them victory.”
1 Kings 8:46-48
The seventh and longest petition rests on the words “there is no one who does not sin”, so exile is foreseen at the dedication itself. The captives confess, “We have sinned and done wrong”, the form of words Albert Barnes notes Israel used in the Babylonian exile.
1 Kings 8:46
“If they sin against thee - This Seventh case must refer to some general defection from truth, to some species of false worship, idolatry, or corruption of the truth and ordinances of the Most High; as for it they are here stated to be delivered into the hands of their enemies and carried away captive, which was the general punishment for idolatry, and what is called, 1Ki 8:47, acting perversely and committing wickedness. In 1Ki 8:46 we read, If they sin against thee, for there is no man that sinneth not.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
when they come to their senses: The Hebrew reads bring back to their heart, and Albert Barnes compares Deuteronomy 30:1, where Moses foresaw Israel taking the blessings and curses to heart. Barnes reads the three confessions as a climax. They rise from failure to open wrong, and from wrong acts to a corrupted character.
1 Kings 8:47
“Bethink themselves - literally, as in the margin - i. e. “reflect,” “consider seriously.” Compare Deu 30:1. Sinned, done perversely, committed wickedness - The words here used seem to have become the standard form of expressing contrition when the time of the captivity arrived and the Israelites were forcibly removed to Babylon (compare the margin reference). The three expressions are thought to form a climax, rising from negative to positive guilt, and from mere wrongful acts to depravation of the moral character.”
with all their heart and soul: The Targum reads return as a return to God's worship, and John Gill takes it as leaving false worship the captives had fallen into. The captives face the land, the city and the house. Matthew Henry notes God gave the first, chose the second and was honored by the third.
1 Kings 8:48
“And so return unto thee, with all their heart, and with all their soul,.... In the most sincere and cordial manner, with great ingenuity and uprightness; the Targum is, "return unto thy worship;'' relinquishing false worship they had given into, and serve the Lord in the best manner they could: in the land of their enemies, which led them away captive; and so at a distance from that temple, and the service of it.”
1 Kings 8:49-51
may You uphold their cause: Solomon asks that God “grant them compassion in the eyes of their captors”. The ground of the plea is the exodus, brought “out of the furnace for iron”, the phrase Moses uses at Deuteronomy 4:20. The petitions close on the redemption from Egypt that opened Solomon's speech at verse 16.
1 Kings 8:49
“Their course - Hebrew. their right, against their invaders and oppressors. For they had forfeited all their rights to God only, but not to their enemies; whom tho' God used as scourges to chastise his peoples sins, yet they had no pretense of right to their land.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
compassion in the eyes of their captors: Albert Barnes reads this compassion as more than mercy in exile. The king of Babylon showed some when he freed Jehoiachin at 2 Kings 25:27 to 30. Cyrus and Artaxerxes showed more when they let the captive people return to the land given to their fathers.
1 Kings 8:50
“And give them compassion before them who carried them captive - He does not pray that they may be delivered out of that captivity, but that their enemies may use them well; and that they may, as formerly, be kept a separate and distinct people.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
out of the furnace for iron: John Gill links Your people and Your inheritance to Deuteronomy 7:6, where Israel is chosen out of all peoples as God's treasured possession. The furnace for iron is the smelter's fire, Albert Barnes's figure for Egypt as a place of severe trial. The plea rests on ownership.
1 Kings 8:51
“For they be thy people, and thine inheritance,.... Whom the Lord had chosen above all people, to be a special people to him, and to be his portion and possession; see Deu 7:6. which thou broughtest forth out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron; hard and cruel bondage in Egypt: See Gill on Deu 4:20.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 8:51
“The furnace of iron - Egypt is so called as a place of severe trial and affliction.”
1 Kings 8:52-53
May Your eyes be open to the pleas of Your servant: The prayer closes as it opened, “May Your eyes be open”, the plea of verse 29 now made for every plea of Israel. Solomon grounds it on Israel's election, set apart “from all the peoples of the earth” as God's inheritance, “as You spoke through Your servant Moses”.
1 Kings 8:52
“No place now, under the gospel, can be imagined to add any acceptableness to the prayers made in or towards it, as the temple then did. That was a shadow: the substance is Christ; whatever we ask in his name, it shall be given us.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
set them apart from all the peoples: The words echo Leviticus 20:26, where the LORD set Israel apart from the peoples to be His own. Charles Spurgeon preached this verse as Solomon's plea. He drew on Paul's teaching in Romans 4 that Abraham is father of all who share his faith.
1 Kings 8:53
“ISRAEL was a type of the Church of God. The Apostle, in the Epistle to the Romans, clearly shows that Abraham was the father, not of the circumcision only, but of all those who walk in the steps of the faith of Abraham, and that the promise that he should be heir of the world was not to Abraham or his seed through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith.”
Blessed be Jehovah, who hath not failed one word
1 Kings 8:54-55
he got up before the altar of the LORD: Solomon rises from a kneeling posture, the position Clarke described at verse 22, held through a prayer Henry calls likely longer than what is recorded. He turns to bless the congregation a second time, and speaks with a loud voice so the whole assembly can hear.
1 Kings 8:54
“If the prayer of Solomon be, as it has all the appearance of being, a genuine document of the time, preserved in the archives to which the authors of both Kings and Chronicles had access, all theories of the late origin of Deuteronomy must be regarded as baseless. While references are not infrequent to other portions of the Pentateuch, the language of the prayer is mainly modelled upon Deuteronomy, the promises and threats contained in which are continually before the mind of the writer. (See the margin reference).”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 8:54
“The prayer itself was very long, and perhaps much longer than is here recorded. At the throne of grace we have liberty of speech, and should use our liberty. It is not making long prayers, but making them for a pretence, that Christ condemns.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
in a loud voice: Adam Clarke locates the blessing itself in verses 57 and 58, where Solomon asks God to stay with Israel and turn its heart. John Gill sees him speaking here as the father of his people and as the Preacher of Ecclesiastes. Verses 59 to 61 close with a charge.
1 Kings 8:55
“And he stood and blessed all the congregation of Israel with a loud voice,.... Turning himself the altar, and his face to the people, giving them his benediction, not only as the father of his people, but as preacher in Jerusalem, closing it with a word of exhortation to them: saying: as follows.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 8:55
“He stood, and blessed all the congregation - This blessing is contained in 1Ki 8:57, 1Ki 8:58.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Not one word has failed of all the good promises: Solomon blesses the LORD, “who has given rest to His people Israel according to all that He promised”. His words “Not one word has failed of all the good promises” repeat the claim made at the end of the conquest in Joshua 21:45. Joshua made it again at Joshua 23:14.
1 Kings 8:56
“Blessed be the Lord, that hath given rest unto his people Israel, according, to all that he promised.... A land of rest, and rest in the land from all enemies; see Deu 12:9, there hath not failed one word of all his good promises, which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant: so Joshua observed a little before his death, Jos 23:14 to which Solomon seems to have respect; and who lived to see a greater accomplishment of the gracious promises of God, and his faithfulness therein, both in the times of his father David, and his own.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 8:56
“He does, as it were, write a receipt in full on the back of these bonds: There has not failed one word of all his good promises. This discharge he gives in the name of all Israel, to the everlasting honour of the divine faithfulness, and the everlasting encouragement of all those that build upon the divine promises.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Kings 8:57-58
May He never leave us nor forsake us: The words “May He never leave us nor forsake us” echo the promise to Joshua at Deuteronomy 31:6, now made the nation's request. Solomon then asks, “May He incline our hearts to Himself”, so that God works inwardly what the law commands. Albert Barnes traces this request to David's psalms.
May He incline our hearts to Himself: John Cassian sets Proverbs 4:23, where a man guards his own heart, beside Philippians 4:7, and reads them as the will's freedom and its weakness. Matthew Henry holds that the heart drifts from God until grace turns it. That grace is sought in prayer.
1 Kings 8:58
“Incline our hearts - This is a doctrine which first appears in Scripture in the Davidical Psalms (see the margin reference and Psa 141:4). Solomon in this prayer seems to be thoroughly penetrated with his father’s spirit.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 8:58
For Holy Scripture supports the freedom of the will where it says: "Keep thy heart with all diligence," but the Apostle indicates its weakness by saying "The Lord keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."
John Cassian · written before 435 · CONFERENCE 13.10patristic
1 Kings 8:59-61
may these words with which I have made my petition: Solomon asks that his words “be near to the LORD our God day and night”, to meet each need “as each day requires”. The closing charge, “let your heart be fully devoted to the LORD”, asks of the people what the prayer asked God to work in them.
1 Kings 8:59
And let these my words - This and the following verse is a sort of supplement to the prayer which ended 1Ki 8:53; but there is an important addition to this prayer in the parallel place, 2Ch 6:41, 2Ch 6:42: “Now therefore arise, O Lord God, into thy resting place, thou and the ark of thy strength: let thy priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation, and let thy saints rejoice in goodness. O Lord God, turn not away the face of thine anointed: remember the mercies of David thy servant.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
that the LORD is God: John Gill lists the ways the nations would learn this. They would watch God chastise Israel for sin, answer its prayers, forgive it and rescue it. Every other god, in Gill's reading, is a name with no living being behind it.
1 Kings 8:60
“That all the people of the earth may know that the Lord is God,.... By chastising the people of Israel when they sinned; by bearing and answering their prayers when they prayed unto him; by forgiving their sins, and delivering them out of their troubles; by maintaining their cause, and protecting them in the enjoyment of their blessings: and that there is "none else"; no God besides him; all being else fictitious deities, or nominal ones; he only is the one living and true God.”
as it is this day: Albert Barnes reads as it is this day as praise for what the people were doing at the feast. John Gill notes that neither king nor people had yet turned to idols. At 11:4 the same words are denied of Solomon.
1 Kings 8:61
“Let your heart therefore be perfect with the Lord your God,.... Sincere in their love to him, united in their worship of him, and constant in their obedience to him: to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, as at this day: as they did that day, neither king nor people having as yet fallen into idolatry, but showing by their then present appearance a zeal for God, his house, and worship.”
Twenty-two thousand oxen and fourteen days of feasting
1 Kings 8:62-64
the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices: Solomon's peace offerings alone come to “22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep”. Chronicles adds fire from heaven consuming the offerings at 2 Chronicles 7:1, a detail Kings does not record. Because “the bronze altar before the LORD was too small”, the king consecrates “the middle of the courtyard” for the offerings.
1 Kings 8:62
“And the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifice before the Lord. For burnt offerings, which having been laid upon the altar, as soon as the king had done praying to God, and blessing the people, and exhorting them, fire came down from heaven, and consumed them; which showed the Lord's acceptance of the sacrifices, and was another confirmation, besides the cloud, of the Lord's well pleasedness with the temple, and of his taking possession of it to reside in it; upon which the people bowed and worshipped, and praised the Lord for his goodness and mercy, 2Ch 7:1.”
So the king and all the Israelites dedicated: Adam Clarke spreads the 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep across fourteen days of the dedication and the feast. Albert Barnes notes that much of the meat was eaten. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown observe the law prescribed no dedication rite, so this one grew from reverence for a house of worship.
1 Kings 8:63
“These numbers have been thought incredible, but they are not impossible. At least 100, 000, or 120, 000 men 1Ki 8:65 were assembled; and as they all offered sacrifice with the king 1Ki 8:62, the number of victims must have been enormous. Part of the flesh of so many victims would be eaten; but much of the meat may have been privately burned Lev 19:6, the object of the sacrifice being the glory of God, and not the convenience of the people. Profusion was a usual feature of the sacrifices of antiquity.”
the middle of the courtyard: Albert Barnes reads the middle of the courtyard as its whole open area, made into one altar where many victims could burn at once. Adam Clarke holds a separate altar was built there. Caesarius of Arles notes the temple's two altars, one outside for animals and one within for incense.
1 Kings 8:64
“The same day did the king hallow the middle of the court--that is, the whole extent of the priests' court--the altar of burnt offerings, though large (2Ch 4:1), being totally inadequate for the vast number of sacrifices that distinguished this occasion.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 Kings 8:65-66
The feast runs “for seven days and seven more days”, joining the dedication to the Feast of Tabernacles in the same seventh month. The assembly comes “from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt”, the limits of the land named at Numbers 34:8 and Joshua 13:5.
1 Kings 8:65
“A feast necessarily accompanied such a sacrifice as Solomon was holding. Compare Lev 19:5. On the present occasion there was a double festival - first, the Feast of the Dedication, from the 8th to the 15th of the month Ethanim (or Tisri), and then the Feast of tabernacles, from the 15th to the 22nd 1Ki 8:2. On the day after this, “the eighth day,” counting from the commencement of the second seven, and the twenty-third day of the month (margin reference “m”), Solomon dismissed the people to their homes.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 8:65
“And it seems to be expressed in this manner, to intimate, that these fourteen days of rejoicing, were not altogether, but that there was some interval between them, which indeed was necessary, because the day of atonement was on the tenth day of this month, Lev. xxiii, 27.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
On the fifteenth day: The Hebrew reads the eighth day, from the start of the Feast of Tabernacles, and the Berean counts it as the day after all fourteen. John Wesley places the leaving on the morning after the closing assembly. 2 Chronicles 7:10 gives the twenty-third day.
1 Kings 8:66
“They blessed the king - Wished him all spiritual and temporal happiness. They were contented with their king, at peace among themselves, and happy in their God; so that they returned to their houses magnifying their God for all his bounty to them, their country, and their king. How happy must these people have been, and how prosperous, had their king continued to walk uprightly before God! But alas! the king fell, and the nation followed his example.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: A dedication, the procession and the glory followed by a long prayer built as a series of cases, as Barnes classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Hear Thou in heaven | The prayer's hinge is set at verse 30 and then answers every petition that follows. Seven cases are raised, and each one ends on the same request, that God would hear from heaven His dwelling place. Albert Barnes reads the refrain as the prayer's whole architecture, since the house is asked to be a direction for prayer rather than the place God is confined to.Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament, 1832 to 1869, on 1 Kings 8:30. | 1 Kings 8:30, 1 Kings 8:32, 1 Kings 8:34, 1 Kings 8:36, 1 Kings 8:39, 1 Kings 8:43, 1 Kings 8:45, 1 Kings 8:49 |
| The seven cases | Adam Clarke counts seven troubles Solomon names in advance, and the list climbs. A man wronging his neighbour comes first, then defeat before an enemy, then drought. Famine and plague follow, then the foreigner from a far country, the army sent out to battle, and exile in the land of the captor. Each case is a trouble Israel has not yet suffered when the prayer is made.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on 1 Kings 8:33. | 1 Kings 8:31, 1 Kings 8:33, 1 Kings 8:35, 1 Kings 8:37, 1 Kings 8:41, 1 Kings 8:44, 1 Kings 8:46 |
| David and Israel, at the first verse and the last | The chapter opens at verse 1 with Solomon assembling Israel to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of the city of David. It closes at verse 66 with the people going home glad for the goodness the LORD had shown to David His servant and to Israel His people. The same two names frame the whole dedication.Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament, 1832 to 1869, on 1 Kings 8:66. | 1 Kings 8:1, 1 Kings 8:66 |
| Thine eyes may be open | Solomon asks at verse 29 that the LORD's eyes be open toward this house night and day. At verse 52 he asks the same thing again in almost the same words, now for every supplication Israel will ever bring. The seven petitions stand inside that repeated request.John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on 1 Kings 8:52. | 1 Kings 8:29, 1 Kings 8:52 |
| Solomon's own question | At verse 27 the king who has just finished the house asks whether God will indeed dwell on the earth, since the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him. Albert Barnes reads the verse as Solomon holding two convictions at once, a special presence in the temple and a God no building holds. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read it as a guard against a superstitious view of the building itself.Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on 1 Kings 8:27. | 1 Kings 8:13, 1 Kings 8:27 |
| Spoken with His mouth, fulfilled with His hand | Solomon's opening blessing at verse 15 pairs the promise with its performance, and verse 24 repeats the pairing for David. Matthew Henry reads the figure as the prayer's method, every petition measuring a spoken word against an accomplished fact. The same pairing closes the prayer at verse 56, where no word of all His good promise has failed.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on 1 Kings 8:15. | 1 Kings 8:15, 1 Kings 8:24, 1 Kings 8:56 |
The debated concept
12 more paragraphs on the patterns
The first question is what lay inside the ark. Verse 9 says there was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone Moses put there at Horeb. Hebrews 9:4 lists the golden pot of manna and Aaron's rod that budded with them. John Wesley reads the Greek of Hebrews loosely, as beside the ark rather than strictly within it. Albert Barnes reads the difference as a real one. He holds that Solomon took the pot and the rod out of the chest at the ark's final resting place, and set them elsewhere in the most holy place. Both readings keep the same room and the same furniture, and only the contents of the chest differ between them. The page states both and settles neither.
The second question is what happened at the sacrifices. Kings records the offerings and says nothing of fire from heaven, while 2 Chronicles 7:1 has fire come down and consume them. Albert Barnes holds the two accounts together without reading the Chronicles detail back into Kings, and the page does the same.
The third is the scale of the offerings. Twenty-two thousand oxen and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep is the figure at verse 63. Albert Barnes defends it as large and credible, given a congregation drawn from the whole land over fourteen days. The bronze altar proved too small for the volume, which is why the middle of the court had to be hallowed at verse 64.
The New Testament's use
Solomon's question at verse 27 is quoted in substance by Stephen at Acts 7:48 and by Paul at Acts 17:24, both saying that the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands. Stephen cites Isaiah 66:1 for the point, and Solomon had already put it as a question inside the dedication of the house itself.
The stranger's petition at verses 41 to 43 is the one the New Testament takes up by example rather than by citation. John Gill points to the Ethiopian eunuch of Acts 8:27, a foreigner who had come to Jerusalem to worship for the name's sake.
Hebrews 9:4 stands beside verse 9, as above, and Hebrews 9:11 to 12 reads the whole sanctuary as a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands.
The divine connection
The cloud at verses 10 and 11 repeats Exodus 40:34 and 35 in shape and nearly in words. The glory that kept Moses out of the finished tabernacle now stops the priests at the finished temple. Albert Barnes ties the two scenes together directly, and Keil and Delitzsch read the moment as Deuteronomy 12's promise answered with a sign.
The seventh petition is the one that reaches furthest. Verses 46 to 51 assume there is no man who does not sin, and they write exile into the temple's dedication before any king has brought it on. Albert Barnes notes that the confession Solomon puts in the captives' mouths at verse 47 is the form of words Israel used once the Babylonian captivity came. The prayer was spoken more than three centuries before the captivity that tested it, and the book of Kings was read by people living in it.
The stated aim of the prayer reaches past Israel. Verse 43 asks that all the people of the earth may know the name. Verse 60 repeats it, that all the people of the earth may know the LORD is God and there is none else.
Verse 56 closes the prayer on Joshua's own claim. Joshua 21:45 said there failed not ought of any good thing the LORD had spoken to the house of Israel, and Joshua 23:14 repeated it near his death. John Gill reads Solomon as recalling Joshua deliberately, having seen a fuller accomplishment of the same promises in his father's reign and his own.
Keep studying
Studies18
Words12
Subjects1
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The context
Keil, The Books of the Kings and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
The form and classifications
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on 1 Kings 8:14; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament, 1832 to 1869, on 1 Kings 8:22 and Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Books of the Kings, 1861 to 1875, on 1 Kings 8:11.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Caesarius of Arles, SERMON 228.2; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 1232: “Solomon's Plea” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Ishodad of Merv, BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 8:38; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Cassian, CONFERENCE 13.10; John Chrysostom, HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 24.1; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil, The Books of the Kings and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.