Chapter VI

=1‒11= (= 1 Kings viii. 12‒21).
SOLOMON’S BLESSING.

¹Then spake Solomon, The LORD hath said that he would dwell
in the thick darkness. ²But I have built thee an house of
habitation, and a place for thee to dwell in for ever. ³And the
king turned his face, and blessed all the congregation of Israel:
and all the congregation of Israel stood. ⁴And he said, Blessed
be the LORD, the God of Israel, which spake with his mouth unto
David my father, and hath with his hands fulfilled it, saying,

=1, 2.= These somewhat obscure verses come from 1 Kings, the only important variation being, _But I have built_ (Chronicles), for _I have surely built_ (1 Kings). They seem to have been taken originally from some old source of a poetical character, possibly the _Book of Jashar_ (see Burney, _Notes on Hebrew Text of 1 Kings_, pp. 111 f.).

=1.= _Then_] i.e. at the moment when Solomon perceived that the cloud had filled the House.

_that he would dwell in the thick darkness_] No Divine declaration corresponding verbally with this occurs in the Old Testament, but compare Exodus xx. 21, _Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was_, and Exodus xix. 9, _the LORD said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud_.

=2.= _But I have built_] The adversative _but_ is awkward, and the text in Kings (see above) is more suitable: Solomon has built a house in which the dark shrine seems a fitting abode for Him who wills to dwell in the “thick darkness.”

⁵Since the day that I brought forth my people out of the land of
Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build
an house in, that my name might be there; neither chose I any
man to be prince¹ over my people Israel: ⁶but I have chosen
Jerusalem, that my name might be there; and have chosen David to
be over my people Israel.

¹ Or, _leader_.

=5.= _neither chose I any man to be prince over my people Israel_] The Chronicler regards Saul as rejected rather than chosen; 1 Chronicles x. 13, 14.

_that my name might be there_] “Name” is used, as regularly in this connection, to signify the Divine character――God conceived as that which He has revealed Himself to be.

⁷Now it was in the heart of David my father to build an house
for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel. ⁸But the LORD said
unto David my father, Whereas it was in thine heart to build an
house for my name, thou didst well that it was in thine heart:

=7.= _in the heart of David_] Compare 1 Chronicles xvii. 1, 2, xxii. 7.

⁹nevertheless thou shall not build the house; but thy son that
shall come forth out of thy loins, he shall build the house for
my name. ¹⁰And the LORD hath performed his word that he spake;
for I am risen up in the room of David my father, and sit on the
throne of Israel, as the LORD promised, and have built the house
for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.

=9.= _thou shalt not build_] Compare 1 Chronicles xxii. 8, note.

¹¹And there have I set the ark, wherein is the covenant of the
LORD, which he made with the children of Israel.

=11.= _the covenant_] i.e. the two tables of stone, compare v. 10.

_with the children of Israel_] In 1 Kings viii. 21, _with our fathers, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt_.

=12‒39= (= 1 Kings viii. 22‒50).
SOLOMON’S PRAYER.

The prayer is reproduced from 1 Kings with a few verbal changes and with the omission of verses 50b‒53. It is mainly a petition that future prayers made “in” or “toward this house” may be heard. The subjects of the different parts of the prayer are as follows:――

verses
14‒17. The promise made to David.
18‒21. Prayer made toward _this place_.
22, 23. The oath of ordeal taken in _this place_.
24, 25. Prayer under defeat.
26, 27. Prayer for rain.
28‒31. Prayer under divers afflictions.
32, 33. The stranger’s prayer.
34, 35. The prayer of the army at war abroad.
36‒39. The prayer of Israel in captivity.

¹²And he stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence
of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands:
¹³(for Solomon had made a brasen scaffold, of five cubits long,
and five cubits broad, and three cubits high, and had set it in
the midst of the court; and upon it he stood, and kneeled down
upon his knees before all the congregation of Israel, and spread
forth his hands toward heaven:) ¹⁴and he said, O LORD, the God
of Israel, there is no God like thee, in the heaven, or in the
earth; who keepest covenant and mercy with¹ thy servants, that
walk before thee with all their heart: ¹⁵who hast kept with thy
servant David my father that which thou didst promise him: yea,
thou spakest with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with thine
hand, as it is this day.

¹ Or, _for_.

=13.= _Solomon had made a brasen scaffold_] This “scaffold” is not mentioned in 1 Kings. The word used (_kiyyōr_) properly means a “laver” (so iv. 6), and perhaps the simple emendation _kiyyūn_ = “platform” should be adopted.

¹⁶Now therefore, O LORD, the God of Israel, keep with thy
servant David my father that which thou hast promised him,
saying, There shall not fail thee¹ a man in my sight to sit on
the throne of Israel; if only thy children take heed to their
way, to walk in my law as thou hast walked before me. ¹⁷Now
therefore, O LORD, the God of Israel, let thy word be verified,
which thou spakest unto thy servant David.

¹ Hebrew _There shall not be cut off unto thee a man from my
sight._

=16.= _walk in my law_] In 1 Kings viii. 25, _walk before me_. The Chronicler characteristically introduces a reference to the Law of the Lord (the _tōrah_). In Samuel and Kings neither David nor Solomon ever mentions this.

¹⁸But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? behold,
heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much
less this house which I have builded!

=18.= _dwell with men_] The words, _with men_, are absent from the Hebrew text of 1 Kings, but appear in LXX. (A and B). Their presence helps to spiritualize the idea of God “dwelling on the earth.” The Peshitṭa (the Syriac translation of the Bible) still further limits the sense and translates: _cause his Shekinah to dwell with_ (al. _rest upon_) _his people Israel_.

¹⁹Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to
his supplication, O LORD my God, to hearken unto the cry and to
the prayer which thy servant prayeth before thee:

=19.= _prayer ... and ... supplication_] “Supplication” as distinguished from “prayer” is _prayer for favour_.

²⁰that thine eyes may be open toward this house day and night,
even toward the place whereof thou hast said that thou wouldest
put thy name there; to hearken unto the prayer which thy servant
shall pray toward this place.

=20.= _which thy servant shall pray_] Solomon refers in this verse to future prayers, not (as in verse 19) to the prayer he is now praying.

²¹And hearken thou to the supplications of thy servant, and of
thy people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place: yea,
hear thou from thy dwelling place, even from heaven; and when
thou hearest, forgive.

=21.= _from thy dwelling place, even from heaven_] Here, as in verse 18, Solomon refuses to regard the Temple as Jehovah’s “dwelling place.” Compare ii. 6.

²²If a man sin¹ against his neighbour, and an oath be laid
upon him to cause him to swear, and he come _and_ swear before
thine altar in this house: ²³then hear thou from heaven, and do,
and judge thy servants, requiting the wicked, to bring his way
upon his own head; and justifying the righteous, to give him
according to his righteousness.

¹ Or, _Whereinsoever a man shall sin_.

=22.= _and an oath be laid upon him_] Compare Exodus xxii. 11. When an accused man attests his innocence before the altar of the Temple either by invoking on himself a curse (the _oath of ordeal_) or by allowing the priest to invoke one upon him, then may Jehovah judge the matter, allowing the innocent to escape unharmed from the ordeal, and fulfilling the curse against the guilty!

²⁴And if thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy,
because they have sinned against thee; and shall turn again and
confess thy name, and pray and make supplication before thee in
this house: ²⁵then hear thou from heaven, and forgive the sin
of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land which
thou gavest to them and to their fathers. ²⁶When the heaven is
shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against
thee; if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and
turn from their sin, when¹ thou dost afflict² them: ²⁷then hear
thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy
people Israel, when² thou teachest them the good way wherein
they should walk; and send rain upon thy land, which thou hast
given to thy people for an inheritance.

¹ Or, _because_.

² Or, _answerest_.

=24.= _and shall turn again_] i.e. repent.

²⁸If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, if
there be blasting or mildew, locust or caterpiller; if their
enemies besiege them in the land of their cities¹; whatsoever
plague or whatsoever sickness there be; ²⁹what prayer and
supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people
Israel, which shall know every man his own plague and his own
sorrow, and shall spread forth his hands toward this house:
³⁰then hear thou from heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive,
and render unto every man according to all his ways, whose heart
thou knowest; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of
the children of men;) ³¹that they may fear thee, to walk in thy
ways, so long as they live in the land which thou gavest unto
our fathers.

¹ Hebrew _gates_.

=28.= _blasting_] The phrase applies to the damage to vegetation in Palestine which is caused by the winds that blow in from the deserts to the east and south (see Smith, _Historical Geography of the Holy Land_ p. 67). Such winds are spoken of as coming from the east (Genesis xli. 6; Hosea xiii. 15) or from the south (Luke xii. 55).

_caterpiller_] Rather some kind of locust; see Driver on Joel i. 4.

_in the land of their cities_] literally _in the land of their gates_. The text is probably corrupt: read either, =in any one of their cities= (compare LXX.), or, =by making a breach in their gates= (Hebrew _biphĕrōṣ_ for _b’ereṣ_).

_whatsoever plague_] “Plague” is used here in the general sense of _calamity_, as in the phrase, “The Ten Plagues of Egypt.”

³²Moreover concerning the stranger, that is not of thy people
Israel, when he shall come from a far country for thy great
name’s sake, and thy mighty hand, and thy stretched out arm;
when they shall come and pray toward this house: ³³then hear
thou from heaven, even from thy dwelling place, and do according
to all that the stranger calleth to thee for; that all the
peoples of the earth may know thy name, and fear thee, as doth
thy people Israel, and that they may know that this house¹ which
I have built is called by thy name. ³⁴If thy people go out to
battle against their enemies, by whatsoever way thou shalt send
them, and they pray unto thee toward this city which thou hast
chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name:

¹ Or, _thy name is called upon this house &c._

=32, 33.= Compare Isaiah lvi. 6 f. (also a post-exilic passage) where it is also said that the stranger must “keep the sabbath from profaning it and hold fast by my covenant” before he can hope to be heard by Jehovah.

³⁵then hear thou from heaven their prayer and their supplication,
and maintain their cause¹.

¹ Or, _right_.

=35.= _maintain their cause_] Render with margin, =maintain their right=.

³⁶If they sin against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth
not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy,
so that they carry them away captive¹ unto a land far off or
near; ³⁷yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land whither
they are carried captive, and turn again, and make supplication
unto thee in the land of their captivity, saying, We have sinned,
we have done perversely, and have dealt wickedly;

¹ Hebrew _they that take them captive carry them away_.

=36.= _there is no man that sinneth not_] Compare Ecclesiastes vii. 20.

³⁸if they return unto thee with all their heart and with all
their soul in the land of their captivity, whither they have
carried them captive, and pray toward their land, which thou
gavest unto their fathers, and the city which thou hast chosen,
and toward the house which I have built for thy name:

=38.= _if they return_] Compare Leviticus xxvi. 39‒41; Deuteronomy xxx. 1, 2 (passages anticipating captivity and also repentance in captivity).

³⁹then hear thou from heaven, even from thy dwelling place,
their prayer and their supplications, and maintain their cause¹;
and forgive thy people which have sinned against thee.

¹ Or, _right_.

=39.= _their cause_] Render with margin, =their right= (as in verse 35).

=40‒42= (no parallel in 1 Kings).
THE INVOCATION.

The end of the prayer in 1 Kings viii. 51‒53 is quite different, and less effective.

⁴⁰Now, O my God, let, I beseech thee, thine eyes be open; and
let thine ears be attent, unto the prayer that is made in this
place.

=40.= _attent_] i.e. attentive. Compare vii. 15 (the same English word for the same Hebrew word).

⁴¹Now 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 goodness¹.

¹ Or, _good_.

=41.= _Now therefore arise_] This whole verse corresponds (with some variation of reading) with verses 8, 9 of Psalm cxxxii. For the invocation to arise, compare Numbers x. 35, the ancient chant of the Ark.

_the ark of thy strength_] This appellation of the Ark refers to its use in war; compare 1 Samuel iv. 3, 6, 7.

_with salvation_] i.e. with victory. In Psalms cxxxii. 9, _with righteousness_. The thought in Chronicles and in Psalms cxxxii. is the same, for through victory the human victor receives _salvation_ (i.e. deliverance from the enemy), and the Divine Giver of victory asserts His _righteousness_ (i.e. by giving victory to the right).

_thy saints_] i.e. thy people Israel regarded as faithful worshippers of Jehovah; compare Psalms lxxix. 2, Psalms cxlix. 5. So in the New Testament the Christians as a body are spoken of as “saints” and “sanctified.”

_rejoice in goodness_] Render (with margin), =rejoice in good=, i.e. in prosperity. In Psalms cxxxii. 9, _shout for joy_.

⁴²O LORD God, turn not away the face of thine anointed; remember
the mercies¹ of David thy servant.

¹ Or, _good deeds_ See chapter xxxii. 32.

=42.= _turn not away_] Compare Psalms cxxxii. 10.

_remember the mercies of David_] i.e. _either_ show David’s son the mercies thou didst show to David himself (Isaiah lv. 3), _or_ (as margin), remember the good deeds, or “mercies” (so also xxxii. 32), which David did, and reward his son.