1 Kings 8

Notes on the verses

Chap. VIII. Ver. 1. Solomon assembled.—(This did not take place, according to Archbishop Usher, till the year after the temple was finished, because th; was ajubilee. “ The sth day of the 7th month, viz. the 30th of our ré), being Friday, was the first of the seven days of dedication; the 10th day, Saturday, November 1, was the fast of expiation, or atonement, held; whereon, according to the Levitical law, the jubilee was proclaimed by sound or trumpet. The 15th day, Friday, was the feast of tabernacles, which was always very solemnly kept; and the day following, November 14, being our Saturday, when the Sabbath was ended, the people returned home.” ]—B. Ver. 6. Under the wings, &c.—That is, the ark, with all its appurtenances, the cherubs of og gold, &c.

were placed under the wings of the gigantic cherebim formed by Solomon. The tabernacle, now done with, was probably stuwed away in some partofthetemple. = i Ver. 8. The staves were seen out.—That is, the staves (which were much like those of a sedan chair) were so far pulled out as to jut against the vail, so that it might be seen without that they were there, though the staves themselves could not be seen.—There they are unto this day.—That is, when this book, or at least this part of it, was written, whiclfwas certainly before the captivity. _Ver.9. There was nothing in the ark save the two tables.—Not at this time; but there may have been, either before or afterwards. And does not this expression seem to intimate, that there was something now missing?

It seems very possible, that these sacred relics may have been purloined eith. by the Philistines, or the men of Beth-shemesh, when they looked into the ~ ark; and if so, this may help to account for the judgments, wherewith they were visited. aay. Ver. 16. That my name might be therein.—In the parallel place of Chroni cles, the following words are inserted; ‘ Neither chose any man to be a ruler over my people Israel; but I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there, and have chosen David,” &c. This shows that the compilers of the books of Kings and. Chronicles did not use altogether the same documents; or else we must suppose that these words have been accidentally omitted. The addition, however, seems required to complete the sense.

the law, the ten commands, Ver. 21. Wherein is the covenant.—Namely, “Tam the Lord thy God,” &c. which begins with a recital of the covenant; See ver. 9. Ver. 22. Solomon stood.—It appears from the parallel history, (2 Chronicles 6:13). that Solomon had raised a brazen scaffold, five cubits square, en which he fowt stood, and then kneeled in prayer 2 er. 31. If any man, &c.—[{Solomon here puts seven cases, in all of which the mercy and intervention of God would be indispensably requisite; and he earnestly bespeaks that mercy and intervention, on condition the people pray towards that holy place;_and with a feeling heart, make earnest supplication to the throne of mercy. ]—Bagster. ® cause. 46 If they sin against thee, (for ‘ thereis no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away £ captives unto the land of the enemy, far or near; 47 Yet if they shall » bethink themselves in the land whither they were carried captives, und repent, and make supplication unto thee in the land of them that carried them captives, i saying, We have sinned, and have done perversely, we have committed wickedness; 48 And so return j unto thee with all their heart, and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies, which led them away captive, and pray unto thee toward * their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, the city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name: thy people Israel,, which shall know every man the plague > and shall be sensible that his or their sins of his own heart, have brought on them such affliction his hands toward this house; then i dwelling-place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest:”’ that is, ardon their sin, and remove their punishment.

The 5th prayer is on behalf of the Gentile proselyte, for whom the Jewish king implores the same blessings as for native Israelites. The 6th caseis that of Israel being sent to war against their foreign enemies, as the Canaanites; and it is observable, that itis only in the supposition of their being attacked by, or sent to war against, their enemies, that Solomon dares to pray for a blessing on their arms. The last circumstance supposed is, that of Peet tas: 92S oa Oe es eee Ver. 37. In the land of their cities.—The expression evidently refers to their fortified towns on the confines of their land.;,: Ver. 44. If thy people pray… - towards this city,—i. e. looking towards it. This was practised many ages afterwards; for Adrian made a deeree that a Jew aight not even look toward Jerusalem.

The Turks pray with their faces toward their holy city, Mecca. ¥;; Ver. 46. If they sin, &c.—(The second clause of this verse, as it here is translated renders this supposition. in the first clause entirely nugatory; for, ments, which he commanded our fathers. o De.4.20. Je. 11.4. 59 And let these my words, wherewith I have made supplication before the Lord, be nigh unto the Lord our God day and night, that he maintain the cause of his servant, and the r Jos.23.14. cause of his people Israel » at all times, as the 8 fallen. matter shall require: t De.12.10, 60 That *all the people of the earth may know that ¥ the Lord is God, and that there is u De.31.6. none else. y Ps.119.36. 61 Let your heart therefore be * perfect with — w the thing the Lord our God, to walk in his statutes, and of a day in his day, to keep his commandments, as at this day.

x Jos.4.24. 62 J And ®*the king, and all Israel with him, offered sacrifice before the Lord.: 63 And Solomon offered a sacrifice of peacey Ege zt De.18.13. offerings, which he offered unto the Lord, two and twenty thousand oxen, and a huna 2 Ch.7.4, dred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king their being carried into captivity for their sins; in which case he pleads for pardon on their repentance, and that the Lord would give them favour in the sight of their enemies. ~: then, if he “spread forth dilated, yet requires two or This subject, already too mand hear thou in heaven thy three farther practical remarks. ma 1. We have here a full confession that all our afflictions, national as well as personal, originate in our transgressions, from which no man, much less any nation, is altogether clear, for “‘ there is no man that sinneth not.”

2. That penitence and prayer are the proper means whereby to seek deliverance from punishment. As “every man shall know the plague of his own heart,” so will he “ sprea forth his hands in prayer,” and supplicate the divine mercy.” 3. That the same pleas that were used by every pious Israelite, are still available on behalf of every true Christian; namely, if there be no man that sinneth not, it is useless to say IF they sin; but this contradiction is removed by rendering the original, “If they shall sin against that, o yechetai, may not sin;) 1. e. there is vo man thee,”’ (for there is no man: impeccable or infallible; none that is not liable to transgress. ]—Bags’er. Ver. 59. Let these my words.—(This and the following verse are a sort of and there is an important addition to this prayer supplement to the prayer; I in (2 Chronicles 6:41-42). apparently taken from one of the Psalms.}—Bagster. unto the Lord, twoand twenty thow- Ver. 63. Solomon offered sand oxen, (cattle,) and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep.—That is during the fourteen days of the assembly.; If it be asked, where could all these come from, it may be remarked, that there are sometimes on a Monday, in Smithfield, (London,) five thousand cattle, and twenty thousand sheep; and these cattle (as above remarked) were as well for food as sacrifice, Ver. 64. Did the king hallow the middle of the court—The altar of burntofferings not being sufficient, a temporary altar appears to have heen erected in the open court. Ver. 66. Eighth day sent the people away.—{In the parallel passage of Chronicles, this is termed ‘‘ the three and twentieth day of the seventh month,”

that is, the ninth day of the dedication: which Jarchi reconciles by supposing that Solomon gave them leave to return on the eighth day, and many of them did then return; and that he dismissed the remainder on the ninth, or 23d of the seventh month: see note on ver. 1.]—Bagster. Chap. 1X. Ver. 1. When _ 1X en Solomon had jinished, &c.—As we know that these buildings had occupied Solomon 12 years after the dedication of the temble, it iz unnatural to suppose that this answer to his prayer was deferred for such a length of time. Some judicious commentators (among whom is Scott) give therefore a somewhat different rendering to the two first verses: “‘ And it was that thus Solomon 0 finished the building, &c.

And the Lord appeared,” &e. Which perfectly corresponds with (2 Chronicles 7:11-12). and does no violence to the Hebrew; Caph is often rendered “thus;” and the vaw which commences ver. 2. and usually rendered “‘ and,” is here used for a grammatical reason, and not to connect two events which were probably several apart; the answer being given long before Solomon had finished all his build- Ver. 10. At the end of twenty years.—This confirms the preceding remark, as it seems to connect with the first. verse, and leaves the intervening narrative. of the divine appearance, a kind of parenthesis. Ver. 13. Cabul.—See Margin. says that Cabuwl, in the Phenician language, signifies displeasing; and that these cities were situated in the ada tboans are persuaded that the city Cabui in the tribe of Asher was one; and sepbeely from this Hiram took occasion to give this name to all the other cities whic Solomon had ceded to him.

(Joshua 19:27). J—Bag: Ver. 15. And Millo.—This is supposed to have been a dee between Sihon and Jebus, which Solomon filled up by a wall, and erected on it a fort (so the LXX. render it) witha. tion, and for holding councils. ” Z Hazor in Naphtali, and the famous eapital of Jabin, situated on Merom or Semechon, and placed by Josephus south of ‘Tyre, near Ptolemais. ] Ver. 16. Pharaoh.: L had long before taken from the Canaanites; ((Joshua 10:33).) but they seem to Parkhurst, ‘‘ Nothing worth.” [Josephus ood of Tyre. Most commentatore te, probably to form a See Ca t. —Hazor.—[ Prob;. had taken Gezer (or Gaza.)—This city Joshua narrow valley, the city the lake: r 00 ee A city burnt, have recovered it, and kept possession to the time of Solomon.

however, and its inhabitants slaughtered, seems to have been but a sorry portion fur a king’s daughter; but such was the barbarism of the times. Ver. 18. Tadmor in the wilderness, in the land.—In what, land? the land of Zobah, says Dr. Boothroyd, referring to (2 Chronicles 8:3). which, we suppose, Hamath, to which Solomon extended his conmeans a port of Syria, south o guests. This Tadmor d; or, (or Tamar,) the city of Palms, is menraly understood, ay: some of to be Palmyra, of which there are most splendid remains to this though others furthem, possibly, may be as ancient as the time of Solomon, Palmyra stood upon a nish the finest specimens of Grecian architecture. fertile plain, surrounded by a barren desert, having the river Euphrates on i Dawkes and Wood, of which east.

The ruins are well described by Messrs. they give fine representations. They are also well described in the ancient part “The world never of the Universal History. ‘The description concludes thus; saw a more glorious city; a city not more remarkable for its stately buildings, than for the extraordinary personages who once flourished there; among no thay the renowned Zenobia, and the incomparable Longinus, must for ever be remembered with admiration and regret.” Ver, 22. Of the children of Israel did Solomon make no bondmen.—When Sesostris, king of Egypt, returned from his wars, he caused temples to be built e but did not employ one Egyptian in the work: in all the cities of Egypt, having builded the whole by the hands of the captives which he had taken in to be placed upon each temple: his wars.

Hence he caused this inscription * No native has laboured in these.”… five hundred and JSifty.— y two hundred and fifty; but in a former part of Ver. 23. These are the olidag of the officers.. ((1 Kings 5:16).) we read of three thousand three hundred. This larger oo. viii. 10. mentions on etty officers, employed to keep the people to labour: number, perhaps, were Some. think that were probably superior officers. the five hundred and fi be occasioned by the mistake of a numeral, the difference in Chronicles may letter; others, that the two handred and fifty were the superintendents of those who laboured in the building, while the five hundred and fifty included also the superintendents over those who laboured in the quarries, &c.

“a ship,” (Onis) but in 2 Chron. viii. Ver. 26. A navy of ships.—Literally, ‘“ships,”? but it is not said that 18. it is said that Hiram sent him (anioth) was chiefly manned by ‘Tyrians, Solomon built more than one ship, and that ver. 27.. Ver. 28. They came to Ophir.—Moses mentions country so named from But this probably was not the country Ophir the son of Joktan, (Genesis 10:29). orove that this There are several reasons (says Dr. Clarke) to here intended. i 5 by Solomon’s was not the Ophir of the Bible; (he means, not the place visitec a voyage of three years? fleet;) which it seems was so situated as to require Bruce has discussed the subject at great long, to go out, load, and return. that Ezion-geber is situated on the Blanitic He endeavours to prove, length.

i branch of the Arabian gulf, or Red sea. 2. That Tarshish is Moka, naa to Melinda, in the Indian ocean, in about three degrees south latitude. 3. Ophir lies somewhere in the land of Sofala, or in the vicinity of the Zambeze river, opposite the island of Madagascar, where therehave been gold and silver And he proves, 4. That mines in great abundance, from the remotest antiquity. l no vessel could perform this voyage in less than three pone because of the and that this is the precise monsoons; that more time need not be employed; 5. That this is the country of the queen of time mentioned, (1 Kings 10:22). \ Sheba, or Sabia, (or Azeba,) who,. on her visit to Solomon, brought him one and of spices and precious stones great hundred and twene talents of gold; And that gold, ivory, silver, é&c.

are the natural productions of store, ver. 10. this country.