The books of Chronicles

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

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.

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;

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.

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.

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.

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.