8 So Solomon kept the feast at that time for seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great meeting, for the people had come together from the way into Hamath and from as far as the river of Egypt.
Say to the children of Israel, On the fifteenth day of this seventh month let the feast of tents be kept to the Lord for seven days. On the first day there will be a holy meeting: do no field-work. Every day for seven days give an offering made by fire to the Lord; and on the eighth day there is to be a holy meeting, when you are to give an offering made by fire to the Lord; this is a special holy day: you may do no field-work on that day. These are the fixed feasts of the Lord, to be kept by you as holy days of worship, for making an offering by fire to the Lord; a burned offering, a meal offering, an offering of beasts, and drink offerings; every one on its special day; In addition to the Sabbaths of the Lord, and in addition to the things you give and the oaths you make and the free offerings to the Lord. But on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have got in all the fruits of the land, you will keep the feast of the Lord for seven days: the first day will be a Sabbath, and the eighth day the same. On the first day, take the fruit of fair trees, branches of palm-trees, and branches of thick trees and trees from the riverside, and be glad before the Lord for seven days. And let this feast be kept before the Lord for seven days in the year: it is a rule for ever from generation to generation; in the seventh month let it be kept. For seven days you will be living in tents; all those who are Israelites by birth are to make tents their living-places: So that future generations may keep in mind how I gave the children of Israel tents as their living-places when I took them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
And on the fifteenth day of the seventh month let there be a holy meeting; do no field-work, and keep a feast to the Lord for seven days; And give a burned offering, an offering made by fire of a sweet smell to the Lord, thirteen oxen, two male sheep, fourteen he-lambs of the first year, all without any mark on them; And their meal offering, the best meal mixed with oil, three tenth parts for every one of the thirteen oxen, two tenth parts for every male sheep, And a separate tenth part for every one of the fourteen lambs; And one he-goat for a sin-offering; in addition to the regular burned offering, and its meal offering, and its drink offering. On the second day of the feast give an offering of twelve oxen, two male sheep, fourteen he-lambs of the first year, without any mark on them; And their meal offering and their drink offerings for the oxen and the sheep and the lambs, in relation to their number, as it is ordered: And one he-goat for a sin-offering in addition to the regular burned offering, and its meal offering, and their drink offerings. And on the third day eleven oxen, two male sheep, fourteen he-lambs of the first year, without any mark; And their meal offering and drink offerings for the oxen, for the male sheep, and for the lambs, in relation to their number, as it is ordered: And one he-goat for a sin-offering; in addition to the regular burned offering, and its meal offering, and its drink offering. And on the fourth day ten oxen, two male sheep, fourteen he-lambs of the first year, without any mark: And their meal offering and their drink offerings for the oxen, for the male sheep, and for the lambs, in relation to their number, as it is ordered. And one he-goat for a sin-offering; in addition to the regular burned offering, and its meal offering, and its drink offering. And on the fifth day nine oxen, two male sheep, fourteen he-lambs of the first year, without any mark: And their meal offering and their drink offerings for the oxen, for the male sheep, and for the lambs, in relation to their number, as it is ordered: And one he-goat for a sin-offering; in addition to the regular burned offering, and its meal offering, and its drink offering. And on the sixth day eight oxen, two male sheep, fourteen he-lambs of the first year, without any mark: And their meal offering and their drink offerings for the oxen, for the male sheep, and for the lambs, in relation to their number, as it is ordered: And one he-goat for a sin-offering; in addition to the regular burned offering, its meal offering, and its drink offerings. And on the seventh day seven oxen, two male sheep, fourteen he-lambs of the first year, without any mark: And their meal offering and their drink offerings for the oxen, for the male sheep, and for the lambs, in relation to their number, as it is ordered: And one he-goat for a sin-offering; in addition to the regular burned offering, its meal offering, and its drink offering. On the eighth day let there be a holy meeting: you may do no field-work; And give a burned offering, an offering made by fire of a sweet smell to the Lord: one ox, one male sheep, seven he-lambs of the first year, without any mark: With the meal offering and the drink offerings for the ox, the male sheep, and the lambs, in relation to their number, as it is ordered: And one he-goat for a sin-offering; in addition to the regular burned offering, and its meal offering, and its drink offering.
And from Azmon it will go round to the stream of Egypt as far as the sea. And for your limit on the west you will have the Great Sea and its edge: this will be your limit on the west. And your limit on the north will be the line from the Great Sea to Mount Hor: And from Mount Hor the line will go in the direction of Hamath; the farthest point of it will be at Zedad:
You are to keep the feast of tents for seven days after you have got in all your grain and made your wine: You are to keep the feast with joy, you and your son and your daughter, your man-servant and your woman-servant, and the Levite, and the man from a strange country, and the child without a father, and the widow, who are living among you. Keep the feast to the Lord your God for seven days, in the place marked out by the Lord: because the blessing of the Lord your God will be on all the produce of your land and all the work of your hands, and you will have nothing but joy.
From the Shihor, which is before Egypt, to the edge of Ekron to the north, which is taken to be Canaanite property: the five chiefs of the Philistines; the Gazites, and the Ashdodites, the Ashkelonites, the Gittites, and the Ekronites, as well as the Avvim; On the south: all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah which is the property of the Zidonians, to Aphek, as far as the limit of the Amorites: And the land of the Gebalites, and all Lebanon, looking east, from Baal-gad under Mount Hermon as far as Hamath:
And Solomon was ruler over all the kingdoms from the River to the land of the Philistines, and as far as the edge of Egypt; men gave him offerings and were his servants all the days of his life. And the amount of Solomon's food for one day was thirty measures of crushed grain and sixty measures of meal; Ten fat oxen and twenty oxen from the fields, and a hundred sheep, in addition to harts and gazelles and roes and fat fowls. For he had authority over all the country on this side of the River, from Tiphsah to Gaza, over all the kings on this side of the River; and he had peace round him on every side. So Judah and Israel were living safely, every man under his vine and his fig-tree, from Dan as far as Beer-sheba, all the days of Solomon.
And on the second day the heads of families of all the people and the priests and the Levites came together to Ezra the scribe, to give attention to the words of the law. And they saw that it was recorded in the law that the Lord had given orders by Moses, that the children of Israel were to have tents for their living-places in the feast of the seventh month: And that they were to give out an order, and make it public in all their towns and in Jerusalem, saying, Go out to the mountain and get olive branches and branches of field olives and of myrtle, and palm branches and branches of thick trees, to make tents, as it says in the book. And the people went out and got them and made themselves tents, every one on the roof of his house, and in the open spaces and in the open squares of the house of God, and in the wide place of the water-doorway, and the wide place of the doorway of Ephraim. All the people who had been prisoners and had come back, made tents and were living in them: for from the time of Jeshua, the son of Nun, till that day, the children of Israel had not done so. And there was very great joy. And day by day, from the first day till the last, he was reading from the book of the law of God. And they kept the feast for seven days: and on the eighth day there was a holy meeting, as it is ordered in the law.
And it will come about that everyone who is still living, of all those nations who came against Jerusalem, will go up from year to year to give worship to the King, the Lord of armies, and to keep the feast of tents. And it will be that if any one of all the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to give worship to the King, the Lord of armies, on them there will be no rain. And if the family of Egypt does not go up or come there, they will be attacked by the disease which the Lord will send on the nations: This will be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all the nations who do not go up to keep the feast of tents.
However, it is clear to us where this man comes from: but when the Christ comes no one will have knowledge where he comes from. Then, when he was teaching in the Temple, Jesus said with a loud voice, You have knowledge of me and you have knowledge of where I come from; and I have not come of myself; but there is One who has sent me; he is true, but you have no knowledge of him. I have knowledge of him because I came from him and he sent me. Then they had a desire to take him: but no man put hands on him because his hour was still to come. And numbers of the people had belief in him, and they said, When the Christ comes will he do more signs than this man has done? This discussion of the people came to the ears of the Pharisees; and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent servants to take him. Then Jesus said, I will be with you a little longer and then I go to him who sent me. You will be looking for me, and you will not see me: and where I am you may not come. So the Jews said among themselves, To what place is he going where we will not see him? will he go to the Jews living among the Greeks and become the teacher of the Greeks? What is this saying of his, You will be looking for me and will not see me, and where I am you may not come? On the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus got up and said in a loud voice, If any man is in need of drink let him come to me and I will give it to him. He who has faith in me, out of his body, as the Writings have said, will come rivers of living water. This he said of the Spirit which would be given to those who had faith in him: the Spirit had not been given then, because the glory of Jesus was still to come.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on 2 Chronicles 7
Commentary on 2 Chronicles 7 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
The divine confirmation of the dedication of the temple . - 2 Chronicles 7:1-10. The consecration of the sacrificial service by fire from heaven (2 Chronicles 7:1-3), and the sacrifices and festival of the people (2 Chronicles 7:4-10).
2 Chronicles 7:1-3
At the conclusion of Solomon's prayer there fell fire from heaven, which devoured the burnt-offering and the thank-offering, and the glory of the Lord filled the house, so that the priests could not enter the house of Jahve. The assembled congregation, when they saw the fire and the glory of the Lord descend, bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement, and worshipped God to praise. Now since this narrative is not found in 1 Kings 8:54., and there a speech of Solomon to the whole congregation, in which he thanks God for the fulfilment of His promise, and expresses the desire that the Lord would hear his prayers at all times, and bestow the promised salvation on the people, is communicated, modern criticism has rejected this narrative of the Chronicle as a later unhistorical embellishment of the temple dedication. “If we turn our attention,” says Berth. in agreement with Then., “to 2 Chronicles 5:11-14, and compare 2 Chronicles 5:14 with our second verse, we must maintain that our historian found that there existed two different narratives of the proceedings at the dedication of the temple, and received both into his work. According to the one narrative, the clouds filled the house (1 Kings 8:10, cf. 2 Chronicles 5:11-14); and after this was done Solomon uttered the prayer, with the conclusion which we find in 1 Kings 8; according to the other narrative, Solomon uttered the prayer, with the conclusion which we find in Chron., and God thereafter gave the confirmatory signs. Now we can hardly imagine that the course of events was, that the glory of Jahve filled the house (2 Chronicles 5:14); that then Solomon spoke the words and the prayer in 2 Chron 6; that while he uttered the prayer the glory of Jahve again left the house, and then came down in a way manifest to all the people (2 Chronicles 7:3), in order to fill the house for a second time.” Certainly it was not so; but the narrative itself gives no ground for any such representation. Not a word is said in the text of the glory of Jahve having left the temple during Solomon's prayer. The supposed contradiction between 2 Chronicles 5:14 and the account in 2 Chronicles 7:1-3 is founded entirely on a misinterpretation of our verse. The course of events described here was, as the words run, this: Fire came down from heaven upon the sacrifices and devoured them, and the glory of the Lord filled the house; and this is in 2 Chronicles 7:3 more exactly and precisely repeated by the statement that the people saw the fire and the glory of Jahve descend upon the house. According to these plain words, the glory of Jahve descended upon the temple in the fire which came down from heaven. In the heavenly fire which devoured the sacrifices, the assembled congregation saw the glory of the Lord descend upon the temple and fill it. But the filling of the temple by the cloud when the ark was brought in and set in its place (2 Chronicles 5:13) can be without difficulty reconciled with this manifestation of the divine glory in the fire. Just as the manifestation of the gracious divine presence in the temple by a cloud, as its visible vehicle, does not exclude the omnipresence of God or His sitting enthroned in heaven, God's essence not being so confined to the visible vehicle of His gracious presence among His people that He ceases thereby to be enthroned in heaven, and to manifest Himself therefrom; so the revelation of the same God from heaven by a descending fire is not excluded or set aside by the presence of the cloud in the holy place of the temple, and in the most holy. We may consequently quite well represent to ourselves the course of events, by supposing, that while the gracious presence of God enthroned above the cherubim on the ark made itself known in the cloud which filled the temple, or while the cloud filled the interior of the temple, God revealed His glory from heaven, before the eyes of the assembled congregation, in the fire which descended upon the sacrifices, so that the temple was covered or overshadowed by His glory. The parts of this double manifestation of the divine glory are clearly distinguished even in our narrative; for in 2 Chronicles 5:13-14 the cloud which filled the house, as vehicle of the manifestation of the divine glory, and which hindered the priests from standing and serving (in the house, i.e., in the holy place and the most holy), is spoken of; while in our verses, again, it is the glory of God which descended upon the temple in the fire coming down from heaven on the sacrifices, and so filled it that the priests could not enter it, which is noticed.
Since, therefore, the two passages involve no contradiction, the hypothesis of a compounding together of discrepant narratives loses all standing ground; and it only remains to determine the mutual relations of the two narratives, and to answer the question, why the author of the book of Kings has omitted the account of the fire which came down from heaven upon the sacrifices, and the author of the Chronicle the blessing of the congregation (1 Kings 8:54-61). From the whole plan and character of the two histories, there can be no doubt that in these accounts we have not a perfect enumeration of all the different occurrences, but only a record of the chief things which were done. The authority made use of by both, however, doubtless contained both the blessing of the congregation (1 Kings 8:55-61) and the account of the fire which devoured the sacrifices (2 Chronicles 7:2-3); and probably the latter preceded the blessing spoken by Solomon to the congregation (Kings). In all probability, the fire dame down from heaven immediately after the conclusion of the dedicatory prayer, and devoured the sacrifices lying upon the altar of burnt-offering; and after this had happened, Solomon turned towards the assembled congregation and praised the Lord, because He had given rest to His people, of which the completion of the temple, and the filling of it with the cloud of the divine glory, was a pledge. To record this speech of Solomon to the congregation, falls wholly in with the plan of the book of Kings, in which the prophetic interest, the realization of the divine purpose of grace by the acts and omissions of the kings, is the prominent one; while it did not lie within the scope of his purpose to enter upon a detailed history of the public worship. We should be justified in expecting the fire which devoured the sacrifices to be mentioned in the book of Kings, only if the temple had been first consecrated by this divine act to be the dwelling-place of the gracious presence of God, or a sanctuary of the Lord; but such significance the devouring of the sacrifices by fire coming forth from God did not possess. Jahve consecrated the temple to be the dwelling-place of His name, and the abode of His gracious presence, in proclaiming His presence by the cloud which filled the sanctuary, when the ark was brought into the most holy place. The devouring of the sacrifices upon the altar by fire from heaven was merely the confirmatory sign that the Lord, enthroned above the ark in the temple, accepted, well pleased, the sacrificial service carried on on the altar of this temple; and since the people could draw near to the Lord only with sacrifices before the altar, it was a confirmatory sign that He from His throne would bestow His covenant grace upon those who appeared before him with sacrifices; cf. Leviticus 9:23. Implicitly, this grace was already secured to the people by God's consecrating the sanctuary to be the throne of His grace by the cloud which filled the temple; and the author of the book of Kings thought it sufficient to mention this sign, and passed over the second, which only served as a confirmation of the first. With the chronicler the case was different; for his plan to portray in detail the glory of the worship of the former time, the divine confirmation of the sacrificial worship, which was to be carried on continually in the temple as the only legitimate place of worship, by fire from heaven, was so important that he could not leave it unmentioned; while the words of blessing spoken by Solomon to the congregation, as being already implicitly contained in the dedicatory prayer, did not appear important enough to be received into his book. For the rest, the sacrifices which the fire from heaven devoured are the sacrifices mentioned in 2 Chronicles 5:6, which the king and the congregation had offered when the ark was borne into the temple. As there was an immense number of these sacrifices, they cannot all have been offered on the altar of burnt-offering, but, like the thank-offerings afterwards brought by Solomon and the congregation, must have been offered on the whole space which had been consecrated in the court for this purpose (2 Chronicles 7:7). This is expressly attested by 2 Chronicles 7:7, for the העלות can only be the sacrifices in 2 Chronicles 5:6, since the sacrifices in 2 Chronicles 7:5 of our chapter were only שׁלמים ; cf. 1 Kings 8:62.
2 Chronicles 7:4-6
The sacrifices and the festival. After fire from heaven had devoured the sacrifices, and Solomon had praised the Lord for the fulfilment of His word, and sought for the congregation the further bestowal of the divine blessing (1 Kings 8:54-61), the dedication of the temple was concluded by a great thank-offering, of which we have in 2 Chronicles 7:5, 2 Chronicles 7:6 an account which completely agrees with 1 Kings 8:62-63. - In 2 Chronicles 7:6 the author of the Chr. again makes express mention of the singing and playing of the Levites when these offerings were presented. In the performance of this sacrificial act the priests stood על־משׁמרותם , in their stations; but that does not signify separated according to their divisions (Berth.), but in officiis suis (Vulg.), i.e., ordines suos et functiones suas a Davide 1 Chron. 2 Chronicles 24:7. institutas servarunt (Ramb.); see on Numbers 8:26. The Levites with the instruments of song of Jahve, which David had made, i.e., with the instruments invented and appointed by David for song to the praise of the Lord. בּידם דויד בּהלּל , not hymnos David canentes per manus suas (Vulg.), taking דויד הלּל for the praising appointed by David, which by the hands of the Levites, i.e., was performed by the hands of the Levites (Berth.), but literally: when David sang praise by their hand (i.e., their service). This clause seems to be added to the relative clause, “which king David had made,” for nearer definition, and to signify that the Levites used the same instruments which David had introduced when he praised God by the playing of the Levites. The form מחצצרים as in 1 Chronicles 15:24.
2 Chronicles 7:7-10
2 Chronicles 7:7 contains a supplementary remark, and the ו relat. expresses only the connection of the thought, and the verb is to be translated in English by the pluperfect. For the rest, compare on 2 Chronicles 7:4-10 the commentary on 1 Kings 8:62-66.
2 Chronicles 7:11-22
The Lord's answer to Solomon's dedicatory prayer. Cf. 1 Kings 9:1-9. The general contents, and the order of the thoughts in the divine answer in the two texts, agree, but in the Chronicle individual thoughts are further expounded than in the book of Kings, and expressions are here and there made clear. The second clause of 2 Chronicles 7:11 is an instance of this, where “and all the desire of Solomon, which he was pleased to do,” is represented by “and all that came into Solomon's heart, to make in the house of the Lord and in his own house, he prosperously effected.” Everything else is explained in the Com. on 1 Kings 9.