3 And all the elders of Israel came; and the priests took up the ark.
And Moses wrote this law, and delivered it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who bore the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, and to all the elders of Israel.
And Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, Take up the ark of the covenant, and go over before the people. And they took up the ark of the covenant, and went before the people.
And when Aaron and his sons have ended covering the sanctuary, and all the utensils of the sanctuary, when the camp setteth forward, then afterwards the sons of Kohath shall come to carry it; but they shall not touch the holy things, lest they die. This is what the sons of Kohath have to carry in the tent of meeting.
and they commanded the people, saying, When ye see the ark of the covenant of Jehovah your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then remove from your place, and go after it;
But unto the sons of Kohath he gave none, for the service of the sanctuary was upon them: they bore [what they carried] upon the shoulder.
And it came to pass when the people removed from their tents, to pass over the Jordan, that the priests bearing the ark of the covenant were before the people; and when they that bore the ark were come to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water (and the Jordan is full over all its banks throughout the days of harvest),
And twelve stones did Joshua set up in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests who bore the ark of the covenant had stood firm; and they are there to this day.
And Joshua the son of Nun called the priests, and said to them, Carry the ark of the covenant, and seven priests shall carry seven blast-trumpets before the ark of Jehovah.
And David called for Zadok and Abiathar the priests, and for the Levites, for Uriel, Asaiah, and Joel, Shemaiah, and Eliel, and Amminadab; and he said to them, Ye are the chief fathers of the Levites; hallow yourselves, ye and your brethren, that ye may bring up the ark of Jehovah the God of Israel to [the place that] I have prepared for it. For because ye did [it] not at the first, Jehovah our God made a breach upon us, for that we sought him not after the due order. So the priests and the Levites hallowed themselves to bring up the ark of Jehovah the God of Israel. And the children of the Levites bore the ark of God upon their shoulders with the staves upon them, as Moses had commanded according to the word of Jehovah.
And they brought up the ark, and the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the tent: the priests, the Levites, brought them up. And king Solomon, and all the assembly of Israel, that were assembled to him before the ark, sacrificed sheep and oxen which could not be counted nor numbered for multitude. And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of Jehovah to its place, into the oracle of the house, into the most holy place, under the wings of the cherubim; and the cherubim stretched forth [their] wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim covered the ark and its staves above.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on 1 Kings 8
Commentary on 1 Kings 8 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 8
The building and furniture of the temple were very glorious, but the dedication of it exceeds in glory as much as prayer and praise, the work of saints, exceed the casting of metal and the graving of stones, the work of the craftsman. The temple was designed for the keeping up of the correspondence between God and his people; and here we have an account of the solemnity of their first meeting there.
1Ki 8:1-11
The temple, though richly beautified, yet while it was without the ark was like a body without a soul, or a candlestick without a candle, or (to speak more properly) a house without an inhabitant. All the cost and pains bestowed on this stately structure are lost if God do not accept them; and, unless he please to own it as the place where he will record his name, it is after all but a ruinous heap. When therefore all the work is ended (ch. 7:51), the one thing needful is yet behind, and that is the bringing in of the ark. This therefore is the end which must crown the work, and which here we have an account of the doing of with great solemnity.
1Ki 8:12-21
Here,
1Ki 8:22-53
Solomon having made a general surrender of this house to God, which God had signified his acceptance of by taking possession, next follows Solomon's prayer, in which he makes a more particular declaration of the uses of that surrender, with all humility and reverence, desiring that God would agree thereto. 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. 56:7, compared with Mt. 21:13. Therefore Solomon opened this house, not only with an extraordinary sacrifice, but with an extraordinary prayer.
1Ki 8:54-61
Solomon, after his sermon in Ecclesiastes, gives us the conclusion of the whole matter; so he does here, after this long prayer; it is called his blessing the people, v. 55. He pronounced it standing, that he might be the better heard, and because he blessed as one having authority. Never were words more fitly spoken, nor more pertinently. Never was congregation dismissed with that which was more likely to affect them and abide with them.
1Ki 8:62-66
We read before that Judah and Israel were eating and drinking, and very cheerful under their own vines and fig-trees; here we have them so in God's courts. Now they found Solomon's words true concerning Wisdom's ways, that they are ways of pleasantness.