1 Then said Solomon: Jehovah said that he would dwell in the thick darkness.
And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near to the obscurity where God was.
Then said Solomon: Jehovah said that he would dwell in the thick darkness. I have indeed built a house of habitation for thee, a settled place for thee to abide in for ever. And the king turned his face, and blessed the whole congregation of Israel; and the whole congregation of Israel stood. And he said: Blessed be Jehovah the God of Israel, who spoke with his mouth unto David my father, and hath with his hand fulfilled it, saying, Since the day that I brought forth my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build a house in, that my name might be there; but I have chosen David to be over my people Israel. And it was in the heart of David my father to build a house unto the name of Jehovah the God of Israel. But Jehovah said to David my father, Whereas it was in thy heart to build a house unto my name, thou didst well that it was in thy heart; nevertheless thou shalt not build the house; but thy son that shall come forth out of thy loins, he shall build the house unto my name. And Jehovah has performed his word which he spoke; and I am risen up in the room of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as Jehovah promised, and I have built the house unto the name of Jehovah the God of Israel. And I have set there a place for the ark, wherein is the covenant of Jehovah, which he made with our fathers when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. And Solomon stood before the altar of Jehovah in the presence of the whole congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward the heavens. And he said, Jehovah, God of Israel! there is no God like thee, in the heavens above, or on the earth beneath, who keepest covenant and mercy with thy servants that walk before thee with all their heart; who hast kept with thy servant David my father that which thou didst promise him; thou spokest with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled [it] with thy hand, as at this day. And now, Jehovah, God of Israel, keep with thy servant David my father that which thou hast promised him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel, if only thy sons take heed to their way, to walk before me as thou hast walked before me. And now, O God of Israel, let thy words, I pray thee, be verified, which thou hast spoken unto thy servant David my father. But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heavens, and the heaven of heavens, cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have built! Yet have respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, Jehovah, my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer which thy servant prayeth before thee this day; that thine eyes may be open upon this house night and day, upon the place of which thou hast said, My name shall be there: to hearken unto the prayer which thy servant prayeth toward this place. And hearken unto the supplication of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place, and hear thou in thy dwelling-place, in the heavens, and when thou hearest, forgive. If a man have sinned against his neighbour, and an oath be laid upon him to adjure him, and the oath come before thine altar in this house; then hear thou in the heavens, and do, and judge thy servants, condemning the wicked, to bring his way upon his own head; and justifying the righteous, giving him according to his righteousness. When thy people Israel are put to the worse before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee, and shall turn again to thee, and confess thy name, and pray, and make supplication unto thee in this house; then hear thou in the heavens, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land that thou gavest unto their fathers. When the heavens are 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, because thou hast afflicted them; then hear thou in the heavens, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, when thou teachest them the good way wherein they should walk; and give rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance. If there be famine in the land, if there be pestilence, if there be blight, mildew, locust, caterpillar; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their gates; whatever plague, whatever sickness there be: what prayer, what supplication soever be made by any man, of all thy people Israel, when they shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and shall spread forth his hands toward this house; then hear thou in the heavens, the settled place of thy dwelling, and forgive, and do, and render unto every man according to all his ways, whose heart thou knowest (for thou, thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men), that they may fear thee all the days that they live upon the land which thou gavest unto our fathers. And as to the stranger also, who is not of thy people Israel, but cometh out of a far country for thy name's sake (for they shall hear of thy great name, and of thy mighty hand, and of thy stretched-out arm); when he shall come and pray toward this house, hear thou in the heavens thy dwelling-place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for; in order that all peoples of the earth may know thy name, [and] that they may fear thee as do thy people Israel; and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by thy name. If thy people go out to battle against their enemy, by the way that thou shalt send them, and they pray to Jehovah toward the city that thou hast chosen, and the house that I have built unto thy name; then hear thou in the heavens their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their right. If they have sinned against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and give them up to the enemy, and they have carried them away captives unto the enemy's land, far or near; and if they shall take it to heart in the land whither they were carried captive, and repent, and make supplication unto thee in the land of them that carried them captive, saying, We have sinned, and have done iniquity, we have dealt perversely; and if they return unto thee with all their heart and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies who led them away captive, and pray unto thee toward their land which thou gavest unto their fathers, the city that thou hast chosen, and the house that I have built unto thy name; then hear thou in the heavens, the settled place of thy dwelling, their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their right; and forgive thy people their sin against thee, and all their transgressions whereby they have transgressed against thee, and give them to find compassion with those who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them
And Moses went up to the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. And the glory of Jehovah abode on mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days; and on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. And the appearance of the glory of Jehovah was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain, before the eyes of the children of Israel. And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and ascended the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
and Jehovah said to Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the sanctuary inside the veil before the mercy-seat which is upon the ark, that he die not; for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy-seat.
There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals burned forth from it. And he bowed the heavens, and came down; and darkness was under his feet. And he rode upon a cherub and did fly; yea, he flew fast upon the wings of the wind. He made darkness his secret place, his tent round about him: darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.
Clouds and darkness are round about him; righteousness and judgment are the foundation of his throne.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » John Gill's Exposition of the Bible » Commentary on 2 Chronicles 6
Commentary on 2 Chronicles 6 John Gill's Exposition of the Bible
INTRODUCTION TO 2 CHRONICLES 5 & 6
The words with which chapter five begins are the same with 1 Kings 7:51 and what is contained in that and chapter six is much the same with 1 Kings 8:1 on which see the notes; the blessing of Solomon on the people of Israel, which is there, is here omitted, and two verses are here added, much the same with Psalm 132:8.
See Introduction to Chapter 5