1 Then spoke Solomon, Yahweh has said that he would dwell in the thick darkness.
2 But I have built you a house of habitation, and a place for you to dwell in forever.
3 The king turned his face, and blessed all the assembly of Israel: and all the assembly of Israel stood.
4 He said, Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, who spoke with his mouth to David my father, and has with his hands fulfilled it, saying,
5 Since 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 a house in, that my name might be there; neither chose I any man to be prince over my people Israel:
6 but I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there; and have chosen David to be over my people Israel.
7 Now it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel.
8 But Yahweh said to David my father, Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart:
9 nevertheless you shall not build the house; but your son who shall come forth out of your loins, he shall build the house for my name.
10 Yahweh has performed his word that he spoke; for I am risen up in the room of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as Yahweh promised, and have built the house for the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel.
11 There have I set the ark, in which is the covenant of Yahweh, which he made with the children of Israel.
12 He stood before the altar of Yahweh in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread forth his hands
13 (for Solomon had made a brazen scaffold, five cubits long, and five cubits broad, and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court; and on it he stood, and kneeled down on his knees before all the assembly of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven;)
14 and he said, Yahweh, the God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven, or on earth; who keep covenant and loving kindness with your servants, who walk before you with all their heart;
15 who have kept with your servant David my father that which you did promise him: yes, you spoke with your mouth, and have fulfilled it with your hand, as it is this day.
16 Now therefore, Yahweh, the God of Israel, keep with your servant David my father that which you have promised him, saying, There shall not fail you a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your children take heed to their way, to walk in my law as you have walked before me.
17 Now therefore, Yahweh, the God of Israel, let your word be verified, which you spoke to your servant David.
18 But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens can't contain you; how much less this house which I have built!
19 Yet have you respect to the prayer of your servant, and to his supplication, Yahweh my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which your servant prays before you;
20 that your eyes may be open toward this house day and night, even toward the place where you have said that you would put your name there; to listen to the prayer which your servant shall pray toward this place.
21 Listen you to the petitions of your servant, and of your people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place: yes, hear from your dwelling-place, even from heaven; and when you hear, forgive.
22 If a man sin against his neighbor, and an oath is laid on him to cause him to swear, and he comes and swears before your altar in this house;
23 then hear from heaven, and do, and judge your servants, requiting the wicked, to bring his way on his own head; and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness.
24 If your people Israel be struck down before the enemy, because they have sinned against you, and shall turn again and confess your name, and pray and make supplication before you in this house;
25 then hear from heaven, and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them again to the land which you gave to them and to their fathers.
26 When the sky is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against you; if they pray toward this place, and confess your name, and turn from their sin, when you do afflict them:
27 then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of your servants, and of your people Israel, when you teach them the good way in which they should walk; and send rain on your land, which you have given to your people for an inheritance.
28 If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, if there be blasting or mildew, locust or caterpillar; if their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities; whatever plague or whatever sickness there be;
29 whatever prayer and supplication be made by any man, or by all your people Israel, who shall know every man his own plague and his own sorrow, and shall spread forth his hands toward this house:
30 then hear from heaven, your dwelling-place and forgive, and render to every man according to all his ways, whose heart you know; (for you, even you only, know the hearts of the children of men;)
31 that they may fear you, to walk in your ways, so long as they live in the land which you gave to our fathers.
32 Moreover concerning the foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, when he shall come from a far country for your great name's sake, and your mighty hand, and your outstretched arm; when they shall come and pray toward this house:
33 then hear from heaven, even from your dwelling-place, and do according to all that the foreigner calls to you for; that all the peoples of the earth may know your name, and fear you, as does your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by your name.
34 If your people go out to battle against their enemies, by whatever way you shall send them, and they pray to you toward this city which you have chosen, and the house which I have built for your name;
35 then hear from heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.
36 If they sin against you (for there is no man who doesn't sin), and you are angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captive to a land far off or near;
37 yet if they shall repent themselves in the land where they are carried captive, and turn again, and make supplication to you in the land of their captivity, saying, We have sinned, we have done perversely, and have dealt wickedly;
38 if they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have carried them captive, and pray toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, and the city which you have chosen, and toward the house which I have built for your name:
39 then hear from heaven, even from your dwelling-place, their prayer and their petitions, and maintain their cause, and forgive your people who have sinned against you.
40 Now, my God, let, I beg you, your eyes be open, and let your ears be attentive, to the prayer that is made in this place.
41 Now therefore arise, Yahweh God, into your resting-place, you, and the ark of your strength: let your priests, Yahweh God, be clothed with salvation, and let your saints rejoice in goodness.
42 Yahweh God, don't turn away the face of your anointed: remember [your] loving kindnesses to David your servant.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on 2 Chronicles 6
Commentary on 2 Chronicles 6 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
The words with which Solomon celebrates this wondrous evidence of the divine favour, entirely coincide with the narrative in 1 Kings 8:12-21, except that in 2 Chronicles 6:5. the actual words of Solomon's speech are more completely given than in 1 Kings 8:16, where the words, “and I have not chosen a man to be prince over my people Israel, and I have chosen Jerusalem that my name might be there,” are omitted. For the commentary on this address, see on 1 Kings 8:12-21.
Solomon's dedicatory prayer likewise corresponds exactly with the account of it given in 1 Kings 8:22-53 till near the end (2 Chronicles 6:40-42), where it takes quite a different turn. Besides this, in the introduction (2 Chronicles 6:13) Solomon's position during the prayer is more accurately described, it being there stated that Solomon had caused a high stage ( כּיּור , a basin-like elevation) to be erected, which he ascended, and kneeling, spoke the prayer which follows. This fact is not stated in 1 Kings 8:22, and Then. and Berth. conjecture that it has been dropped out of our text only by mistake. Perhaps so, but it may have been passed over by the author of the books of Kings as a point of subordinate importance. On the contents of the prayer, which begins with the joyful confession that the Lord had fulfilled His promise to David in reference to the building of the temple, and proceeds with a request for a further bestowment of the blessing promised to His people, and a supplication that all prayers made to the Lord in the temple may be heard, see the Com. on 1 Kings 8:22. The conclusion of the prayer in the Chronicle is different from that in 1 Kings 8. There the last supplication, that the prayers might be heard, is followed by the thought: for they (the Israelites) are Thy people and inheritance; and in the further amplification of this thought the prayer returns to the idea with which it commenced. In the narrative of the Chronicle, on the other hand, the supplications conclude with the general thought (2 Chronicles 6:40): “Now, my God, let, I beseech Thee, Thine eyes be open, and Thine ears attend unto the prayer of this place” (i.e., unto the prayer spoken in this place). There follows, then, the conclusion of the whole prayer - a summons to the Lord (2 Chronicles 6:41.): “And now, Lord God, arise into Thy rest, Thou and the ark of Thy strength; let Thy priests, Lord God, clothe themselves in salvation, and Thy saints rejoice in good! Lord God, turn not away the face of Thine anointed: remember the pious deeds of Thy servant David.” הסדים as in 2 Chronicles 32:32; 2 Chronicles 35:26, and Nehemiah 13:14. On this Thenius remarks, to 1 Kings 8:53 : “This conclusion is probably authentic, for there is in the text of the prayer, 1 Kings 8, no special expression of dedication, and this the summons to enter into possession of the temple very fittingly supplies. The whole contents of the conclusion are in perfect correspondence with the situation, and, as to form, nothing better could be desired. It can scarcely be thought an arbitrary addition made by the chronicler for no other reason than that the summons spoken of, if taken literally, is irreconcilable with the entrance of the cloud into the temple, of which he has already given us an account.” Berth. indeed thinks that it does not thence follow that our conclusion is authentic, and considers it more probable that it was introduced because it appeared more suitable, in place of the somewhat obscure words in 1 Kings 8:51-53, though not by the author of the Chronicle, and scarcely at an earlier time. The decision on this question can only be arrived at in connection with the question as to the origin of the statements peculiar to the Chronicle contained in 2 Chronicles 7:1-3.
If we consider, in the first place, our verses in themselves, they contain no thought which Solomon might not have spoken, and consequently nothing which would tend to show that they are not authentic. It is true that the phrase קשּׁבות אזניך occurs only here and in 2 Chronicles 7:15, and again in Psalms 130:2, and the noun נוּח instead of מנוּחה is found only in Esther 9:16-18 in the form נוח ; but even if these two expressions be peculiar to the later time, no further conclusion can be drawn from that, than that the author of the Chronicle has here, as often elsewhere, given the thoughts of his authority in the language of his own time. Nor is the relation in which 2 Chronicles 6:41, 2 Chronicles 6:42 stand to Psalms 132:8-10 a valid proof of the later composition of the conclusion of our prayer. For ( a ) it is still a question whether our verses have been borrowed from Ps 132, or the verses of the psalm from our passage; and ( b ) the period when Psalms 138:1-8 was written is so doubtful, that some regard it as a Solomonic psalm, while others place it in the post-exilic period. Neither the one nor the other of these questions can be determined on convincing grounds. The appeal to the fact that the chronicler has compounded the hymn in 1 Chron 15 also out of post-exilic psalms proves nothing, for even in that case it is at least doubtful if that be a correct account of the matter. But the further assertion, that the conclusion (2 Chronicles 6:42) resembles Isaiah 55:3, and that recollections of this passage may have had some effect also on the conclusion (2 Chronicles 6:41), is undoubtedly erroneous, for דויד חסדי in 2 Chronicles 6:42 has quite a different meaning from that which it has in Isaiah 55:3. There דּוד חסדי are the favours granted to David by the Lord; in 2 Chronicles 6:42, on the contrary, they are the pious deeds of David, - all that he had done for the raising and advancement of the public worship (see above). The phrase וגו קוּמה , “Arise, O Lord God, into Thy rest,” is modelled on the formula which was spoken when the ark was lifted and when it was set down on the journey through the wilderness, which explains both קוּמה and the use of לנוּחך , which is formed after בּנוּחה , Numbers 10:36. The call to arise into rest is not inconsistent with the fact that the ark had already been brought into the most holy place, for קוּמה has merely the general signification, “to set oneself to anything.” The idea is, that God would now take the rest to which the throne of His glory had attained, show Himself to His people from this His throne to be the God of salvation, endue His priests, the guardians of His sanctuary, with salvation, and cause the pious to rejoice in His goodness. בטּוב ישׂמחוּ is generalized in Psalms 132:9 into ירנּנוּ . פּני פ השׁב , to turn away the face of any one, i.e., to deny the request, cf. 1 Kings 2:16.