Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
The ark is brought to the new temple. Solomon prays before the people and they celebrate for two weeks.
II. Photo
The people go home happy: “They bade the king good-bye and went to their homes, joyful and glad of heart over all the goodness that the Lord had shown to His servant David and His people Israel.” (v. 66b)
III. Important Verses
2-5: All the men of Israel gathered before King Solomon at the Feast, in the month of Ethanim — that is, the seventh month. When all the elders of Israel had come, the priests lifted the Ark and carried up the Ark of the LORD. Then the priests and the Levites brought the Tent of Meeting and all the holy vessels that were in the Tent. Meanwhile, King Solomon and the whole community of Israel, who were assembled with him before the Ark, were sacrificing sheep and oxen in such abundance that they could not be numbered or counted.
9: There was nothing inside the Ark but the two tablets of stone which Moses placed there at Horeb, when the LORD made [a covenant] with the Israelites after their departure from the land of Egypt.
27: But will God really dwell on earth? Even the heavens to their uttermost reaches cannot contain You, how much less this House that I have built!
29-30: May Your eyes be open day and night toward this House, toward the place of which You have said, ‘My name shall abide there’; may You heed the prayers which Your servant will offer toward this place. And when You hear the supplications which Your servant and Your people Israel offer toward this place, give heed in Your heavenly abode — give heed and pardon.
57-58: May the LORD our God be with us, as He was with our fathers. May He never abandon or forsake us. May He incline our hearts to Him, that we may walk in all His ways and keep the commandments, the laws, and the rules, which He enjoined upon our fathers.
63: Solomon offered 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep as sacrifices of well-being to the LORD. Thus the king and all the Israelites dedicated the House of the LORD.
65-66: So Solomon and all Israel with him — a great assemblage, [coming] from Lebo-hamath to the Wadi of Egypt — observed the Feast at that time before the LORD our God, seven days and again seven days, fourteen days in all. On the eighth day he let the people go. They bade the king good-bye and went to their homes, joyful and glad of heart over all the goodness that the LORD had shown to His servant David and His people Israel.
IV. Outline
1-11. The ark is publicly transferred to the holy of holies 12-21. Solomon’s Initial Blessing 12-15a. Introduction 15b. Blessing 16-19. Historical background 20-21. God’s promise is fulfilled 22-53. Solomon’s Petition 22-23a. Introduction 23b. Invocation 23c. Hymnic praise 24. Account of fulfillment 25-26. Petition: the line of David 27. Hymnic praise 28-51. Petitions 28-30. Pardon people who pray at the temple 31-32. Execute righteousness 33-34. Help Israel defeat its enemies 35-36. Deliver Israel from drought 37-40. Deliver Israel from plagues and famine 41-43. Listen to the foreigner 44-45. Listen to the Israelite army even if it is on foreign soil 46-51. Listen to the people in captivity 52-53. Final petition 54-61. Solomon’s Final Blessing and Petition 54-55. Solomon stands before the congregation 56. Blessing God 57-. Petitions 57. God should be with Israel 58. Israel should be with God 59a. God should hear Israel’s prayers 59b. Daily provisions 60. Universal knowledge of God 61. Exhortation to follow God 62-64. Sacrifices at the temple 65-66. The people celebrate the festival [Sukkot]
V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.
VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Collins, John J. “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible,” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
De Vries, Simon John. “1 Kings” Word Biblical Commentary vol. 12 (Waco, Texas: Wordbooks, 1985).
Longe, Burke O. “1 Kings with an Introduction to Historical Literature” Forms of Old Testament Literature vol. 9 (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1984).
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