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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