1 Kings 8:1

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹At that time Solomon assembled before him in Jerusalem the elders of Israel-all the tribal heads and family leaders of the Israelites-to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD from Zion, the City of David.²And all the men of Israel came together to King Solomon at the feast in the seventh month, the month of Ethanim. ³When all the elders of Israel had arrived, the priests took up the ark, ⁴and they brought up the ark of the LORD and the Tent of Meeting with all its sacred furnishings. So the priests and Levites carried them up. ⁵There, before the ark, King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel who had assembled with him sacrificed so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered. ⁶Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the LORD to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place, beneath the wings of the cherubim. ⁷For the cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark and overshadowed the ark and its poles. ⁸The poles were so long that their ends could be seen from the Holy Place in front of the inner sanctuary, but not from outside the Holy Place; and they are there to this day. ⁹There was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb, where the LORD had made a covenant with the Israelites after they had come out of the land of Egypt. ¹⁰And when the priests came out of the Holy Place, the cloud filled the house of the LORD

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

am 3000, bc 1004

Solomon: This did not take place, according to Abp. Usher, till the year after the temple was finished, because that year was a jubilee. "The 8th day of the 7th month, viz. the 30th of our October, being Friday, was the first of the seven days of dedication; the 10th day, Saturday, November 1, the fast of expiation or atonement was held; whereon, according to the Levitical law, the jubilee was proclaimed by sound of trumpet. The 15th day, Friday, was the feast of tabernacles, which was always very solemnly kept; and the day following, Nov.14, being our Saturday, when the Sabbath was ended, the people returned home." 2 Chronicles 5:2-10

assembled: Joshua 23:2, Joshua 24:1, 1 Chronicles 28:1, 2 Chronicles 30:1, Ezra 3:1

chief of the fathers: Heb. princes, Numbers 7:3

that they might bring: 2 Samuel 6:1, 2 Samuel 6:2, 2 Samuel 6:6, 2 Samuel 6:12, 1 Chronicles 13:1-5, 1 Chronicles 15:3, 1 Chronicles 15:25

out of the city: 1 Kings 3:15, 2 Samuel 5:7-9, 2 Samuel 6:12-17, 1 Chronicles 11:7, 1 Chronicles 15:29, 1 Chronicles 16:1, Psalms 9:11, Psalms 102:21, Isaiah 28:16, Isaiah 46:13, 1 Peter 2:6

Reciprocal: 1 Kings 8:66 - the eighth day 1 Kings 20:7 - all the elders 1 Chronicles 11:5 - the castle

Cross-References

Genesis 8:7
and sent out a raven. It kept flying back and forth until the waters had dried up from the earth.

Genesis 8:9
But the dove found no place to rest her foot, and she returned to him in the ark, because water still covered the surface of all the earth. So he reached out his hand and brought her back inside the ark.

Genesis 8:20
Then Noah built an altar to the LORD. Taking from every kind of clean animal and clean bird, he offered burnt offerings on the altar.

Genesis 8:22
As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall never cease."

Genesis 19:29
So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, He remembered Abraham, and He brought Lot out of the catastrophe that destroyed the cities where he had lived.

Genesis 30:22
Then God remembered Rachel. He listened to her and opened her womb,

Exodus 2:24
So God heard their groaning, and He remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Exodus 14:21
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove back the sea with a strong east wind that turned it into dry land. So the waters were divided,

Numbers 22:32
The Angel of the LORD asked him, "Why have you beaten your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to oppose you, because your way is perverse before me.

1 Samuel 1:19
The next morning Elkanah and Hannah got up early to bow in worship before the LORD, and then returned home to Ramah. And Elkanah had relations with his wife Hannah, and the LORD remembered her.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel,.... The judges in the several cities, or senators of the great sanhedrim, as others; though it is a question whether as yet there was such a court:

and all the heads of the tribes; the princes of the twelve tribes:

the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel; the principal men of the ancient families in every tribe:

unto King Solomon in Jerusalem; these he summoned together to himself there where the temple was built:

that they might bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion; whither David brought it, when he had taken that fort, so called, and dwelt in it; and from this mountain Solomon proposed to bring it up to the temple, on a higher mountain, Moriah, not far from one another.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

There seems to be a contrast here between the more popular proceedings of David 2 Samuel 6:1, and the statelier system of his son, who merely summons the chief men as representatives of the nation. The rest of the people “assembled themselves” 1 Kings 8:2, and were mere spectators of the solemnity.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

CHAPTER VIII

Solomon assembles the elders of Israel, and brings up the ark,

and the holy vessels, and the tabernacle, out of the city of

David, and places them in the temple; on which account a vast

number of sheep and oxen are sacrificed, 1-8.

There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone, which

Moses put there at Horeb, 9.

The cloud of God's glory fills the house, 10, 11.

Solomon blesses the people, 12-21.

His dedicatory prayer, 22-53.

Afterwards he blesses and exhorts the people, 54-61.

They offer a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand oxen, and one

hundred and twenty thousand sheep, 62, 63.

He hallows the middle of the court for offerings; as the brazen

altar which was before the Lord was too little, 64.

He holds the feast of the dedication for seven days; and for

other seven days, the feast of tabernacles; and on the eighth

day blesses the people, and sends them away joyful, 65, 66.

NOTES ON CHAP. VIII

Verse 1 Kings 8:1. Then Solomon assembled — It has already been observed that Solomon deferred the dedication of the temple to the following year after it was finished, because that year, according to Archbishop Usher, was a jubilee. "This," he observes, "was the ninth jubilee, opening the fourth millenary of the world, or A.M. 3001, wherein Solomon with great magnificence celebrated the dedication of the temple seven days, and the feast of tabernacles other seven days; and the celebration of the eighth day of tabernacles being finished, upon the twenty-third day of the seventh month the people were dismissed every man to his home. The eighth day of the seventh month, viz., the thirtieth of our October, being Friday, was the first of the seven days of dedication; on the tenth day, Saturday, November 1, was the fast of expiation or atonement held; whereon, according to the Levitical law, the jubilee was proclaimed by sound of trumpet. The fifteenth day, Friday, November 6, was the feast of tabernacles; the twenty-second, November 13, being also Friday, was the feast of tabernacles, which was always very solemnly kept, 2 Chronicles 7:9; Leviticus 23:36; John 7:37; and the day following, November 14, being our Saturday, when the Sabbath was ended, the people returned home.

"In the thirteenth year after the temple was built, Solomon made an end also of building his own house, having spent full twenty years upon both of them; seven and a half upon the temple, and thirteen or twelve and a half upon his own."-Usher's Annals, sub. A.M. 3001.