HarperCollins Study Bible
Page 172
22“If someone sins against another and is required to take an oath and comes and swears before your altar in this house, 23may you hear from heaven, and act, and judge your servants, repaying the guilty by bringing their conduct on their own head, and vindicating those who are in the right by rewarding them in accordance with their righteousness.
24“When your people Israel, having sinned against you, are defeated before an enemy but turn again to you, confess your name, pray and plead with you in this house, 25may you hear from heaven, and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them again to the land that you gave to them and to their ancestors.
26“When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, and then they pray toward this place, confess your name, and turn from their sin, because you punish them, 27may you hear in heaven, forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel, when you teach them the good way in which they should walk; and send down rain upon your land, which you have given to your people as an inheritance.
28“If there is famine in the land, if there is plague, blight, mildew, locust, or caterpillar; if their enemies besiege them in any of the settlements of the lands; whatever suffering, whatever sickness there is; 29whatever prayer, whatever plea from any individual or from all your people Israel, all knowing their own suffering and their own sorrows so that they stretch out their hands toward this house; 30may you hear from heaven, your dwelling place, forgive, and render to all whose heart you know, according to all their ways, for only you know the human heart. 31Thus may they fear you and walk in your ways all the days that they live in the land that you gave to our ancestors.
32“Likewise when foreigners, who are not of your people Israel, come from a distant land because of your great name, and your mighty hand, and your outstretched arm, when they come and pray toward this house, 33may you hear from heaven your dwelling place, and do whatever the foreigners ask of you, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that your name has been invoked on this house that I have built.
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 that you have chosen and the house that I have built for your name, 35then hear from heaven their prayer and their plea, and maintain their cause.
36“If they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—and you are angry with them and give them to an enemy, so that they are carried away captive to a land far or near; 37then if they come to their senses in the land to which they have been taken captive, and repent, and plead with you in the land of their captivity, saying, ‘We have sinned, and have done wrong; we have acted wickedly’ 38if they repent with all their heart and soul in the land of their captivity, to which they were taken captive, and pray toward their land, which you gave to their ancestors, the city that you have chosen, and the house that I have built for your name, 39then hear from heaven your dwelling place their prayer and their pleas, maintain their cause and forgive your people who have sinned against you. 40Now, O my God, let your eyes be open and your ears attentive to prayer from this place.
41“Now rise up, O LORD God, and go to your resting place,
you and the ark of your might.
Let your priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation,
and let your faithful rejoice in your goodness.
42O LORD God, do not reject your anointed one.
Remember your steadfast love for your servant David.”
next chapter
* * *
a Heb he
6.1–11 Cf. 1 Kings 8.12–21.
6.16 Walk in my law. 1 Kings 8.25 reads “walk before me.” The expression in Chronicles is more concrete and may refer to the Pentateuch. David’s obedience in Chronicles contrasts with the record of his many sins in 2 Samuel.
6.18–21 The prayer struggles with ideas about God’s presence. Although heaven is God’s dwelling place, not earth among mortals, his name has been set in the earthly temple. Solomon hopes that his own prayer and that of the people will induce God to hear and forgive.
6.2 Solomon builds a permanent house for the Lord, whose glory had once appeared at Sinai (Ex 20.21) and more frequently at the tabernacle.
6.5–6 Though Chronicles follows 1 Kings very closely in ch. 6, the words my name might be there…and I chose no one are missing in 1 Kings 8.16 through a copyist’s mistake. Solomon is portrayed celebrating the divine choice of Jerusalem and of his father David.
6.9 Chronicles does not cite here David’s bloodshed as the reason for banning him from temple building (cf. 1 Chr 22.8–9; 28.3).
6.10 Solomon is a double fulfillment of the promise: he succeeds his father as king and he builds the temple.
6.11 Instead of with the people of Israel, 1 Kings 8.21 reads: “with our ancestors when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.” Chronicles stresses the contemporary validity of the covenant more than its antiquity and omits a reference to the exodus. (See also note on 6.41–42; an equivalent for 1 Kings 8.51, 53 is omitted.) The exodus is mentioned in 6.5.
6.12–42 Cf. 1 Kings 8.22–53. Chronicles follows the text of Kings closely in this passage, except that it replaces most of 1 Kings 8.50–53 with its own conclusion in vv. 41–42.
6.13 This verse is missing in 1 Kings because of scribal error. Note how both v. 12 and v. 13 end with spread out his hands.
6.14–17 Solomon prays that God would fulfill the dynastic promise, just as he had fulfilled his promise to David about the temple.
6.16 Walk in my law. 1 Kings 8.25 reads “walk before me.” The expression in Chronicles is more concrete and may refer to the Pentateuch. David’s obedience in Chronicles contrasts with the record of his many sins in 2 Samuel.
6.22–23 These verses about oath-taking procedures, even though taken from 1 Kings 8.31–32, express well the Chronicler’s theory of divine retribution.
6.24–35 Solomon urges God to respond to calamities like drought, famine, sickness, and especially military defeat by hearing the people when they repent (or turn; vv. 24, 26) and by forgiving them.
6.36–40 The focus is on the plight of Israel in exile; the belief in the effectiveness of prayer from exile reflects the main concern of the prayer in 1 Kings 8. The Chronicler also affirms elsewhere that prayers from exile are effective (33.10–13).
6.40 To prayer from this place, an addition to the text of 1 Kings, expressing the theological concern of the Chronicler’s own day.
6.41–42 The conclusion of the prayer is made up of a quotation from Ps 132.8–10, 1. Thus, the Chronicler builds his hope on words ascribed to David rather than on those ascribed to Moses in the period of the exodus, as in 1 Kings 8.51, 53.
6.41 Resting place, the temple. Ark of your might. The ark symbolized the presence of God in military battles. Salvation, “righteousness” in Ps 132.9. In your goodness, an addition in Chronicles.
6.42 Steadfast love for your servant David. Ps 132, by way of contrast, reminds God of David’s hardships and the efforts he had expended for God. Chronicles asks God to keep his promises to the anointed king, indicating that the author expects something from these old promises even after the rebuilding of the temple, perhaps even some form of a messianic hope. Isa 55.3 democratizes the “steadfast, sure love for David” by saying it now applies to all Israel.
2 CHRONICLES 7
Solomon Dedicates the Temple
1When Solomon had ended his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. 2The priests could not enter the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD filled the LORD’s house. 3When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the LORD on the temple, they bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying,
“For he is good,
for his steadfast love endu
res forever.”
4Then the king and all the people offered sacrifice before the LORD. 5King Solomon offered as a sacrifice twenty-two thousand oxen and one hundred twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. 6The priests stood at their posts; the Levites also, with the instruments for music to the LORD that King David had made for giving thanks to the LORD—for his steadfast love endures forever—whenever David offered praises by their ministry. Opposite them the priests sounded trumpets; and all Israel stood.
7Solomon consecrated the middle of the court that was in front of the house of the LORD; for there he offered the burnt offerings and the fat of the offerings of well-being because the bronze altar Solomon had made could not hold the burnt offering and the grain offering and the fat parts.
8At that time Solomon held the festival for seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great congregation, from Lebo-hamath to the Wadi of Egypt. 9On the eighth day they held a solemn assembly; for they had observed the dedication of the altar seven days and the festival seven days. 10On the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people away to their homes, joyful and in good spirits because of the goodness that the LORD had shown to David and to Solomon and to his people Israel.
11Thus Solomon finished the house of the LORD and the king’s house; all that Solomon had planned to do in the house of the LORD and in his own house he successfully accomplished.
God’s Second Appearance to Solomon
12Then the LORD appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. 13When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, 14if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 15Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. 16For now I have chosen and consecrated this house so that my name may be there forever; my eyes and my heart will be there for all time. 17As for you, if you walk before me, as your father David walked, doing according to all that I have commanded you and keeping my statutes and my ordinances, 18then I will establish your royal throne, as I made covenant with your father David saying, ‘You shall never lack a successor to rule over Israel.’
19“But if youa turn aside and forsake my statutes and my commandments that I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, 20then I will pluck youb up from the land that I have given you;c and this house, which I have consecrated for my name, I will cast out of my sight, and will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. 21And regarding this house, now exalted, everyone passing by will be astonished, and say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this house?’ 22Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the LORD the God of their ancestors who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they adopted other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore he has brought all this calamity upon them.’”
next chapter
* * *
a The word you in this verse is plural
b Heb them
c Heb them
7.1–10 Cf. 1 Kings 8.54–66.
7.1 Fire from heaven authenticates the first sacrifices at the new temple, as fire did at the first sacrifices in the wilderness (Lev 9.23–24) and at David’s presentation of burnt offerings (1 Chr 21.26). Cf. also Judg 6.20–22; 1 Kings 18.
7.2 A cloud theophany also occurs in 5.13.
7.3 For he…forever. See note on 5.13. Chronicles omits Solomon’s blessing of the people in 1 Kings 8.54–61.
7.5 The large number of sacrifices is probably a hyperbole to emphasize the importance of the occasion. Cf. the similar large figures at ceremonies in the time of Hezekiah (29.32–36) and Josiah (35.7–9). Such sacrifices were to be eaten by the people during the fifteen-day celebration to follow.
7.8 As is fitting for such a momentous event, all Israel celebrates the dedication of the temple. The wide geographic area represented by the participants, from Lebo-hamath, the traditional northern border of Israel, to the Wadi of Egypt, the traditional southern border, recalls the pan-Israelite celebration when David prepared to bring the ark to Jerusalem (1 Chr 13).
7.9–10 The dedication lasts from the eighth to the fourteenth day of the seventh month, followed by the Feast of Tabernacles from the fifteenth to the twenty-second day of the month, with dismissal on the twenty-third day. Hezekiah also is said to have held his great Passover for two weeks (30.23).
7.10 The Chronicler adds a reference to Solomon as part of his equal treatment for the two kings of the United Kingdom (cf. 1 Kings 8.66).
7.11–22 Cf. 1 Kings 9.1–9. In this second theophany to Solomon, God gives a positive response to Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the temple (6.14–42).
7.11 Since the building of the king’s palace (the king’s house) took thirteen years, according to 1 Kings 7.1, the second theophany occurs much later than its position in 2 Chronicles would suggest.
7.12 In the night, a reference to the theophany at Gibeon (1.7–13).
7.12b–15 This material, not contained in 1 Kings, affirms that God will respond to the petitions of ch. 6.
7.14 Humble repentance will force God to hear, forgive, and heal. Throughout the rest of 2 Chronicles this principle of immediate retribution is illustrated through the history of the Southern Kingdom.
7.18 Made covenant with, more specific and intense than in 1 Kings 9.5 (“promised”). Never lack a successor to rule over Israel, another indication of the low-key messianic hope of the Chronicler.
7.19–22 God’s address to the people, announcing the consequences of idolatry.
7.19 You includes Solomon, contemporary Israelites, and future generations of Israelites. The Chronicler omits the reference to David’s sons in 1 Kings 9.6. The evil behavior of the people would force God to banish all of them from the land.
7.21–22 A similar question-and-answer format dealing with the causes of the desolations of exile appears in Deut 29.24–25.
2 CHRONICLES 8
Various Activities of Solomon
1At the end of twenty years, during which Solomon had built the house of the LORD and his own house, 2Solomon rebuilt the cities that Huram had given to him, and settled the people of Israel in them.
3Solomon went to Hamath-zobah, and captured it. 4He built Tadmor in the wilderness and all the storage towns that he built in Hamath. 5He also built Upper Beth-horon and Lower Beth-horon, fortified cities, with walls, gates, and bars, 6and Baalath, as well as all Solomon’s storage towns, and all the towns for his chariots, the towns for his cavalry, and whatever Solomon desired to build, in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion. 7All the people who were left of the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of Israel, 8from their descendants who were still left in the land, whom the people of Israel had not destroyed—these Solomon conscripted for forced labor, as is still the case today. 9But of the people of Israel Solomon made no slaves for his work; they were soldiers, and his officers, the commanders of his chariotry and cavalry. 10These were the chief officers of King Solomon, two hundred fifty of them, who exercised authority over the people.
11Solomon brought Pharaoh’s daughter from the city of David to the house that he had built for her, for he said, “My wife shall not live in the house of King David of Israel, for the places to which the ark of the LORD has come are holy.”
12Then Solomon offered up burnt offerings to the LORD on the altar of the LORD that he had built in front of the vestibule, 13as the duty of each day required, offering according to the commandment of Moses for the sabbaths, the new moons, and the three annual festivals—the festival of unleavened bread, the festival of weeks, and the festival of booths. 14According to the ordinance of his father David, he appointed the divisi
ons of the priests for their service, and the Levites for their offices of praise and ministry alongside the priests as the duty of each day required, and the gatekeepers in their divisions for the several gates; for so David the man of God had commanded. 15They did not turn away from what the king had commanded the priests and Levites regarding anything at all, or regarding the treasuries.
16Thus all the work of Solomon was accomplished froma the day the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid until the house of the LORD was finished completely.
17Then Solomon went to Ezion-geber and Eloth on the shore of the sea, in the land of Edom. 18Huram sent him, in the care of his servants, ships and servants familiar with the sea. They went to Ophir, together with the servants of Solomon, and imported from there four hundred fifty talents of gold and brought it to King Solomon.
next chapter
* * *
a Gk Syr Vg: Heb to
8.1–18 Cf. 1 Kings 9.10–28. The Chronicler, as here with Solomon, often discloses his approval of a king by recording his many building projects.
8.2 The parallel text in 1 Kings 9.11 reports that Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities, apparently in payment for help with his various building projects or because he needed money for something else. The Chronicler may have been embarrassed that Solomon disposed of some of the land of Israel or that he was in debt and changed the text to make the cities pass from Huram (a variant spelling of Hiram) to Solomon.
8.3–6 Solomon’s military successes, otherwise unreported, also show his life under blessing, though elsewhere in Chronicles he is called a man of peace (1 Chr 22.9).