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34 Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest unto their fathers.

35¶When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou afflictest them:

36 Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, that thou teach them the good way wherein they should walk, and give rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance.

37 If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be caterpiller; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their "cities; whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be;

38 What prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house:

39 Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men ;)

40 That they may fear thee all the days that they live in the land which thou gavest unto our fathers.

41 Moreover concerning a stranger, that is not of thy people Israel, but cometh out of a far country for thy name's sake,

42 (For they shall hear of thy great name, and of thy strong hand, and of thy stretched out arm;) when he shall come and pray toward this house;

43 Hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for: that all people of the earth may know thy name, to fear thee, as do thy people Israel; and that they may know that this house, which I have builded, is called by thy name.

44 ¶ If thy people go out to battle against their enemy, whithersoever thou shalt send them, and shall pray unto the LORD toward the city which thou hast chosen, and toward the house that I have built for thy

name:

wo Or, jurisdiction.

45 Then hear thou in heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their

23 cause.

46 If they sin against thee, ("for there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy, far or near;

47 Yet if they shall "bethink themselves in the land whither they were carried captives, and repent, and make supplication unto thee in the land of them that carried them captives, saying, We have sinned, and have done perversely, we have committed wickedness;

48 And so return unto thee with all their heart, and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies, which led them away captive, and pray unto thee toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, the city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name:

49 Then hear thou their prayer and their supplication in heaven thy dwelling place, and maintain their "cause,

50 And forgive thy people that have sinned against thee, and all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed against thee, and give them compassion before them who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them:

51 For they be thy people, and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest forth out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron:

52 That thine eyes may be open unto the supplication of thy servant, and unto the supplication of thy people Israel, to hearken unto them in all that they call for unto thee.

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53 For thou didst separate them from among all the people of the earth, to be thine inheritance, as thou spakest by the hand of Moses thy servant, when thou broughtest our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord GOD.

54 And it was so, that when Solomon had made an end of praying all this prayer and supplication unto the LORD, he arose from before the altar of the LORD, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven.

55 And he stood, and blessed all the congregation of Israel with a loud voice, say

ing,

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142 Chron. 6. 36. Eccles. 7. 20. 1 John 1. 8, 10, 25 Heb, bring back to their heart,

13 Or, right,

#7 Exod. 19.5.

56 Blessed be the LORD, that hath given rest unto his people Israel, according to all that he promised: there hath not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant. 57 The LORD our God be with us, as he was with our fathers: let him not leave us, nor forsake us:

58 That he may incline our hearts unto him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and his statutes, and his judgments, which he commanded our fathers. 59 And let these my words, wherewith I have made supplication before the LORD, be nigh unto the LORD our God day and night, that he maintain the cause of his servant, and the cause of his people Israel "at all times, as the matter shall require:

60 That all the people of the earth may know that the LORD is God, and that there is none else.

61 Let your heart therefore be perfect with the LORD our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, as at this day.

62 And the king, and all Israel with him, offered sacrifice before the LORD.

63 And Solomon offered a sacrifice of peace offerings, which he offered unto the LORD, two and twenty thousand oxen, and an hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of the LORD.

64 The same day did the king hallow the middle of the court that was before the house of the LORD: for there he offered burnt offerings, and meat offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings: because the brasen altar that was before the LORD was too little to receive the burnt offerings, and meat offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings.

65 And at that time Solomon held a feast, and all Israel with him, a great congregation, from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of Egypt, before the LORD our God, seven days and seven days, even fourteen days.

66 On the eighth day he sent the people away: and they blessed the king, and went unto their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the LORD had done for David his servant, and for Israel his people.

80 2 Chron. 7. 4. 81 2 Chron. 7. 7.

32 Or, thanked.

Heb. fallen. 29 Heb. the thing of a day in his day. Verse 2. "At the feast in the month Ethanim."-There was therefore an interval of eleven months between the completion of the Temple and its dedication. This interval may have been required for the finishing of the utensils, the drying of the walls, clearing away the rubbish, &c. Solomon also probably waited for the suitable opportunity which was offered in this month by the feast of tabernacles, when vast numbers of people resorted to Jerusalem from all parts of the kingdom. Indeed many commentators and chronologists think that the jubilee year now opened, and that the king waited for that most joyous and appropriate occasion. This view is that under which the jubilee year is conceived to be the seventh sabbatical year, not the year ensuing; and according to this, the year was the seventy-third sabbatical and the ninth jubilee year. Hales's chronology does not, however, make it either a sabbatic or a jubilee year, nor is there in the text any indication that it was such.

31. The oath come before thine allar in this house."-Hence it would seem to have been a custom for solemn oaths to be taken at the altar; whence, in after times, also arose the practice of swearing by the altar, to which our Saviour adverts in Matt. xxiii. 20. This practice has been exceedingly general. We may suppose it a custom of the Tyrians, as we see that it was with the Carthaginians, among whom the young Hannibal was made by his father to swear enmity to Rome at the altar. It was certainly the custom among the Greeks and Romans for oaths to be taken before, or with the hand laid on the altar; and so far was this idea carried, that, when there was occasion for taking an oath where no temple was near, an altar was raised up in haste, or portable altars were immediately set up. (See Banier's Mythology, vol. i. p. 425.) The same notions were preserved in the middle ages, when the most solemn oaths were those taken (with sundry variations enumerated by Du Cange) with one or both hands resting on the altar.

44. “Pray unto the Lord toward the city which thou hast chosen, and toward the house which I have built for thy name.”– This refers to a very ancient custom for the worshippers, under different systems of religion, to direct their faces, when at prayer, towards some particular point where the presence of their deity was supposed to be more particularly manifested, or which was, otherwise, the holiest place which the religion recognised. This point is called the kebla among the eastern nations. Jerusalem and its Temple was the kebla of the Jews-the point to which they directed their prayers wherever they might be. In like manner the meridian was the kebla of the Sabians, the east of the Magians, and, at present, Mecca and its temple to the Mohammedans. There is an allusion in Ezek. viii. 16 to the kebla of the Magians in the east, the point of the rising sun. There twenty-five elders are represented as adoring, with their backs towards their own kebla, the sanctuary, and their faces directed to the east, worshipping the sun. Perhaps it was with a view to prevent the identification of the worship of Jehovah with that of the sun, that the kebla was fixed at the opposite point-that is, the sanctuary fronted the east, so that none could, at the Temple itself, or in any direction eastward from it, properly direct their attention to it, without turning their backs on the Magian kebla. There must be a decided alternative, to reject the one or the other; and this gives point to the sin of the elders, who being precluded, by this opposition, from identifying the two keblas and the ideas connected with them, were not deterred from that bold iniquity which was shown to the prophet as the last and the greatest of four very great abominations. We discover the continuance of the custom of worshipping towards Jerusalem and its Temple in the order issued by Adrian, by which the Jews were forbidden not only to enter Jerusalem (then called Ælia), but to look towards it. The custom is not yet relinquished. The Jews still, in all their wide dispersions, turn their faces in prayer towards their lost Canaan: and for this reason it is that, in all Hebrew synagogues, we observe the door (or the principal door, if there VOL. II 177

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be more than one) is placed at or near the opposite point of the compass. The Mohammedans also take much care to turn themselves in prayer towards their kebla at Mecca. For this purpose, they have, in the wall of their mosques, a niche to indicate the point to which their attention should be directed. The doors leading to the galleries of the minarets of the mosques are likewise so placed, or other circumstances are so arranged, as to afford an external indication for the same purpose. Compasses are also used by some individuals, on the dial of which the point towards Mecca is distinguished by a particular mark; but as this mark is adapted to the place where the compass was made, its continued use by the owner in other places, and on journeys, is of course attended often with very absurd mistakes. The necessity of praying towards the kebla, and the difficulty, to a people wholly ignorant of geography, of determining the direction in which it lies, when separated from their accustomed associations, renders Moslems, when on a journey, thankful even to an European who can indicate the true point of their kebla; and still more so to a brother Mohammedan who possesses the same knowledge, and undertakes to lead their devotions.

We may here add, that the Greeks and Romans had the same kebla as the Magians; they prayed facing the east ; and, in order to afford the facility which Solomon's Temple exhibits an apparent intention to prevent, the front of the temples was placed to the west, with the image of the god facing the west, that the sacrificers and worshippers might be able at the same time to direct their faces towards the image and the eastern quarter of the heavens.

63. "Two and twenty thousand oxen, and an hundred and twenty thousand sheep."-Not at once, but during the whole festival, which, from verse 65, seems to have lasted for a fortnight, apparently including the period for the feast of tabernacles. The ancient pagans, in acknowledgment of great victories, or as a propitiatory offering under public calamities, sometimes offered at once as many as a hundred oxen or other animals. This they called a hecatomb; sometimes, but very rarely, the number was a thousand, when it was called a chiliomb. We also read of intermediate numbers of three or five hundred; but all this seems very insignificant compared with this great sacrifice by Solomon. A considerable proportion appears to have consisted of peace-offerings, the flesh of which was no doubt distributed among the multitudes then assembled at Jerusalem.

CHAPTER IX.

10 The

God's covenant in a vision with Solomon. mutual presents of Solomon and Hiram. 15 In Solomon's works the Gentiles were his bondmen, the Israelites honourable servants. 24 Pharaoh's daughter removeth to her house. 25 Solomon's yearly solemn sacrifices. 26 His navy fetcheth gold from Ophir. AND 'it came to pass, when Solomon had finished the building of the house of the LORD, and the king's house, and all Solomon's desire which he was pleased to do,

2 That the LORD appeared to Solomon the second time, 'as he had appeared unto him at Gibeon.

3 And the LORD said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before me: I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.

4 And if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee, and wilt keep my statutes and my judgments:

5 Then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel for ever, as I promised to David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel.

6 But if ye shall at all turn from following me, ye or your children, and will not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods, and worship them:

7 Then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have hallowed 'for my name, will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people:

8 And at this house, which is high, every one that passeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, "Why hath the LORD done thus unto this land, and to this house?

9 And they shall answer, Because they forsook the LORD their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have taken hold upon other gods, and have worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath the LORD brought upon them all this evil.

10 ¶ And 'it came to pass at the end of twenty years, when Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the LORD, and the king's house,

11 (Now Hiram the king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with cedar trees and fir trees, and with gold according to all his desire,) that then king Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.

12 And Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him; and they pleased him not.

13 And he said, What cities are these which thou hast given me, my brother? And he called them the land of "Cabul unto this day.

14 And Hiram sent to the king sixscore talents of gold.

5 Jer. 7. 14.

11 Chron. 7. 11. "Chap. 3. 5. 3 Chap. 8. 29. 42 Sam. 7. 12. 1 Chron. 22. 10. • Deut, 29. 24. Jer, 22.8. 72 Chron. 8. 1. 8 Heb, were not right in his eyes. 9 That is, displeasing, or dirty.

15¶ And this is the reason of the levy which king Solomon raised; for to build the house of the LORD, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer.

16 For Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up, and taken Gezer, and burnt it with fire, and slain the Canaanites that dwelt in the city, and given it for a present unto his daughter, Solomon's wife.

17 And Solomon built Gezer, and Bethhoron the nether,

18 And Baalath, and Tadmor in the wilderness, in the land,

19 And all the cities of store that Solomon had, and cities for his chariots, and cities for his horsemen, and that which Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.

20 And all the people that were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, which were not of the children of Israel,

21 Their children that were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel also were not able utterly to destroy, upon those did Solomon levy a tribute of bondservice unto this day.

22 But of the children of Israel did Solomon "make no bondmen: but they were men of war, and his servants, and his princes, and his captains, and rulers of his chariots, and his horsemen.

23 These were the chief of the officers that were over Solomon's work, five hundred and fifty, which bare rule over the people that wrought in the work.

24 But Pharaoh's daughter came up out of the city of David unto her house which Solomon had built for her: then did he build Millo.

25 And three times in a year did Solomon offer burnt offerings and peace offerings upon the altar which he built unto the LORD, and he burnt incense "upon the altar that was before the LORD. So he finished the house.

26 And king Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion-geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red sea, in the land of Edom.

27 And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon.

28 And they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to king Solomon. 12 2 Chron. 8. 11. 13 Heb. upon it. 14 Heb. lip.

10 Heb. the desire of Solomon which he desired. 11 Levit, 25. 39. Verse 13. "He called them the land of Cabul."-There has been a considerable variety of opinion concerning the situ ation of this district, and the name which Hiram gave to it. We do not intend to enter into this unprofitable discussion. Josephus says that the towns lay not far from Tyre, and that, as Hiram did not like them, he gave the district the name of Cabul, which in the Phoenician language signifies unpleasing. It is easier to reject this account than to find a better. There is a town of this name mentioned in Josh. xix. 27 as in the tribe of Zebulun, and as this was in Galilee, and might be within a reasonable distance from Tyre, it may have been one of the twenty towns, and perhaps Hiram applied to the whole district the obnoxious name which this town bore. We do not know the cause of his dislike to what Solomon doubtless considered a liberal offering. Probably, as the Phoenicians were a maritime and commercial people, Hiram wished rather for a part of the coast, which was now in the hands of Solomon, and was not therefore prepared to approve of a district which might have been of considerable value in the eyes of an agricultural people like the Hebrews. Perhaps the towns were in part payment of what Solomon owed Hiram for his various services and contributions,

14. Hiram sent...sixscore talents of gold."—" Had sent" would be better. It is probably the gold mentioned in verse 11, and seems to have been lent to enable Solomon to complete his various undertakings. Notwithstanding the immense income of Solomon, his expensive establishments and magnificent undertakings may at times have caused him to feel the need of such assistance as Hiram seems to have afforded.

16. “Pharaoh...had taken Gezer.”—See the note on Josh. xii. 12. It is not very clear how the king of Egypt came to be engaged in this undertaking. Perhaps he had a quarrel of his own with the Canaanites who continued in occupation of this little territory; or perhaps Solomon, who does not appear to have been himself engaged in any military undertakings, requested his father-in-law to render him this service. This transaction probably took place in the early part of Solomon's reign.

CHAPTER X.

1 The queen of Sheba admireth the wisdom of Solomon. 14 Solomon's gold. 16 His targets. 18 The throne of ivory. 21 His vessels. 24 His presents. 26 His chariots and horse. 28 His tribute.

AND when the 'queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the

LORD, she came to prove him with hard questions.

2 And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bare spices, and very much gold, and precious stones: and when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart.

12 Chron. 9. 1. Matth. 12, 42. Luke 11. 31.

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3 And Solomon told her all her 'questions: | chants, and of all the kings of Arabia, and there was not any thing hid from the king, of the governors of the country. which he told her not.

4 And when the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon's wisdom, and the house that he had built,

5 And the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his 'cupbearers, and his ascent by which he went up unto the house of the LORD; there was no more spirit in her.

6 And she said to the king, It was a true "report that I heard in mine own land of thy "acts and of thy wisdom.

7 Howbeit, I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it and, behold, the half was not told me: 'thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard.

8 Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and that hear thy wisdom.

9 Blessed be the LORD thy God, which delighted in thee, to set thee on the throne of Israel: because the LORD loved Israel for ever, therefore made he thee king, to do judgment and justice.

10 And she gave the king an hundred and twenty talents of gold, and of spices very great store, and precious stones: there came no more such abundance of spices as these which the queen of Sheba gave to king Solo

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14 ¶ Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred threescore and six talents of gold,

15 Beside that he had of the merchantmen, and of the traffick of the spice mer

Heb. words.

8 Or, rails.

9 Heb. a prop.

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16 And king Solomon made two hundred targets of beaten gold: six hundred shekels of gold went to one target.

17 And he made three hundred shields of beaten gold; three pound of gold went to one shield: and the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon.

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18¶ Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with the best gold.

19 The throne had six steps, and the top of the throne was round "behind: and there were "stays on either side on the place of the seat, and two lions stood beside the stays.

20 And twelve lions stood there on the one side and on the other upon the six steps: there was not "the like made in any kingdom.

21 ¶ And all king Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold; "none were of silver: it was nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon.

22 For the king had at sea a navy of Tharshish with the navy of Hiram: once in three years came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.

23 So king Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom.

24 And all the earth "sought to Solomon, to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart.

25 And they brought every man his present, vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and garments, and armour, and spices, horses, and mules, a rate year by year.

20

26 And Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen : and he had a thousand and four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, whom he bestowed in the cities for chariots, and with the king at Jerusalem.

27 And the king "made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars made he to be as the sycomore trees that are in the vale, for abundance.

28223 And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt, and linen yarn: the king's merchants received the linen yarn at a price.

6 Or, sayings.

3 Heb. standing. 4 Or, butlers. 5 Heb. word.
7 Heb. thou hast added wisdom and goodness to the fams
10 2 Chron. 9. 10. 11 Heb. according to the hand of king Solomon, 12 Or, captains. 13 Chap. 7. 2.
16 Heb. 8o.
17 Or, there was no silver in them. 18 Or, elephants' teeth.
20 2 Chron. 1. 14.
21 Heb gave.
221 Chron. 1. 16, and 9. 28.
Heb. And the going forth of the horses which was Solomon's.

14 Heb. on the hinder part thereof.

19 Heb. sought the face of

15 Heb. hands.

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