1 Kings 8:63

_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._ So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of the Lord. The dedication was not a ceremony ordained by the law, but it was done in accordance with the sentiments of reverence naturally associated with edifices appropriated to divine worship....

62-66 Solomon offered a great sacrifice. He kept the feast of tabernacles, as it seems, after the feast of dedication. Thus should we go home, rejoicing, from holy ordinances, thankful for God's Goodness...

Verse 63. _TWO AND TWENTY THOUSAND OXEN_] This was the whole amount of the victims that had been offered during the _fourteen_ _days_; i.e., the _seven_ days of the _dedication_, and the _seven_ days of the _feast of tabernacles_. In what way could they dispose of the _blood_ of so many victims?...

These numbers have been thought incredible, but they are not impossible. At least 100, 000, or 120, 000 men 1 Kings 8:65 were assembled; and as they all offered sacrifice with the king 1 Kings 8:62, the number of victims must have been enormous. Part of the flesh of so many victims would be eaten; but much of the meat may have been privately burned Leviticus 19:6, the object of the sacrifice being the glory of God, and not the convenience of the people. Profusion was a usual feature of the sacrifices of antiquity....

EXPOSITION THE DEDICATION OF THE TEMPLE.—The stately and impressive service with which the Temple, the character and contents of which have now been described, was dedicated, is related in this chapter, and divides itself into four sections. We have (1) the removal of the ark and Solomon's ascription of praise on the occasion (1 Kings 8:1). (2) The prayer of consecration (1 Kings 8:23-11). (3) The benediction of the congregation (1 Kings 8:55-11), and (4) the festal sacrifices which followed on and completed the dedication ...

AND SOLOMON OFFERED A SACRIFICE OF PEACE OFFERINGS, WHICH HE OFFERED UNTO THE LORD,.... Part of which belonged to the offerer, and with those Solomon feasted the people all the days of the feast of the dedication, if not of tabernacles also; for the number was exceeding large, as follows: 22,000 OXEN, AND 120,000 SHEEP; which, as suggested, might be the number for all the fourteen days; nor need it seem incredible, since, as Josephus b says, at a passover celebrated in the times of Cestius the Roman governor, at the evening of the passover, in two hours time 256,500 lambs were slain; however, this was a very munificent sacrifice of Solomon's, in which he greatly exceeded the Heathens, whose highest number of sacrifices were hecatombs, or by hundreds, but his by thousands: SO THE KING AND ALL THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL DEDICATED THE HOUSE OF THE LORD; devoted it to divine and religious wors...

CHAPTER 8THE DEDICATION OF THE TEMPLE _ 1. The great assembly (1 Kings 8:1)_ 2. The transportation of the ark (1 Kings 8:3) 3. The glory of the LORD filling the house (1 Kings 8:10) 4. Solomon's opening words (1 Kings 8:12) 5. Solomon's great prayer (1 Kings 8:22) 6. Solomon's benediction (1 Kings 8:54) 7. The sacrifices and the feast ...

SOLOMON'S DEDICATION OF THE TEMPLE, PRAYER AND ADDRESS. This chapter is mainly Deuteronomic, being clearly written from the standpoint of one who has seen the Temple as the one national sanctuary of Israel, and has either witnessed its downfall or perceived that it was imminent. 1 Kings 8:1 is, however, probably from the early record of how the house of Yahweh was dedicated by Solomon, of which 1 Kings 8:62 is the continuation, the prayer of Solomon being Deuteronomic. In 1 Kings 8:12 f. we may have preserved an authentic poetic utterance of Solomon himself in the words of the dedication of the Temple. As they are given in the LXX they read as follows: Yahweh set the sun in heaven,...

The great sacrifice and festival (2 Chronicles 7:4-11) 63. _And Solomon offered a sacrifice of peace offerings_ It is ordered in the Law (Leviticus 7:15) that the greatest part of such peace offerings shall be eaten at the time of the offering. The fat and certain internal portions of the victim are to be consumed in the fire on the altar, but all else is to go for food. This explains in part the enormous number of animals mentioned in this verse. Not only among the Jews, but among all ancient nations, sacrifices were feasts, sometimes on a very large scale. Homer supplies abundant instances. The dedication of the Temple was an event for which all who could come were sure to assemble, and for the support of such an enormous crowd for fourteen days (cf....

SOLOMON OFFERED—TWO AND TWENTY THOUSAND OXEN, &C.— That is, he offered so many sacrifices during the whole space of time, the whole _fourteen days;_ the _seven days_ of the feast of dedication, and the _seven days_ of the feast of tabernacles, spoken of in the next verse. See 2 Chronicles 7:8. This custom of dedicating temples was also common among the heathens. The Romans dedicated their temples, altars, public edifices, and the like. See Cicero's Orat. pro Domo sui, et Alex. ab Alex. lib. 7: cap. 14. It is probable, that the later heathens borrowed most of their rites from the law of Moses, but intermixing with them the most abominable practices....