1 Kings 8:1

1 Kings 8:1-11. Dedication of the Temple. Bringing up of the ark and the holy vessels. The glory of the Lord fills the house (2 Chronicles 5:2-14)

1. Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel The LXX. (Vat.) prefaces this chapter with the words -And it came to pass when Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord and his own house after twenty years," then &c. These words are from the commencement of chap. 9. where they also recur in the LXX., and the precise time -twenty years" is found mentioned 1 Kings 9:10; 2 Chronicles 8:1. But that the Temple remained undedicated through all the years that Solomon's house was building is nowhere told us, and is very improbable.

Josephus (Ant. VIII. 4. I) says the king summoned the assembly by a formal document (γράψας).

the chief of the fathers Better with margin of A.V. and text of R.V. the princes of the fathers" houses. The persons meant are those who are called Exodus 6:14 -heads of their fathers" houses. In that passage the word for -houses" is expressed, as it is in many other places (cf. especially Numbers 1:16; Numbers 1:18; Numbers 1:20, &c., Numbers 2:2). But the abbreviated form, as here, came into common use (see Numbers 36:1; Joshua 19:51; Joshua 21:1, &c.). The rendering of the full phrase should in these cases be supplied, -houses" being printed in italics.

thatthey might bring up the ark Whatever may have been the relative heights of the Temple mount and of Zion, in a religious sense the former would be esteemed the more exalted, and so -to bring up" and -to go up" thither would be the natural modes of expression. Cf. Isaiah 38:22. Besides they would have to descend first from Zion and then to ascend Moriah. On the religious importance and exaltation of Zion cf. Ps. 48:15 seqq.

the city of David whichis Zion See above on 1 Kings 3:1.