prayeth before thee to day: (29) that thine eyes may be opened toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which thou hast said, "My name shall be there: that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall make toward this place. (30) And hearken thou to the supplication of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place: and hear thou in heaven thy

Prayer.

have sinned against thee, and shall turn again to thee, and confess thy name, and pray, and make supplication unto thee in this house: (34) then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest untotheir fathers.

(35) When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; if they pray toward this

(31) If any man trespass against his neighbour, and an oath be laid upon him to cause him to swear, and the oath come before thine altar in this house: (32) then hear thou in heaven, and do, and judge thy servants, condemning the wicked, to bring his way upon his head; and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness.

sternest prohibition of that idolatry which limited and degraded the idea of God, and by rebuke of the superstition which trusted in an intrinsic sacredness of the Ark or the Temple. On the other hand, there is an equally vivid conviction that the Infinite Jehovah is yet pleased to enter into a special covenant with Israel, beyond all other nations, to reveal Himself by the cloud in the midst of His people, to bless, with a peculiar blessing, "the place which He chooses to place His Name there." The two conceptions co-exist, as in the text, in complete harmony, both preparing for the perfect manifestation of a "God with us in that kingdom of the Messiah, which was at once to perfect the covenant with Israel, and to include all peoples, nations, and languages for ever and ever. The words of Solomon in spirit anticipate the utterance of the prophet (Isa. Ixvi. 1), quoted by St. Stephen against idolatry of the Temple (Acts vii. 48), and even the greater declaration of our Lord (John iv. 21-24) as to the universal presence of God to all spiritual worship. Yet he feels the reality of the consecration of the House raised by the command of God; and prays that all who recognise it by prayer "toward this house," may enter into the special unity with God which it symbolises, and be heard by Him from heaven. By an instructive contrast, the Temple is described as the place where God's "Name". - that is, His self-revelation-is made to dwell; but heaven, and it alone, as the true dwellingplace of God Himself.

(31, 32) If any man trespass.-These verses deal with the simplest exemplification of the sacredness of the Temple in the case of the oath of expurgation of one accused of crime (see Exod. xxii. 7). Of these oaths, and the sophistical distinctions between the various forms of them, we have Our Lord's notice in Matt. xxiii. 16-22. Such an oath has a twofold force-a force purely spiritual, inasmuch as it solemnly recognises the Presence of God, and by such recognition shames all falsehood as a kind of sacrilege; and a force which is "of

(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

the Law," inasmuch as the invocation of God's punishment in case of falsehood appeals to godly fear. Solomon prays that God will accept the oath under both aspects, and by His judgment distinguish between the innocent and the guilty.

(33,34) When thy people. From the individual, the prayer turns to those which touch the whole nation. It pictures various national calamities, and in each recognises not mere evils, but chastisements of God, who desires by them to teach, and is most ready to forgive. First it naturally dwells on disaster in battle, which, in the whole history of the Exodus, of the Conquest, of the troubled age of the Judges, and of the reigns of Saul and David, is acknowledged as a sign of unfaithfulness in Israel, either through sin or through idolatry, to the covenant of God, on which the victorious possession of the promised land depended. On that history the blessing and the curse of the Law (Lev. xxvi. 17, 32, 33; Deut. xxviii. 25) form a commentary of emphatic warning, and the Psalms again and again bring the same lesson home (Pss. xliv. 1-3, 9-17, lx. 9-11, lxxxix. 42—46). With characteristic seriousness, Solomon looks back from his peaceful prosperity on the stormy past, and from it learns to pray for the future.

(35, 36) When heaven is shut up.-Next, Solomon dwells on the plague of famine, from rain withheld, by which, in the striking language of the Law (Lev. xxvi. 19; Deut. xxviii. 23, 24), "the heaven should be as brass, and the earth as iron," and all vegetation perish from the parched land of Palestine, as now it seems actually to have failed in many places once fertile. In such plague he acknowledges the chastisement of God, sent to "teach Israel the right way," and then to be withdrawn in mercy. The whole history of the famine in the days of Elijah is in all parts striking commentary on this clause of the prayer.

(37-40) If there be pestilence. He then passes on to the various plagues threatened in the Lawfamine, pestilence, blasting of the corn, mildew on the

Solomon's

Prayer.

the city.

people of the earth may know thy name, to fear thee, as do thy people Israel; and that they may know that 2 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

(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

4 Or, right.

fruit, locust and caterpillar (see Lev. xxvi. 25, 26; Deut. xxviii. 22-24, 38-42), the distress of siege, so terribly depicted (Deut. xxviii. 52-57), and so often terribly fulfilled (not least in the last great siege of Jerusalem), and adds, to sum up all, "whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be." Through any, or all of these, he pictures each man as brought to "know the plague of his own heart "—that is, as startled into a consciousness of sin, and recognition of it as the true "plague," the cause of all outward plagues, and so drawn to prayer of penitence and of godly fear.

Thou only, knowest the hearts . . . of men. The emphasis laid on this knowledge of the heart (as in Pss. xi. 4, cxxxix. 2-4; Jer. xvii. 9, 10) as the special attribute of Deity, though, of course, belonging to all vital religion, yet marks especially the leading thought of the Psalms and the Proverbs, which always realise the presence of God, not so much in the outer spheres of Nature and history, as in the soul of man itself. It carries with it, as here, the conviction that, under the general dealings of God's righteousness with man, there lies an individuality of judgment, making them to each exactly what his spiritual condition needs. The plague, for example, which cuts off one man unrepentant in his sins, may be to another a merciful" deliverance out of the miseries of this sinful world."

(41-43) Moreover, concerning a stranger.These verses in a striking digression (perhaps suggested by the general acknowledgment in the previous verse of God's knowledge of every human heart), interpose in the series of references to Israel a prayer for the acceptance of the prayer of the "stranger" who should come from afar to confess the Lord Jehovah, and to "pray toward this house." Such recognition of the stranger, not as an enemy or even a complete alien, but as in some sense capable of communion with the true God, was especially natural in Solomon; first, because in his days many strangers came from afar, drawn by the fame of his wisdom and magnificence, so

that the old exclusiveness of the Israelites must have been greatly broken down; and next, because the character of the thought and writing of his age, searching (as in the books of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes) into the great religious problems which belong to man as man, naturally led to that wider view of the kingdom of God over all nations, which is worked out so strikingly in the writings of the prophets. That the case contemplated is probably not imaginary, is shown by the examples of King Hiram and the Queen of Sheba. Admiration of the glory of Israel would lead inevitably to some belief in, and “fear" of, the God of Israel; and it might well go on to the further result, here contemplated, of a fuller acknowledgment of the Lord Jehovah, and of the sacredness of the worship of His appointed Temple, which would tell silently on all the religions of the East. It was expressly provided for in the Law (Num. xv. 14-16): and in spite of the greater exclusiveness of the ages after the Captivity, heathen princes were often allowed to offer in the Temple. This recognition of the stranger from afar is different from the frequent recognition of the resident "stranger within their gates," as being under the protection of God, and to be "loved" by those who had been "strangers in the land of Egypt" (Deut. x. 18, 19). But, like it, it nobly distinguished the Law of Israel from most ancient codes; it stood out as a striking, though often unheeded, protest against the hard exclusiveness of the Jewish temper; it was a tacit anticipation of the future gathering in of all nations to enjoy the blessing which was from the beginning expressly destined for "all families of the earth."

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 inheri

1 Or, right.

second petition, for mercy and deliverance in the event of defeat and captivity. The spirit, and in the confession of verse 47 the very words, of this prayer of Solomon are strikingly reproduced in the solemn supplication of Daniel, when the close of the Babylonish captivity drew near (Dan. ix. 4—15). There we find a confession of sin, perverseness, and wickedness, literally the same; we find also a similar pleading with God, as "keeping covenant and mercy," a similar reference to the deliverance from Egypt, and a similar emphasis on the consecration of the city and its people by God's "great name." There is a striking pathos of circumstance in the fact, that over "the sanctuary that was desolate" (Dan. ix. 17), with "his windows open towards Jerusalem," Daniel utters the same prayer, which had marked the day of its consecration in all magnificence and prosperity.

(50) Forgive... and give them compassion. This prayer was singularly fulfilled at the captivity of Judah in Babylon, though we hear of no such thing in relation to the captivity of the "lost tribes" of Israel in Assyria. We see this in the exceptional favour of Nebuchadnezzar and of the Ahasuerus of the Book of Esther to the Jews in Babylon; we see it still more in the greater boon of restoration granted them by Cyrus and Darius, and the Artaxerxes of the Book of Nehemiah. Like the whole course of the fortunes of the Jews in their subsequent dispersion, these things, -however they may be accounted for-are certainly unique in history.

(51-53) For they be thy people.-This pleading with God by His deliverance of the people from Egypt, and by His promise to Moses to make them His inheritance (see Exod. xix. 5; Deut. ix. 26, 29, xiv. 2), although especially suggested by the last petition for deliverance from captivity, may be held to apply to the whole of Solomon's prayer. It implies the belief not only that the declared purpose of God cannot fail, but that, even for the manifestation of His glory to man, it must needs be visibly fulfilled before the eyes of the world. This same conviction breathes in many of the utterances of Moses for Israel (see Exod. xxxii. 12, 13; Num. xiv. 13, 14); it is expressed in the "Help us, O Lord, and deliver us for Thy name's sake," of Ps.

Prayer.

tance, 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. (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 congrega

lxxix. 9, 10, or the "Defer not for Thine own sake, O my God" of Dan. ix. 19: it is declared on the part of the Lord again and again in Ezek. xx. 9, 14, 22, “I wrought for my name's sake." It may, indeed, seem to jar upon our fuller conception of the infinite majesty of God, incapable of being augmented or lessened, and of the infinite love which does all for the sake of His creatures. Yet it is not wholly unlike our Lord's prayer (John xii. 28), "Father, glorify thy name," or the Apostolic declarations of the great purpose of redemption, as designed for "the praise of God's glory" (Ephes. i. 6, 12, 14), and of all Christian life as commanded to "do all to the glory of God" (1 Cor. x. 31). In some respects it is like the pleading with our Lord, in the Litanies of the Church in all ages, by all the various acts of His redemption, and the prayer of the old Latin hymn—

But, indeed, all that might seem to us strange or unworthy in such prayers vanishes at once, when we consider that the knowledge of God in His self-manifestation is the highest happiness of man; on which, indeed, depend all depth and harmony of human knowledge, and all dignity and purity of human life. Hence, in the Lord's Prayer, the three petitions "for God's glory," preceding all special petitions for our own needs, are really prayers for the highest blessing of all mankind. God's care for His glory is not for His own sake, but for

ours.

(54) And it was so.-At this point occurs in 2 Chron. vii. 1-3 a striking passage, describing the kindling of the sacrifice by fire from heaven, and, apparently, a second manifestation of the cloud of glory. (See Note on the passage.)

(55) Blessed all the children of Israel.-To bless the congregation was the special duty and privilege of the priests (see Num. vi. 23-27); but throughout the whole of this narrative the king, and the king alone, is conspicuous. It is, however, to be noted that Solomon's words here are not strictly of blessing, but rather of praise and prayer to God, and exhortation to the people.

thousands of rams and ten thousands of rivers of oil "— something also of that display of the magnificence of the king and his people, even in the very act of homage to God, which the history throughout seems to imply. If so, in these ideas lurked the evils which hereafter were to overthrow the prosperity of Israel, and make the Temple a heap of stones.

(65) The entering in of Hamath, is the significant name given to the great valley between Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, which the Greeks called CæleSyria; for it was the main entrance to Palestine from the north, down which the hosts of Assyria and Babylon so constantly poured. Evidently it extended at this time beyond Damascus.

The river of Egypt is not, as might naturally be thought, the Nile, or any of its branches; for the word used signifies rather a "brook " or " torrent," and the torrent, described in Num. xxxiv. 5 and Josh. xv. 4 as the border of Israel, is identified by all authorities with the torrent falling into the sea at El-Arish.

66

(65, 66) Seven days and seven days, even fourteen days. On the eighth day -The origin of this curious phrase is singularly illus trated by the account in 2 Chron. vii. 9, 10, for it tells us that the people were dismissed on the three and twentieth day" of the month, which was the day after the close of the Feast of Tabernacles. Hence it is clear that the festival week of the Dedication preceded the regular feast; and the day of dismissal was the " "eighth day," regularly so-called, of the close of the Feast of Tabernacles.

Unto their tents.-The old memory of the wandering life of Israel still lingers in this expression, as in the well-known phrase " To your tents, O Israel!" (2 Sam. xx. 1; 1 Kings xii. 16.) It may have been suggested to the writer in this place by the ideas symbolised in the Feast of Tabernacles, of which he had just recorded the observance.

IX.

Of this chapter, the first portion (verses 1-9) forms the conclusion of the detailed narrative of the preceding chapter; the latter portion is wholly different in style and subject.

(1) And it came to pass.-The obvious prima facie meaning of this verse would land us in much difficulty. By chaps. vi. 38, vii. 1, we find that, while the Temple was built in seven years, the erection of the palace and the other buildings occupied thirteen years; and from chap. v. 10 and 2 Chron. viii. 1 it appears that these works were successive, and therefore that the completion of the palace could not have taken place till thirteen years after the completion of the Temple. Hence we

The Lord appears to Solomon.

LORD had done for David his servant, and for Israel his people.

CHAPTER IX.-(1) 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.

b

(3) And the LORD said unto him, I

should have to conclude, either that the dedication was postponed for thirteen years, till all the buildings were finished-which is in itself infinitely improbable, and contradicts the express declaration of Josephus-or that a similar period intervened between Solomon's prayer and the Divine answer to it, which is even more preposterous. The variation in 2 Chron. vii. 11 probably suggests the true key to the difficulty: viz., that the notice in this verse is merely a summary of the history of chaps. vi.-viii., which records the whole of the building works of Solomon, and is not intended to fix the date of the vision of verses 2-9.

(3-9) And the Lord said unto him.-This vision of the Lord presents a remarkable contrast with that recorded in chap. vi. 11-13, while the Temple was in building. Then all was promise and encouragement; now, not only is warning mingled with promise, but, as in Solomon's own prayer, the sadder alternative seems in prophetic anticipation to overpower the brighter. In this there is (as has been often remarked) a striking exemplification of the austere and lofty candour of the inspired narrative, sternly contradicting that natural hopefulness in the hour of unexampled prosperity, which would have shrunk from even entertaining the idea that the blessing of God on the Temple should be frustrated, and the glory of Israel should pass away.

It is notable that, in its reference to the two parts of the promise to David, there is a subtle and instructive distinction. As for the Temple, now just built in fulfilment of that promise, it is declared without reserve that, in case of unfaithfulness in Israel, it shall be utterly destroyed, and become an astonishment and a proverb of reproach before the world. But in respect of the promise of the perpetuity of David's kingdomthe true Messianic prediction, which struck the key-note of all future prophecies-it is only said that Israel shall be "cut off from the land," and so "become a proverb and a byword" in captivity. Nothing is said to contradict the original declaration, that, even in case of sin, the mercy of God would chastise and not forsake the house of David (2 Sam. vii. 13, 14; Ps. lxxxix. 30-37). So again and again in prophecy captivity is denounced as a penalty of Israel's sin; but the hope of restoration is always held out, and thus the belief in God's unchanging promise remains unshaken. The true idea is strikingly illustrated by the prophet Amos (chap. ix. 9—11): "I will sift the house of Israel, among all nations. . . yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth I will raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof."

(3) To put my name there for ever. The meaning of the words "for ever," is determined by the