(4-10) THE SACRIFICES AND THE FESTIVAL. (Comp. 1Kings 8:62-66.) The two narratives are again mainly coincident.

(4) Then.--And.

Offered sacrifices.--Were sacrificing a sacrifice. LXX., ??????? ??????. Vulg., "immolabant."

Verses 4, 5. - These two verses bring us again into company with the parallel in its vers. 62, 63. Let it be noticed that in both these verses the compiler of Chronicles avoids the words, "all Israel," and "all the children of Israel;" in favour of all the people. The parallel tells us that the sacrifices in part were peace offerings, eatable, therefore, by priests and people. Large as the numbers of the oxen and sheep sacrificed, yet indications in the narrative round about do something to sustain them, as e.g. the number of people who had come together; the fact that all the people are said to offer sacrifices; the fact that Solomon, Because of the press for room (ver. 7), hallowed the middle of the court, i.e. probably the court itself, in order to find place for the "burnt offerings, meat offerings, and fat" (ver. 7); further, the number of mouths of people that certainly would need filling, not only on one day, but on days more than one, while on the third day (Leviticus 19:6) any part of a peace offering still left was to be destroyed by fire. Nevertheless, the thought of the scene of butchery is, to our modern imagination, amazing to the last degree. An assemblage of people in Jerusalem, all making also for its temple, of a hundred and twenty thousand people, and a minimum of another twenty-two thousand people, is startling; but add to these a sheep apiece for the former number, and an ox apiece for the latter (a computation itself necessarily under the mark), and allow several days to be covered by the- killing and sacrificing, and one feels that the key and explanation of the present words of the Bible text in this very passage are scarcely in hand. The interesting note in the 'Speaker's Commentary' on 1 Kings 8:63 scarcely assists us. Its instances of the "profusion" of the "sacrifices of antiquity" are altogether and immensely distanced by the narrative before us, not only in the number of victims, but in respect of the time in which the victims had to be despatched and disposed of, and the place and space within which, if not the slaughtering, yet certainly the offering, had to be done.

7:1-22 God's answer to Solomon's prayer. - God gave a gracious answer to Solomon's prayer. The mercies of God to sinners are made known in a manner well suited to impress all who receive them, with his majesty and holiness. The people worshipped and praised God. When he manifests himself as a consuming Fire to sinners, his people can rejoice in him as their Light. Nay, they had reason to say, that God was good in this. It is of the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, but the sacrifice in our stead, for which we should be very thankful. And whoever beholds with true faith, the Saviour agonizing and dying for man's sin, will, by that view, find his godly sorrow enlarged, his hatred of sin increased, his soul made more watchful, and his life more holy. Solomon prosperously effected all he designed, for adorning both God's house and his own. Those who begin with the service of God, are likely to go on successfully in their own affairs. It was Solomon's praise, that what he undertook, he went through with; it was by the grace of God that he prospered in it. Let us then stand in awe, and sin not. Let us fear the Lord's displeasure, hope in his mercy, and walk in his commandments.Then the king and all the people,.... Of these two verses; see Gill on 1 Kings 8:62; see Gill on 1 Kings 8:63.