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1 Kings 8: What the Passage Says

239 claims across 66 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What 1 Kings 8 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

Solomon gathers Israel's leaders, and the priests carry the ark of the covenant into the inner room of the new temple, after which a cloud fills the house so the priests cannot keep working. Solomon blesses the people, recalls God's promise to his father David, and then prays at length, asking God to hear from heaven when Israelites or foreigners pray toward this house, in drought, famine, plague, defeat, and exile. He blesses the assembly again and calls them to keep God's commands, and the dedication ends with very large sacrifices and a feast lasting fourteen days.

Claim by Claim

  1. 8:1
    • Solomon assembled the elders of Israel
    • Solomon assembled all the heads of the tribes
    • Solomon assembled the leaders of the fathers' houses of the Israelites
    • The assembly gathered to king Solomon in Jerusalem
    • The purpose of the assembly was to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD from the city of David
    • The city of David is Zion
  2. 8:2
    • All the men of Israel assembled themselves to king Solomon
    • The assembly happened at the feast
    • The feast was in the month Ethanim
    • Ethanim is the seventh month
  3. 8:3
    • All the elders of Israel came
    • The priests took up the ark
  4. 8:4
    • They brought up the ark of the LORD
    • They brought up the tent of meeting
    • They brought up all the holy vessels that were in the tent
    • The priests and the Levites brought them up
  5. 8:5
    • King Solomon was before the ark
    • All the congregation of Israel that had assembled to him was with him before the ark
    • They were sacrificing sheep and oxen
    • The sheep and oxen could not be counted or numbered because of their multitude
  6. 8:6
    • The priests brought the ark of the covenant of the LORD to its place
    • Its place was the inner sanctuary of the house
    • The inner sanctuary is the most holy place
    • The ark was placed under the wings of the cherubim
  7. 8:7
    • The cherubim spread out their wings over the place of the ark
    • The cherubim covered the ark from above
    • The cherubim covered the poles of the ark from above
  8. 8:8
    • The poles were long
    • The ends of the poles could be seen from the holy place in front of the inner sanctuary
    • The poles could not be seen from outside
    • The poles are there to this day
  9. 8:9
    • There was nothing in the ark except two tablets of stone
    • Moses put the two tablets there at Horeb
    • The LORD made a covenant with the children of Israel at Horeb
    • The covenant was made when they came out of the land of Egypt
  10. 8:10
    • The priests came out of the holy place
    • The cloud filled the house of the LORD
  11. 8:11
    • The priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud
    • The glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD
  12. 8:12
    • Solomon then spoke
    • Solomon said the LORD had said he would dwell in thick darkness
  13. 8:13
    • Solomon said he had indeed built a lofty house for the LORD
    • Solomon said it was a fixed place for the LORD to dwell in forever
  14. 8:14
    • The king turned his face around
    • The king blessed all the assembly of Israel
    • All the assembly of Israel was standing
  15. 8:15
    • Solomon said the LORD God of Israel is blessed
    • Solomon said the LORD spoke with his mouth to David his father
    • Solomon said the LORD has fulfilled it with his hand
  16. 8:16
    • The LORD said that since the day he brought his people Israel out of Egypt he chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house for his name to be there
    • The LORD said he chose David to be over his people Israel
  17. 8:17
    • It was in the heart of David, Solomon's father, to build a house for the name of the LORD God of Israel
  18. 8:18
    • The LORD said to David, Solomon's father, that it was in David's heart to build a house for the LORD's name
    • The LORD said David did well in that it was in his heart
  19. 8:19
    • The LORD said David would not build the house
    • The LORD said David's son who would come out of his loins would build the house for the LORD's name
  20. 8:20
    • Solomon said the LORD has performed the word he spoke
    • Solomon said he has risen up in the place of David his father
    • Solomon said he sits on the throne of Israel
    • Solomon said this happened as the LORD promised
    • Solomon said he has built the house for the name of the LORD God of Israel
  21. 8:21
    • Solomon said he has set there a place for the ark
    • Solomon said the covenant of the LORD is in the ark
    • Solomon said the LORD made that covenant with our fathers
    • Solomon said the covenant was made when the LORD brought them out of the land of Egypt
  22. 8:22
    • Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD
    • Solomon stood in the presence of all the assembly of Israel
    • Solomon spread out his hands toward heaven
  23. 8:23
    • Solomon addressed the LORD God of Israel
    • Solomon said there is no God like the LORD in heaven above or on earth beneath
    • Solomon said the LORD keeps covenant and steadfast love with his servants who walk before him with all their heart
  24. 8:24
    • Solomon said the LORD has kept with his servant David, Solomon's father, what he promised him
    • Solomon said the LORD spoke with his mouth
    • Solomon said the LORD fulfilled it with his hand as it is this day
  25. 8:25
    • Solomon asked the LORD God of Israel to keep with his servant David, Solomon's father, what he promised him
    • The promise was that David would never fail to have a man before the LORD to sit on the throne of Israel
    • The promise was conditional on David's sons taking heed to their way to walk before the LORD as David walked before him
  26. 8:26
    • Solomon asked the God of Israel to let the word he spoke to his servant David, Solomon's father, be confirmed
  27. 8:27
    • Solomon asked whether God will indeed dwell on the earth
    • Solomon said the heavens and the heaven of heavens cannot contain God
    • Solomon said much less can the house he has built contain God
  28. 8:28
    • Solomon asked the LORD his God to turn to the prayer of his servant and to his supplication
    • Solomon asked the LORD to listen to the cry and the prayer which his servant prays before him that day
  29. 8:29
    • Solomon asked that the LORD's eyes be open toward this house night and day
    • Solomon asked that the LORD's eyes be open toward the place of which he said his name would be there
    • Solomon asked that the LORD hear the prayer which his servant prays toward this place
  30. 8:30
    • Solomon asked the LORD to hear the supplication of his servant and of his people Israel when they pray toward this place
    • Solomon asked the LORD to hear from his dwelling place in heaven
    • Solomon asked that when the LORD hears, he forgive
  31. 8:31
    • Solomon set the case of a man sinning against his neighbour
    • Solomon set the case of an oath being laid on him to make him swear
    • Solomon set the case of the oath coming before the LORD's altar in this house
  32. 8:32
    • Solomon asked the LORD to hear in heaven
    • Solomon asked the LORD to act
    • Solomon asked the LORD to judge his servants
    • Solomon asked the LORD to condemn the wicked by bringing his way upon his own head
    • Solomon asked the LORD to justify the righteous by giving him according to his righteousness
  33. 8:33
    • Solomon set the case of the LORD's people Israel being struck down before an enemy
    • The defeat is because they have sinned against the LORD
    • Solomon set the case of their turning back to the LORD
    • Solomon set the case of their confessing the LORD's name
    • Solomon set the case of their praying and making supplication to the LORD in this house
  34. 8:34
    • Solomon asked the LORD to hear in heaven
    • Solomon asked the LORD to forgive the sin of his people Israel
    • Solomon asked the LORD to bring them back to the land he gave to their fathers
  35. 8:35
    • Solomon set the case of the heavens being shut up so that there is no rain
    • The drought is because they have sinned against the LORD
    • Solomon set the case of their praying toward this place
    • Solomon set the case of their confessing the LORD's name
    • Solomon set the case of their turning from their sin when the LORD afflicts them
  36. 8:36
    • Solomon asked the LORD to hear in heaven
    • Solomon asked the LORD to forgive the sin of his servants and of his people Israel
    • Solomon asked the LORD to teach them the good way in which they should walk
    • Solomon asked the LORD to give rain upon his land
    • Solomon said the LORD gave that land to his people as an inheritance
  37. 8:37
    • Solomon set the case of famine in the land
    • Solomon set the case of pestilence
    • Solomon set the case of blight
    • Solomon set the case of mildew
    • Solomon set the case of locusts
    • Solomon set the case of the devouring locust
    • Solomon set the case of an enemy besieging them in the land of their cities
    • Solomon set the case of any plague whatever
    • Solomon set the case of any sickness whatever
  38. 8:38
    • Solomon spoke of any prayer or supplication made by any man or by all the LORD's people Israel
    • Each man knows the affliction of his own heart
    • Such a man spreads out his hands toward this house
  39. 8:39
    • Solomon asked the LORD to hear in heaven, his dwelling place
    • Solomon asked the LORD to forgive
    • Solomon asked the LORD to act
    • Solomon asked the LORD to give to every man according to all his ways
    • The LORD knows that man's heart
    • The LORD alone knows the hearts of all the children of men
  40. 8:40
    • The purpose is that they may fear the LORD all the days they live on the land
    • The LORD gave that land to our fathers
  41. 8:41
    • Solomon spoke also concerning the foreigner who is not of the LORD's people Israel
    • The foreigner comes from a far country for the sake of the LORD's name
  42. 8:42
    • They will hear of the LORD's great name
    • They will hear of the LORD's strong hand
    • They will hear of the LORD's outstretched arm
    • Solomon set the case of the foreigner coming and praying toward this house
  43. 8:43
    • Solomon asked the LORD to hear in heaven, his dwelling place
    • Solomon asked the LORD to do according to all that the foreigner calls to him for
    • The purpose is that all the peoples of the earth may know the LORD's name
    • The purpose is that they may fear the LORD as do his people Israel
    • The purpose is that they may know that this house is called by the LORD's name
    • Solomon said he built this house
  44. 8:44
    • Solomon set the case of the LORD's people going out to battle against their enemy
    • They go by the way the LORD sends them
    • Solomon set the case of their praying to the LORD toward the city the LORD has chosen
    • Solomon set the case of their praying toward the house Solomon has built for the LORD's name
  45. 8:45
    • Solomon asked the LORD to hear in heaven their prayer and their supplication
    • Solomon asked the LORD to maintain their cause
  46. 8:46
    • Solomon set the case of their sinning against the LORD
    • There is no man who does not sin
    • Solomon set the case of the LORD being angry with them
    • Solomon set the case of the LORD delivering them to an enemy
    • Solomon set the case of their captors carrying them away to the land of the enemy
    • That land may be far or near
  47. 8:47
    • Solomon set the case of their taking it to heart in the land where they were carried captive
    • Solomon set the case of their turning back
    • Solomon set the case of their making supplication to the LORD in the land of their captors
    • They say they have sinned
    • They say they have done wrong
    • They say they have acted wickedly
  48. 8:48
    • Solomon set the case of their returning to the LORD with all their heart and with all their soul
    • They are in the land of their enemies who took them captive
    • Solomon set the case of their praying to the LORD toward their land, which the LORD gave to their fathers
    • They pray toward the city the LORD has chosen
    • They pray toward the house Solomon has built for the LORD's name
  49. 8:49
    • Solomon asked the LORD to hear their prayer and their supplication in heaven, his dwelling place
    • Solomon asked the LORD to maintain their cause
  50. 8:50
    • Solomon asked the LORD to forgive his people who have sinned against him
    • Solomon asked the LORD to forgive all their transgressions committed against him
    • Solomon asked the LORD to grant them compassion before their captors
    • The purpose is that their captors may have compassion on them
  51. 8:51
    • They are the LORD's people
    • They are the LORD's inheritance
    • The LORD brought them out of Egypt
    • The LORD brought them out from the midst of the iron furnace
  52. 8:52
    • Solomon asked that the LORD's eyes be open to the supplication of his servant
    • Solomon asked that the LORD's eyes be open to the supplication of his people Israel
    • Solomon asked the LORD to listen to them in everything they call to him for
  53. 8:53
    • The LORD separated them from among all the peoples of the earth to be his inheritance
    • The LORD spoke this by the hand of Moses his servant
    • The LORD brought our fathers out of Egypt
    • Solomon addressed the LORD as Lord GOD
  54. 8:54
    • Solomon finished praying all this prayer and supplication to the LORD
    • Solomon arose from before the altar of the LORD
    • Solomon had been kneeling on his knees
    • Solomon's hands were spread out toward heaven
  55. 8:55
    • Solomon stood
    • Solomon blessed all the assembly of Israel
    • Solomon spoke with a loud voice
  56. 8:56
    • Solomon said the LORD is blessed
    • Solomon said the LORD has given rest to his people Israel
    • The rest was given according to all that the LORD promised
    • Not one word has failed of all the LORD's good promise
    • The LORD made that promise by the hand of Moses his servant
  57. 8:57
    • Solomon asked that the LORD our God be with us as he was with our fathers
    • Solomon asked that the LORD not leave us
    • Solomon asked that the LORD not forsake us
  58. 8:58
    • The purpose is that the LORD may incline our hearts to himself
    • The purpose is that we walk in all his ways
    • The purpose is that we keep his commandments, his statutes, and his judgments
    • The LORD commanded those to our fathers
  59. 8:59
    • Solomon asked that these his words be near to the LORD our God day and night
    • Solomon made supplication with these words before the LORD
    • The purpose is that the LORD maintain the cause of his servant
    • The purpose is that the LORD maintain the cause of his people Israel
    • The LORD is to do so as each day requires
  60. 8:60
    • The purpose is that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God
    • The purpose is that they may know there is no other
  61. 8:61
    • Solomon told them to let their heart be whole with the LORD our God
    • They are to walk in his statutes
    • They are to keep his commandments
    • They are to do so as at this day
  62. 8:62
    • The king and all Israel with him offered sacrifice before the LORD
  63. 8:63
    • Solomon offered a sacrifice of peace offerings to the LORD
    • The offering was twenty-two thousand oxen
    • The offering was a hundred and twenty thousand sheep
    • The king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of the LORD
  64. 8:64
    • On that same day the king consecrated the middle of the court that was before the house of the LORD
    • There he offered the burnt offering
    • There he offered the grain offering
    • There he offered the fat of the peace offerings
    • The bronze altar that was before the LORD was too small to hold the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the fat of the peace offerings
  65. 8:65
    • At that time Solomon held the feast
    • All Israel was with him
    • It was a great assembly
    • The assembly came from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of Egypt
    • The feast was held before the LORD our God
    • The feast lasted seven days and seven days
    • That is fourteen days
  66. 8:66
    • On the eighth day Solomon sent the people away
    • They blessed the king
    • They went to their tents
    • They were joyful and glad of heart
    • Their gladness was for all the goodness the LORD had done for David his servant and for Israel his people

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

8:1
The City of David, also called Zion, was the fortified hill on the southeastern ridge of Jerusalem that David captured and made his capital; the ark had been kept there in a tent. The temple stood on higher ground just to the north, which is why the ark is carried "up." Where the text prints LORD in capitals, it stands in for the personal name of Israel's God, spelled with four Hebrew consonants (YHWH), which Jewish readers came to avoid pronouncing aloud.
8:2
Ethanim is an old Canaanite month name, roughly September–October; "seventh month" counts from spring in Israel's religious calendar. The festival is the Feast of Booths (also called Tabernacles), the week-long autumn harvest festival, the largest gathering of the year.
8:3
The ark had gold rings on its sides with long poles through them. Priests carried it by those poles so no one touched the ark itself.
8:4
The tent of meeting was the portable sanctuary used from the wilderness period onward, the temple's predecessor. The Levites were the tribe of Levi, set apart for sanctuary duties; the priests were the branch of that tribe descended from Aaron, and only they handled the holiest objects.
8:5
Sacrificing an animal meant killing it at the altar and burning part of it, with the rest usually cooked and eaten by the worshipers. A procession punctuated by sacrifice was a public act of honor. The point of "could not be told nor numbered" is scale, not an actual count.
8:6
The inner room (Hebrew debir) was the windowless innermost chamber of the temple. "Most Holy Place" is a Hebrew way of forming a superlative, literally "holy of holies", and only the high priest entered it, once a year. Cherubim were not infant angels but composite winged creatures; in ancient Near Eastern art such figures flanked royal thrones and guarded sacred places. The two in the temple were carved of olive wood and overlaid with gold, their wings spanning the width of the room.
8:7
The ark had rings at its corners through which two poles were kept permanently in place, so it could be lifted and carried without anyone touching the chest itself.
8:8
"They are still there today" is the writer's own comment, and the phrase is probably taken from an older record written while the temple was still standing.
8:9
Horeb is another name for Mount Sinai. The two stone tablets are the Ten Commandments. In the ancient world the written terms of a treaty were deposited in a sanctuary, which is what the chest was for.
8:10
"The house of the LORD" means the temple. It was the new building for worshiping God.
8:11
"Glory" translates a Hebrew word whose root sense is weight or heaviness; it refers to the visible splendor that marked God's presence. The same cloud is described as filling the wilderness tent. The point of the verse is practical: the priests could not carry on with the ceremony.
8:12
"Thick darkness" is a specific Hebrew word for a dense, storm-black cloud, used of the covering over Mount Sinai when the law was given.
8:13
"An house" means the temple building. Through this chapter the word does double duty in Hebrew as it does in English, meaning both a building and a family line or dynasty, and verses 16 to 20 play on both senses at once.
8:14
To bless people here is a formal act, not a casual word: the king speaks a prayer for their good over the whole assembly, something a king or priest did on public occasions.
8:15
When people bless God the word runs the other way and means praise or thank. Speaking with the mouth and fulfilling with the hand is a standard pairing for saying a thing and then doing it.
8:16
"A house for my name" uses "name" much as a deed or an inscription does: the name marks whose the building is and where its owner may be addressed. Ancient temples were commonly said to be built for a god's name.
8:19
The KJV "come forth out of thy loins" is the ordinary ancient way of saying a man's own biological child.
8:20
The KJV "in the room of David" has nothing to do with rooms in a building. In 1611 "room" could mean place or position, so this means Solomon has taken his father's place on the throne.
8:22
Standing with arms extended and palms turned upward was the ordinary posture for public prayer. Verse 54 shows that Solomon knelt during the prayer as well.
8:23
The word behind "faithful love" (hesed) means committed loyalty shown to someone you are bound to by agreement, not passing kindness. To "live before" or "walk before" someone is a Hebrew idiom for conducting your whole life in that person's presence and service.
8:25
"You will never fail to have a man sitting on the throne" is standard language for an unbroken royal line. Note that Solomon quotes the promise with a condition attached to it, the descendants must keep to the same way of life.
8:27
"The heaven and heaven of heavens" is a Hebrew way of saying the highest heaven imaginable, built like "king of kings" to mean the greatest king. Solomon is pushing back on the ordinary ancient assumption that a temple was literally a god's residence, with the god's statue inside it.
8:28
"Supplication" is an old word. It means asking hard for help, like begging.
8:29
Israelites who could not be at the temple prayed facing it, as the following verses assume; this is the origin of the later practice of turning toward Jerusalem to pray. The request that God's "eyes be open toward this house" asks for attention to the building, while God himself is said to hear from heaven.
8:31
This describes a legal procedure. When a dispute could not be settled because there were no witnesses or evidence, the accused was brought to the sanctuary and made to swear an oath calling down harm on himself if he was lying. The verdict was then left to God rather than to a judge.
8:32
"Bring back on his own head what he has done" is an idiom: the harm a person intended or caused falls back onto him.
8:33
"Smitten down before the enemy" means losing a battle in a war.
8:35
Drought is described as the sky being "shut up" because rain was pictured as released through doors or windows in the sky. In this land almost all farming depended on seasonal rain, so a closed sky meant famine.
8:36
An inheritance is something a family is given to keep. They pass it down to their children.
8:37
Blight and mildew are two crop diseases: one is scorching, associated with the hot dry east wind, the other a damp fungal rot. The two insect words are separate Hebrew terms for swarming insects, probably different kinds, or the same insect at different stages of growth. A swarm could strip a region bare in hours.
8:38
"The trouble in his own heart" translates a phrase meaning literally "the affliction of his own heart", the suffering each person knows about from the inside. In Hebrew the heart is the seat of thought and decision, the inner self, not the emotions alone.
8:40
"Fear" here means deep respect and awe, the way you treat someone far greater than you. It does not mean being scared of God.
8:41
The Hebrew word here is for a foreigner from elsewhere, a visitor or traveler, and is distinct from another word used for a resident alien who lived permanently among Israelites and shared many of their obligations.
8:42
"Strong hand and outstretched arm" is a fixed phrase used again and again for the power by which Israel was brought out of Egypt; it would have been instantly recognisable as a reference to that event.
8:43
For a house to be "called by thy name" means it belongs to God and everyone knows whose it is.
8:44
When people prayed, they turned to face Jerusalem. Facing that way helped them remember God's house.
8:45
"Maintain their cause" means stand up for them. It is like having a helper speak for you.
8:46
Deporting a conquered population was standard imperial policy: an empire moved the leading families hundreds of miles away to destroy their ability to rebel. This paragraph describes exactly what later happened to the northern kingdom in 722 BC and to Judah in 586 BC, and the first readers of Kings were probably living through the aftermath.
8:47
To repent means to be sorry and to turn around and do right.
8:50
Compassion means feeling sorry for someone and being kind to them.
8:51
The iron furnace is a smelter, the furnace used to work iron ore, and stands for punishing heat and grinding labor. "Your own share" translates a word for the fixed portion of property a family holds permanently and passes on to its children.
8:53
"Lord GOD" reflects a printing convention. Where the Hebrew has the word for "lord" followed by the personal divine name, English versions avoid printing "Lord LORD" by setting the second word as GOD in capitals.
8:54
Kneeling down with your hands lifted up was a normal way to pray then.
8:56
"Given rest" is a standard phrase for being settled securely in the land with no war being waged against you; it is what the whole account of David's wars and Solomon's peace has been building toward.
8:57
To forsake someone means to leave them behind for good.
8:58
"Statutes" and "judgments" are two old words for God's rules and laws.
8:61
The Hebrew word behind "belong completely" means whole or undivided. The concern is single, unshared loyalty rather than flawless behavior.
8:63
In a peace offering only the fat was burned on the altar; the rest of the animal was eaten by the worshipers and priests in a shared meal. That is why the numbers are so large, these sacrifices fed a national assembly for two weeks.
8:64
A burnt offering was consumed entirely on the altar. A grain offering was flour with oil and incense. The fat was reckoned the best part of the animal and was burned as God's portion. The bronze altar was the large bronze-plated altar standing in the open courtyard, where sacrifices were burned.
8:65
Lebo-hamath lay far to the north, in the valley between the Lebanon ranges, and the Brook of Egypt was a seasonal desert watercourse marking the southwestern edge of the land. Naming the two together is a way of saying "from one end of the country to the other."
8:66
"The eighth day" is the day after the second seven-day stretch; the parallel account in 2 Chronicles counts the days differently, and some translations follow that reckoning and read "the fifteenth day." "Went home to their tents" is an old idiom simply meaning they went home, kept long after Israelites lived in houses. To "bless the king" here means to speak well of him and wish him good.

Read 1 Kings 8