2 Chronicles 7

When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from the sky and burned up the burnt offering and the other sacrifices. And the glory of the LORD filled the temple.

1Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the LORD filled the house.

NoteA burnt offering was an animal burned whole on the altar, with none of it eaten; the other sacrifices mentioned were of the kind partly burned and partly eaten by the worshipers and priests. "The glory of the LORD" translates a Hebrew phrase for the visible sign of God's presence, described elsewhere as a cloud or blazing brightness.

2The priests could not go into the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD had filled it.

2And the priests could not enter into the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD had filled the LORD’s house.

3All the people of Israel saw the fire come down and saw the glory of the LORD over the temple. They knelt on the stone pavement with their faces to the ground. They worshiped and thanked the LORD, saying, "He is good; his faithful love lasts forever."

3And when all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the LORD upon the house, they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement, and worshipped, and praised the LORD, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.

Note"Faithful love" translates the Hebrew word *hesed*, which means loyal, committed kindness of the sort owed within a binding relationship, not warm feeling. This line was a fixed refrain sung in Israel's worship, which is why it appears word for word again in verse 6.

4Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices to the LORD.

4Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices before the LORD.

5King Solomon offered a sacrifice of 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep. In this way the king and all the people dedicated the house of God.

5And king Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty and two thousand oxen, and an hundred and twenty thousand sheep: so the king and all the people dedicated the house of God.

NoteThe numbers are enormous by design: these were fellowship sacrifices, whose meat was eaten by the worshipers, so the animals fed a national crowd over a two-week festival rather than being simply destroyed.

6The priests stood at their assigned places. The Levites stood with the LORD's musical instruments, which King David had made for thanking the LORD, the instruments David used when he offered praise, saying, "His faithful love lasts forever." Facing them, the priests blew trumpets, and all Israel stood.

6And the priests waited on their offices: the Levites also with instruments of musick of the LORD, which David the king had made to praise the LORD, because his mercy endureth for ever, when David praised by their ministry; and the priests sounded trumpets before them, and all Israel stood.

NoteThe Levites were members of the tribe of Levi who were not priests but had assigned duties in the sanctuary, music, gatekeeping, and assisting at the sacrifices. Only priests, a subset of that tribe descended from Aaron, blew the sacred silver trumpets and handled the altar itself.

7Solomon also set apart the middle of the courtyard in front of the house of the LORD. He offered the burnt offerings there, along with the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar he had made was too small to hold the burnt offerings, the grain offerings, and the fat.

7Moreover Solomon hallowed the middle of the court that was before the house of the LORD: for there he offered burnt offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings, because the brasen altar which Solomon had made was not able to receive the burnt offerings, and the meat offerings, and the fat.

NotePeace offerings (also called fellowship offerings) were sacrifices whose meat the worshipers ate as a shared meal; only the fat portions were burned on the altar. Grain offerings were gifts of flour and oil rather than animals. "Set apart" here means formally declaring an ordinary space fit for sacred use.

8At that same time Solomon kept the festival for seven days, and all Israel was with him. It was a very large crowd, gathered from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt.

8Also at the same time Solomon kept the feast seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great congregation, from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of Egypt.

Note"The festival" is the Feast of Booths (Tabernacles), a week-long autumn harvest celebration. Lebo-hamath, far north in the Lebanon valley, and the Brook of Egypt, the desert stream on the southwestern frontier, were the conventional way of saying "the whole territory of Israel from end to end."

9On the eighth day they held a closing assembly, since they had spent seven days dedicating the altar and seven more days keeping the festival.

9And in the eighth day they made a solemn assembly: for they kept the dedication of the altar seven days, and the feast seven days.

NoteThe law prescribed a closing assembly on the eighth day of the festival, a day of rest and formal gathering that capped the week.

10On the twenty-third day of the seventh month, Solomon sent the people home. They were happy and glad because of the good things the LORD had done for David, for Solomon, and for his people Israel.

10And on the three and twentieth day of the seventh month he sent the people away into their tents, glad and merry in heart for the goodness that the LORD had shewed unto David, and to Solomon, and to Israel his people.

NoteThe seventh month is Tishri, falling in our September–October. Israel's religious calendar began in the spring, so the seventh month was the great autumn festival season.

11So Solomon finished the house of the LORD and the royal palace. Everything he had planned to do for the house of the LORD and for his own house, he carried out successfully.

11Thus Solomon finished the house of the LORD, and the king’s house: and all that came into Solomon’s heart to make in the house of the LORD, and in his own house, he prosperously effected.

12The LORD appeared to Solomon at night and said to him, "I have heard your prayer, and I have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice.

12And the LORD appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for an house of sacrifice.

Note"A house of sacrifice" identifies the temple's function: the one authorized site where offerings were to be presented.

13If I shut up the sky so that no rain falls, or order the locusts to eat up the land, or send a deadly disease among my people,

13If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people;

14and then my people, who are called by my name, humble themselves and pray and look to me and turn away from their evil ways, I will hear from heaven. I will forgive their sin and heal their land.

14If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Note"Called by my name" is an ownership idiom, the way a conquered city or a wife was said to bear the name of the one it belonged to. "Seek my face" is court language for seeking an audience with a king, asking to be admitted to his presence.

15From now on my eyes will be open and my ears will listen closely to the prayers prayed in this place.

15Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place.

16I have now chosen this house and set it apart as holy, so that my name will be there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there always.

16For now have I chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be there for ever: and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.

NoteIn this idiom a name placed somewhere marks the owner's claim and presence, rather as a name carved over a door does; it is a way of saying God attaches himself to the place without being confined to it.

17As for you, if you live your life before me the way your father David did, doing everything I have commanded you, and if you keep my rules and my decisions,

17And as for thee, if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, and do according to all that I have commanded thee, and shalt observe my statutes and my judgments;

Note"Live your life before me" translates a Hebrew idiom, literally "walk before me," meaning to conduct one's whole life in the awareness of being in someone's presence and answerable to them.

18then I will make your royal throne secure. That is the agreement I made with your father David when I said, 'You will never fail to have a man ruling in Israel.'

18Then will I stablish the throne of thy kingdom, according as I have covenanted with David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man to be ruler in Israel.

NoteA covenant was a formal, binding agreement, sworn and irrevocable, closer to a treaty or a sealed contract than to a promise casually made.

19But if you people turn away and abandon the rules and commands I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them,

19But if ye turn away, and forsake my statutes and my commandments, which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them;

NoteIn the Hebrew the address changes here from singular to plural: verses 17–18 speak to Solomon alone, but from this verse the warning is aimed at the nation as a whole. English "you" hides the shift, which is why the rendering says "you people."

20then I will pull Israel up by the roots out of the land I have given them. And this house that I set apart for my name, I will throw out of my sight. I will make it a saying people repeat and a name people mock among all the nations.

20Then will I pluck them up by the roots out of my land which I have given them; and this house, which I have sanctified for my name, will I cast out of my sight, and will make it to be a proverb and a byword among all nations.

Note"A saying people repeat and a name people mock" translates "a proverb and a byword", the ruined temple would become a stock example quoted in other nations' speech, the way a name can turn into a synonym for disaster.

21And everyone who passes by this house, which stands so high, will be shocked. They will say, 'Why has the LORD done this to this land and to this house?'

21And this house, which is high, shall be an astonishment to every one that passeth by it; so that he shall say, Why hath the LORD done thus unto this land, and unto this house?

NoteThe Hebrew here is difficult and the ancient versions disagree. The word can mean the house is "high" (imposing, exalted) or, on another reading, that it has been reduced to a heap of ruins. The King James took the first sense; many modern translations take the second. The parallel account in 1 Kings 9:8 has the same puzzle.

22And the answer will be, 'Because they abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt. They took hold of other gods and worshiped them and served them. That is why he brought all this disaster on them.'"

22And it shall be answered, Because they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods, and worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath he brought all this evil upon them.

Note"Took hold of" translates a verb used for gripping something tightly or clinging to a spouse: it pictures attachment, not mere experiment.