when they lifted up the voice with trumpets and with cymbals, and the (other) instruments of song, and with the praise of Jahve, that He is good, that His mercy endureth for ever (cf. 1Ch 16:34), then was the house filled with the cloud of the house of Jahve.” The absence of the article before ענן requires us thus to connect the יהוה בּית at the close of the verse with ענן (stat. constr.), since the indefinite ענן (without the article) is not at all suitable here; for it is not any cloud which is here spoken of, but that which overshadowed the glory of the Lord in the most holy place.
Verse 14
2Ch 5:14 2Ch 5:14, again, agrees with 1Ki 8:6, and has been there commented upon.
Chap. 6
Verses 1-11
The words with which Solomon celebrates this wondrous evidence of the divine favour, entirely coincide with the narrative in 1Ki 8:12-21, except that in 2Ch 6:5. the actual words of Solomon's speech are more completely given than in 1Ki 8:16, where the words, “and I have not chosen a man to be prince over my people Israel, and I have chosen Jerusalem that my name might be there,” are omitted. For the commentary on this address, see on 1Ki 8:12-21.
Verses 12-42
2Ch 6:12-42Solomon's dedicatory prayer likewise corresponds exactly with the account of it given in 1 Kings 8:22-53 till near the end (2Ch 6:40-42), where it takes quite a different turn. Besides this, in the introduction (2Ch 6:13) Solomon's position during the prayer is more accurately described, it being there stated that Solomon had caused a high stage (כּיּור, a basin-like elevation) to be erected, which he ascended, and kneeling, spoke the prayer which follows. This fact is not stated in 1Ki 8:22, and Then. and Berth. conjecture that it has been dropped out of our text only by mistake. Perhaps so, but it may have been passed over by the author of the books of Kings as a point of subordinate importance. On the contents of the prayer, which begins with the joyful confession that the Lord had fulfilled His promise to David in reference to the building of the temple, and proceeds with a request for a further bestowment of the blessing promised to His people, and a supplication that all prayers made to the Lord in the temple may be heard, see the Com. on 1Ki 8:22. The conclusion of the prayer in the Chronicle is different from that in 1 Kings 8. There the last supplication, that the prayers might be heard, is followed by the thought: for they (the Israelites) are Thy people and inheritance; and in the further amplification of this thought the prayer
