thou shall not build the house; but thy son that shall come forth out of thy loins, he shall build the house for my name. 10And the LORD hath performed his word that he spake; for I am risen up in the room of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised, and have built the house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel. 11And there have I set the ark, wherein is the covenant of the LORD, which he made with the children of Israel.
12And he stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands: 13(for Solomon had made a brasen scaffold, of five cubits long, and five cubits broad, and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court; and upon it he stood, and kneeled down upon his knees before all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven:) 14and he said, O LORD, the God of Israel, there is no God like thee, in the heaven, or in the earth; who keepest covenant and mercy [1]with thy servants, that walk
9. thou shalt not build] Cp. 1 Chr. xxii. 8, note.
11. the covenant] i.e. the two tables of stone, cp. v. 10.
with the children of Israel] In 1 Kin. viii. 21, with our fathers, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.
12—39 (= 1 Kin. viii. 22—50). Solomon's Prayer.
The prayer is reproduced from 1 Kings with a few verbal changes and with the omission of vv. 50 b—53. It is mainly a petition that future prayers made "in" or "toward this house" may be heard. The subjects of the different parts of the prayer are as follows:—
| vv. | 14—17. | The promise made to David. |
| 18—21. | Prayer made toward this place. | |
| 22, 23. | The oath of ordeal taken in this place. | |
| 24, 25. | Prayer under defeat. | |
| 26, 27. | Prayer for rain. | |
| 28—31. | Prayer under divers afflictions. | |
| 32, 33. | The stranger's prayer. | |
| 34, 35. | The prayer of the army at war abroad. | |
| 36—39. | The prayer of Israel in captivity. |
13. Solomon had made a brasen scaffold] This "scaffold" is not mentioned in 1 Kings. The word used (kiyyōr) properly means a "laver" (so iv. 6), and perhaps the simple emendation kiyyūn = "platform" should be adopted.
- ↑ Or, for
