2 Chronicles 7:4–10

7:4–10 The ark is in its place, Solomon has prayed, and the Lord has made his approving presence known. Now follow details as “the king and all the people dedicated the house of God” with sacrifices accompanied by musical praise (2 Chron. 7:5). Key emphases of the Chronicler are evident in this short passage:

(1) “All the people” are involved in the dedication (vv. 4, 5) as a “very great” or “solemn” “assembly” (vv. 8, 9). As when David “assembled all Israel” to bring the ark from Kiriath-jearim, they come from the northern extent of the country, “Lebo-hamath,” to the southern boundary, the “Brook of Egypt” (v. 8; cf. comment on 1 Chron. 13:5–10).

(2) The temple is a place of prayer and sacrifice, and so the altar too is “dedicated” (2 Chron. 7:9, added by the Chronicler). The Hebrew term khanukkah (“dedication”) is rare and appears to refer to a ceremony associated with the first use of a building or implement, confirming its occupancy, e.g., of a house (Deut. 20:5) or city walls (Neh. 12:27), as well as here, the temple (2 Chron. 7:5; cf. Psalm 30 superscription) and altar (2 Chron. 7:9).¹ The detail that Solomon had made the “bronze altar” provides a parallel with the “bronze altar” Bezalel had made for the tabernacle (1:5).

(3) The Chronicler adds to the account of 1 Kings 8:62–66 a record of Levitical involvement in music and praise as established by David, with instruments he had made (2 Chron. 7:6; 1 Chron. 15:16–24; 23:5; 25:1–6).

(4) On either side of the musical praise we find details of various sacrifices, a major component of the Mosaic laws. The number of oxen and sheep is large (calculated to represent 20 sacrifices a minute for 10 hours for 12 days, and so probably a literary use of hyperbole²); the animals also provide food for the many people after the fat has been burned (Leviticus 3).³ Certainly the number was so high that the “middle of the court” had to be “consecrated” for the occasion.

(5) Attention to Mosaic regulations concerning feasts is seen in the careful way the Chronicler (2 Chron. 7:8–10) modifies Kings’ unusual “seven days and seven days, fourteen days” and the people’s being dismissed “on the eighth day” (1 Kings 8:65 ESV mg., 66). The sequence begins with the dedication feast for seven days (days 8–14 of the month), followed by seven days of the Feast of Booths (days 15–21) and an eighth day (day 22) of “solemn assembly” (Lev. 23:36). It is accordingly not until the “twenty-third day of the seventh month” that the people are sent back to their homes (2 Chron. 7:10). It could be said that this is the first time the Feast of Booths is held “at the place that the Lord will choose” (Deut. 16:13–15).⁴

(6) The concluding report of the people’s being “joyful and glad of heart” (2 Chron. 7:10) is also in Kings (1 Kings 8:66) but is a frequent note throughout Chronicles (cf. Introduction: Theology of 1–2 Chronicles: Temple, Levites, and Worship). The worship of God is always an occasion of “joy.”

(7) David and Solomon are again joined together (2 Chron. 7:10), the Chronicler seeing their reigns as intertwined, with both kings being significant in the building of the temple and the settling of the ark in its place. While the Hebrew term tobah (“goodness”) often includes a sense of “prosperity” (as ESV), it is likely that for the Chronicler this is a fulfillment of God’s promise to David concerning both a son and the temple. After David received the Lord’s message through Nathan, he prayed, “You have promised this good thing to your servant,” referring specifically to the dynasty (1 Chron. 17:26), but for the Chronicler the most important task was the building of the temple. What was “good” to David has continued to be “good” to “Solomon and to Israel his people.” A similar linking of God, king, people, and temple is seen in the later commendation of Jehoiada: “He had done good in Israel, and toward God and his house” (2 Chron. 24:16).