Overview of 2 Chronicles 5:2–7:22

The temple itself is finished and furnished, and all is ready for the activity for which the temple was built. This will involve not only what king and people do but also the Lord’s response: it is his “house.”

1. The installation of the ark accompanied by praise (2 Chron. 5:2–13a),
   1. ending with the Lord’s visible response (5:13b–14).
2. Solomon’s blessing and prayer (6:1–42),
   1. ending with the Lord’s visible response (7:1–3).
3. A week-long festival and people return home joyful (7:4–10);
   1. then the Lord appears to Solomon (7:11–22).

Kings and people may act, but God breaks in: the priests are unable to continue ministering (5:14; 7:2), and the Lord appears after Solomon had completed “all that [he] had planned to do” (7:11–12).

The Chronicler abbreviated the Kings account of the building itself, but in these chapters of ceremony he closely follows 1 Kings 8:1–9:9. Significant additions are the role of music and praise as the ark is installed (2 Chron. 5:11–13), fire from heaven consuming the burnt offering (7:2–3), and in the Lord’s words to Solomon a promise: “If my people . . .” (7:12b–15). As elsewhere in Chronicles, there is scant mention of the exodus; the few omissions from the Kings’ account relate mainly to allusions to the exodus and the words “captors” or “enemies” (1 Kings 8:21b, 47–48, 50b–53); in contrast, added are specific references to “Jerusalem” and “this place” (2 Chron. 6:5–6, 40; 7:12, 15).¹ The Chronicler tells of divine endorsement and praise and offerings at the temple in Jerusalem; these continue, even if the second temple is not as grand as the first.