---
title: "Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah"
author: "Adam Clarke"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Commentaries"
section: 348 of 914
url: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/348/
cite: "Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah, section 348. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/348/"
---

# Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah

*Adam Clarke*

Clarke's learned notes on the Hebrew and Greek, verse by verse, from Genesis to Revelation: volume 1 of 2.

## 348. 1 Kings · 9 of 30

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/348/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/348/#p-N

### Verse 2

[¶1] At the feast in the month Ethanim - The feast of tabernacles, which was celebrated in the seventh month of what is called the ecclesiastical gear.

### Verse 4

[¶3] They brought up - the tabernacle - It is generally agreed that there were now two tabernacles at Gibeon, and the other in the city of David, which one David had constructed as a temporary residence for the ark, in the event of a temple being built. Which of these tabernacles was brought into the temple at this time, is not well known; some think both were brought in, in order to prevent the danger of idolatry. I should rather suppose that the tabernacle from Gibeon was brought in, and that the temporary one erected by David was demolished.

### Verse 8

[¶5] And there they are unto this day - This proves that the book was written before the destruction of the first temple, but how long before we cannot tell.

### Verse 9

[¶7] Save the two tables of stone - See my notes on [Heb 9:4] (note).

### Verse 10

[¶9] When the priests were come out - That is, after having carried the ark into the holy of holies, before any sacred service had yet commenced.

### Verse 11

[¶11] The glory of the Lord had filled the house - The cloud, the symbol of the Divine glory and presence, appears to have filled not only the holy of holies, but the whole temple, court and all, and to have become evident to the people; and by this Solomon knew that God had honored the place with his presence, and taken it for his habitation in reference to the people of Israel.

### Verse 12

[¶13] The Lord said - he would dwell - It was under the appearance of a cloud that God showed himself present with Israel in the wilderness; see [Exo 14:19], [Exo 14:20]. And at the dedication of the tabernacle in the wilderness, God manifested himself in the same way that he did here at the dedication of the temple; see [Exo 40:34], [Exo 40:35].

### Verse 13

[¶15] I have surely built thee a house - He was now fully convinced that the thing pleased God, and that he had taken this place for his settled habitation.

### Verse 14

[¶17] Blessed all the congregation - Though this blessing is not particularly stated, yet we may suppose that it was such as the high priest pronounced upon the people: "The Lord bless thee, and keep thee! The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee! The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace!" (see [Num 6:24-26]), for Solomon seems now to be acting the part of the high priest. But he may have in view more particularly the conduct of Moses, who, when he had seen that the people had done all the work of the tabernacle, as the Lord had commanded them, he blessed them, [Exo 39:43]; and the conduct of his father David, who, when the ark had been brought into the city of David, and the burnt-offerings and peace-offerings completed, blessed the people in the name of the Lord, [2Sam 6:18].

### Verse 16

[¶19] Since the day, etc. - Mention is here made, says Dr. Kennicott, of some one place and some one person preferred before all others; and the preference is that of Jerusalem to other places, and of David to other men. In consequence of this remark, we shall see the necessity of correcting this passage by its parallel in [2Chr 6:5], [2Chr 6:6], where the thirteen Hebrew words now lost in Kings are happily preserved. Let us compare the passages: -

[¶20] I would just observe here, that I do not think these thirteen words ever made a part of Kings, and consequently, are not lost from it; nor do they exist here in any of the versions; but their being found in Chronicles helps to complete the sense.

### Verse 21

[¶22] Wherein is the covenant of the Lord - As it is said, [1Kgs 8:9], that there was nothing in the ark but the two tables of stone, consequently these are called the Covenant, i.e., a sign of the covenant; as our Lord calls the cup the new covenant in his blood, that is, the sign of the new covenant: for This is my body implies, This is the sign or emblem of my body.

### Verse 22

[¶24] Stood - He ascended the brazen scaffold, five cubits long, and five cubits broad, and three cubits high, and then kneeled down upon his knees, with his hands spread up to heaven, and offered up the following prayer: see [1Kgs 8:54], and [2Chr 5:12], [2Chr 5:13].

[¶25] And spread forth his hands toward heaven - This was a usual custom in all nations: in prayer the hands were stretched out to heaven, as if to invite and receive assistance from thence; while, humbly kneeling on their knees, they seemed acknowledge at once their dependence and unworthiness. On this subject I have spoken elsewhere. In the Scriptures we meet with several examples of the kind: Hear my voice - when I Lift Up My Hands toward thy holy oracle; [Psa 28:2]. Lift Up Your Hands in the sanctuary, and bless the Lord; [Psa 134:2]. Let my prayer be set forth - and the Lifting Up of My Hands as the evening sacrifice; [Psa 141:2]. And see [1Tim 2:8], etc.

[¶26] In heathen writers examples are not less frequent:

[¶27] Sustulit exutas vinclis ad sidera Palmas.

[¶28] Vos aeterni ignes, et non violabile vestrum Testor numen, ait.

[¶29] Virg. Aen. lib. ii., ver. 153.

[¶30] Ye lamps of heaven, he said, and Lifted High His Hands, now free; thou venerable sky, Inviolable powers!

[¶31] And that they kneeled down when supplicating I have also proved. Of this too the Scriptures afford abundant evidence, as do also the heathen writers.

[¶32] I need add but one word: -

[¶33] Et Genbius Pronis supplex, similisque roganti,

[¶34] Circumfert tacitos, tanquam sun brachia, vultus.

[¶35] Ovid, Met. lib. iii., f. 3, ver. 240.

[¶36] Indeed, so universal were these forms in praying, that one of the heathens has said, "All men, in praying, lift up their hands to heaven.

### Verse 24

[¶38] Who has kept with thy servant David - This is in reference to [2Sam 7:13], where God promises to David that Solomon shall build a house for the name of the Lord. The temple being now completed, this promise was literally fulfilled.

### Verse 27

[¶40] But will God indeed dwell on the earth? - This expression is full of astonishment, veneration, and delight. He is struck with the immensity, dignity, and grandeur of the Divine Being, but especially at his condescension to dwell with men: and though he sees, by his filling the place, that he has come now to make his abode with them, yet he cannot help asking the question, How can such a God dwell in such a place, and with such creatures?

[¶41] Behold, the heaven - The words are all in the plural number in the Hebrew: השמים ושמי השמים hashshamayim, ushemey hashshamayim; "the heavens, and the heavens of heavens." What do these words imply? That there are systems, and systems of systems, each possessing its sun, its primary and secondary planets, all extending beyond each other in unlimited space, in the same regular and graduated order which we find to prevail in what we call our solar system; which probably, in its thousands of millions of miles in diameter, is, to some others, no more than the area of the lunar orbit to that of the Georgium Sidus. When God, his manifold wisdom, his creative energy, and that space which is unlimited, are considered, it is no hyperbole to say that, although the earth has been created nearly six thousand years ago, suns, the centres of systems, may have been created at so immense a distance that their light has not yet reached our earth, though travelling at the rate of one hundred and ninety thousand miles every second, or upwards of a million times swifter than the motion of a cannon ball! This may be said to be inconceivable; but what is even all this to the vast immensity of space! Had God created a system like ours in every six days since the foundation of the world, and kept every seventh as a Sabbath; and though there might have been by this time [A.M. 5823 ineunte, a.d. 1819, ineunte] three hundred and three thousand five hundred and seventy-five mundane systems, they would occupy but a speck in the inconceivable immensity of space. Reader, all this and millions more is demonstrably possible; and if so, what must God be - illud inexprimibile - who i-n-h-a-b-i-t-e-t-h E-t-e-r-n-i-t-y!

### Verse 29

[¶43] My name shall be there - I will there show forth my power and my glory by enlightening, quickening, pardoning, sanctifying, and saving all my sincere worshippers.

### Verse 30

[¶45] Toward this place - Both tabernacle and temple were types of our Lord Jesus, or of God manifested in the flesh; and he was and is the Mediator between God and man. All prayer, to be acceptable, and to be entitled to a hearing, must go to God through Him. The human nature of Christ is the temple in which dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; therefore with propriety all prayer must be offered to God through Him. "If they pray toward this place, hear thou in heaven thy dwelling-place; and when thou hearest, forgive." This appears to me to be the true sense and doctrine of this verse.