1 Kings 8:61

Let your heart therefore be perfect with the Lord our God [An instructive commentary on these words is found in 1 Kings 11:4 , where it is said of this Solomon, " His heart was not perfect," etc.—same words. Similarly, ib . 1 Kings 11:3 , 1 Kings 11:9 are a comment on the prayer of verse 58. Having preached to others, he himself became a castaway], to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, us at this day [That day the nation proved its piety by the dedication of the house.

At the close of this prayer (omitted in Chronicles), according to 2 Chronicles 7:1 , "fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the house," but Bähr rejects these words as an interpolation. He maintains, indeed, that the chronicler contradicts himself, for we can hardly think that the glory which we are told ( 1 Kings 5:14 ) had already filled the house, left it and then returned. It is certainly suspicious, and a much stronger argument against the words in question, that no mention of the fire is made by our author, for, brief as this history is, it is difficult to believe that so signal an interposition could have remained unnoticed, if it really occurred.

SECTION IV. — The Festal Sacrifices .

The ceremonial of dedication was followed, as would naturally be the case, by sacrifices on a scale of unusual grandeur. Apart from their religious use and significance, the sacrifices testified to the devotion of the giver who on this of all days must not appear before the Lord empty, and they also afforded materials for the great and prolonged feast by which this auspicious event in the history of Israel must be commemorated.