2 Chronicles 7:1 - Exposition

When Solomon had made an end of praying . See the parallel, 1 Kings 8:54 , which verse, however, in a sense, disappoints us; for, beginning with these same words, it does not go on at all to tell of this second occurrence of the fire and the cloud and the glory. The fire came … and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices. So Le 1 Kings 9:24 , when the tabernacle was consecrated. The closing verses of our 1 Kings 5:1-18 ; compared with the first verse of 1 Kings 6:1-38 ; and in particular the first word of that verse, " then, " leave it quite open to conjecture that the demonstration of the fire and the glory of the Lord had not ceased, but was continued during the prayer of Solomon, though at its close they may have been marked with added brightness, and then wrought their sacrifice-consuming work. Such supposition may bring us nearest to some tenable explanation of what otherwise seems the very unaccountable omission in the parallel. The language of our 1 Kings 6:2 adds something to countenance this theory, coinciding as it does with the language of the last verses of 1 Kings 5:1-18 .