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vant of the Lord had made in the wilderness.

4 But the ark of God had David brought up from Kirjath-jearim to the place which David had prepared for it: for he had pitched a tent for it at Jerusalem.

5 Moreover the brazen altar,2 that Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made, he put before the tabernacle of the Lord: and Solomon and the congregation sought unto it.

6 And Solomon went up thither to the brazen altar before the Lord,

PARALLEL PASSAGES. -11 Chron. 15:1, etc.

which was at the tabernacle of the congregation, and offered a thousand burnt-offerings upon it.

7¶ In that night did God appear unto Solomon, and said unto him,3 Ask what I shall give thee.

8 And 'Solomon said unto God, Thou hast shewed great mercy unto David my father, and hast made me to reign in his stead.4

9 Now, O Lord God, let thy promise unto David my father be established: for thou hast made me king over a people like the dust of the earth in multitude.

2Ex. 28:1, 2. 31 Kings 3:5, etc. 41 Chron. 28:5.

(Josh. 9:3-15, 27.) But when the Gibeonites were besieged by the five kings Joshua came to their defence, and it was in the great battle which ensued that the "sun stood still upon Gibeon." (Josh. 10; 12:1-14.) The place afterwards fell to the lot of Benjamin and became a Levitical city (Josh. 18:25; 21:17), where the tabernacle was set up for many years under David and Solomon; the ark being at the same time at Jerusalem. Whitney.

4. See 2 Sam. 6:2, 17; also Lesson IX.

5. The brazen altar, put before the tabernacle of the Lord. As this altar, which from time immemorial had been set apart for burnt-offerings, stood in Gibeon, that was the place in which, according to the law, burnt-offerings were to be sacrificed. Keil. - Bezaleel-had made. (See Ex. 81:2, 9.)

6. A thousand burnt-offerings. It has been considered a difficulty how such a number of beasts could be consumed upon the altar here spoken of, which is the brazen, within the period of such a festival. This has been solved by supposing that all the sacrifices were devoted at Gibeon, but that a considerable part of them were completed afterwards at Jerusalem. Pyle. -This offering was of national import. It was an expression on the one side of thanks for the establishment of the new reign, on the other of prayer for its further prosperity. Hence also the representatives of the people took part in it and burnt-offerings were presented in such numbers. Keil.

7. In that night did God appear unto Solomon: Ask what I shall give thee. The senses and judgment of the young king were locked up in sleep; he was in that state least of all suited to instruction when the greatest lesson of his life was taught to him. But it matters little in what state the scholar is, how for the time, or even habitually, dull or insensate, when he undertakes to be his instructor, who can enlighten both the organ and the object. None teaches like him in mode or matter, and hence the blessedness and the advantage in learning of him. There is nothing good for us in all his treasures of wisdom and knowledge which he is not most ready with abounding fulness to impart. "If any of you lack wisdom," says James, "let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him." Solomon found the truth of this, and so shall every one find who makes the like experiment. The Lord is never displeased with large asking, so that it be proper asking, and his free bounty delights to surpass the largest requests and most audacious hopes of the petitioner. And in this case He did not wait to be asked. He came to press his gifts upon the acceptance of David's son, asking him to make his choice of all the gifts his Almightiness enabled him to offer, or rather of all that the man was capable of receiving. Whatever we may think of it, and practically we every day deny most of the things we profess to believe, God daily makes as large and liberal offers to us, ay, offers more liberal by far; and quite as surely will He bestow upon us what we ask and much more, if that which we seek be well pleasing in his sight. Solomon had learned in his school, and had there received that enlightenment which enabled him at once to discern even in sleep the exact good that. was fittest for him and that he most wanted. Kitto.

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10 Give me now wisdom1 and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people: for who can judge this thy people, that is so great?

11 And God said to Solomon, Because this was in thine heart,3 and thou hast not asked riches, wealth, or honour, nor the life of thine ene

mies, neither yet hast askel long life; but hast asked wisdom and knowledge for thyself, that thou mayst judge my people, over whom I have made thee king:

12 Wisdom and knowledge ist granted unto thee; and I will give thee riches,5 and wealth, and honour, such as none of the kings have had

PARALLEL PASSAGES.-1Prov. 4:7. Ja. 1:5, 6. 2Nu. 27:17. Deut. 31:2. $1 Kings 3:4, etc; 49:22. Ec. 2:9. Ja. 1:5. Matt. 6:33. c1 Ch. 29:25.

10. Give me now wisdom and knowledge, etc. Men's characters appear in their choices and desires. As we choose we shall have, and that is likely to be our portion to which we gave the preference, whether the wealth and pleasure of this world or spiritual riches and delights. Henry. — If Solomon had not been wise before he would not have known the worth of wisdom. He was a great king and saw that he had power enough, but withal he found that royalty without wisdom was but eminent dishonor. Bp. Hall. -Take twelve men from the streets, take them if you like from schools and colleges, take them even from the church doors, and propose to them the same question which God proposed to Solomon. Let them be assured that they shall have what they will from one who has full power to bestow. How many of them, do you think, will ask as Solomon asked, "Give me wisdom"? We greatly doubt if there would be even one; but surely not more. This is just the last thing that people suppose themselves to be in need of. Probably there are not three of the twelve, perhaps not two, perhaps not one, who does not think himself every whit as wise as Solomon already, although he does not like to say it. It has not occurred to us in all our life-not now scant of days, though, alas! scant in accomplished purposes -to have met with one man who avowed any lack of wisdom, or who, therefore, would have made the choice of Solomon, had that choice been offered to him. As statistical information is deemed of peculiar value in this age, we may attempt to make "a return" of the mode in which our twelve men would have distributed their choice. Three at least would answer, 66 Give us wealth. In the land where our lot is cast, wealth is needed for comfort and usefulness. Yet we seek not our own luxury, but thy honor. That we may have wherewith to be bountiful to those that need, that we may qualify our children for eminent service to thee in high places, that we may aid mission, Bible, and church societies, to the utmost of the means bestowed upon us." Perhaps three more would not speak so high. They would not call it wealth but competency, freedom from anxiety-securing them ability to attend upon the things of the soul without distraction. Only secure them that, and they have nothing more or better to ask. There are, perhaps, three who covet power, honor, distinction, more than even wealth, which is but a coarser form of the same desire. In one shape or another, — from an impatience of superiority, from the love of command, from the burning wish to come out from the general multitude, and to be admired and observed of men, and leave an unforgotten name,— power is more generally desired than may at the first view appear, seeing that, in this country at least, it is a less ostensible and avowed pursuit than that of wealth, or (seeing that wealth is power) generally appears in subordination to it. Or there may be among the three one, or less than one (for in statistics one is a divisible proportion), who fretted by his external impotency, which hampers him on every side, and prevents him from giving due effect to the large potencies within him, craves beyond all things such power as may enable him to accomplish his large designs, and render fruitful the bold and useful pur. poses of his will and hope. There may be two, hardly more, who, on being asked such a question, would think length of days of more consequence than wealth or competence or power. There is but one of our twelve left. What doth he ask? Let us trust that among so many-we can scarcely hope there may be more there is this one, at least, who has the heart to say: "Give me Thyself; for all things are contained in Thee. Thou art wisdom; Thou art wealth; Thou art power; Thou art length of days; Thou art fulness.

'Give what thou wilt, without thee I am poor,

And, with thee rich, take what thou wilt away.""- Kitto.

11, 12. Because this was in thine heart, etc. The prayer of Solomon related entirely to his office, to his position as king and administrator of law among the people of God; for himself personally he had asked nothing, neither long life, nor riches, nor the fall of his enemies, which are often sought in this world as the greatest treasure. His prayer, therefore, pleased the Lord, and was heard

that have been before thee, neither | gold at Jerusalem as plenteous as shall there any after thee have the like.

13 Then Solomon came from his journey to the high place that was at Gibeon to Jerusalem, from before the tabernacle of the congregation, and reigned over Israel.

14 And Solomon gathered chariots1 and horsemen: and he had a thousand and four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, which he placed in the chariot cities, and with the king at Jerusalem. 15 And2 the king made silver and

stones, and cedar trees made he as the sycamore trees that are in the vale for abundance.

16 And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt, and linen yarn: the king's merchants received the linen yarn at a price.

17 And they fetched up, and brought forth out of Egypt, a chariot for six hundred shekels of silver, and an horse for an hundred and fifty: and so brought they out horses for all the kings of the Hittites, and for the kings of Syria, by their means.

PARALLEL PASSAGES.-11 Ch. 29: 25. 21 Kings 10:27, etc. Job 22:24.

in richer measure than he had asked. God grants him not only a wise and understanding heart, so that no king either before or after him surpassed him in wisdom, but also, in accordance with the promise that to him that "seeks first the kingdom of God and his righteousness all other things are added," gives him all earthly blessings in great abundance; riches and honor, and on the condition of obedience to his commands, promises him long life also. Keil. He gave him riches and honor in the bargain. These also are God's gift, and are promised to all that seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness, as far as is good for them. Let young people learn to prefer grace to gold, because godliness hath the promise of the life that now is, but the life that now is hath not the promise of godliness. If we make sure of wisdom and grace, those will either bring outward prosperity with them or sweeten the want of it. Henry.

14. The magnificence of his court. Shall we praise him for this? We praise him not. The king was forbidden to multiply horses. (Deut. 17:16.) I do not remember that ever we find his good father in a chariot or on horseback. A mule was the highest he mounted. We should endeavor to excel those that went before us in goodness rather than grandeur. Henry.

16. Horses brought out of Egypt. This Moses expressly prohibited, by which future kings were forbidden to establish a body of cavalry. Because this could not be effected without sending to Egypt, the most dangerous of all foreign commerce to true religion. When Solomon had violated this law and multiplied horses to excess (1 Kings 4:26), it was soon attended with those fatal consequences the law foretold. The origin of all this mischief was the forbidden traffic with Egypt for horses. Warburton. The Egyptian breed of horses is shown by the paintings to have been exceedingly fine, like a more powerful Arab, from which it was probably derived. The compact, light, and yet solid fabric of Egyptian chariots is seen also from the paintings. When we recollect that the use of springs was unknown, it is easily apprehended that the construction of these vehicles was a peculiarly difficult art. The price of a chariot was four times that of a horse. A horse cost 150 shekels, which, according to the lower or higher value assigned to the skekel (28. 3 3-8d. or 2s. 6d.), would be from 177. 28. to 187. 158., while that of a chariot was 600 shekels, being from 687. 98. to 757. It is to be remembered, however, that an Egyptian chariot usually had two horses, so that a chariot with a pair of horses would together cost about 1127. of our money at first hand. But we have no means of determining whether, with reference to the cost of commodities, this was of less or more value at the time than the same amount now; perhaps more, but probably not much more, considering the great quantities of the precious metals that seem to have been about this time in use. Kitto.

17. Hittites. It is said that in this way Solomon provided out of Egypt horses and chariots, "for all the kings of the Hittites, and for the kings of Syria." Who were the kings of the Hittites? One would have supposed that these, being among the doomed nations in Palestine, had been rooted out or destroyed long ago. Indeed, the Hittites are expressly named, in 1 Kings 9:20, among the remnants of the Canaanitish nations whom Solomon held in bondage. Instead, therefore, of finding this people as still subsisting in a state of separate regal independence among the Israelites, as some have thought, it is more reasonable to conclude that the present Hittites were a branch of the same family, or even the descendants of those expelled from Palestine, settled among the Syrian nation beyond Lebanon, and per haps not only there, but on the southeastern frontier towards Arabia. There does not want soine indi

cation of such separate domain of the Hittites. In Judges 1:26, we read of a man of Bethel, formerly called Luz, who retired into "the country of the Hittites," and there built a town which he called Luz, after his native place. Further, we read that Solomon had several Hittite women among his wives; and, so late as the reign of Jehoram, we read of kings of the Hittites, named with the king of Egypt as having probably been "hired" against the Syrians by the king of Israel. (2 Kings 7:6.)

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The temple. The building of the temple forms a great epoch in the history of the theocracy. With it not only does the Mosaic worship gain an important accession in solidity and splendor, and the people itself a fixed, central sanctuary, but also with it an end is first made to the provisional state of Israel in the promised land. Keil.-Of its plan nothing more need be said than that it followed the model of the tabernacle built by Moses in the wilderness. Having the same objects in view, constructed to subserve the same system of worship, its compartments on the ground floor were identically the same. Everything was on a larger yet corresponding scale; the same altars, the same courts, the same holy place, and the same holy of holies, enshrouded in the thick darkness. As to dimensions, the record is, sixty cubits in length by twenty in breadth, proximately ninety feet by thirty-double the corresponding dimensions of the tabernacle. But within these relatively small dimensions what an amount of magnificence and splendor were compressed! The most superb textile fabrics, the most exquisite carved work, and the immense amount of surface overlaid with gold, placed this structure in point of cost, beauty, and magnificence greatly in advance of any structure known in ancient times. It was seven years in building. The skilled laborers were largely Phoenician, supplied by Hiram king of Tyre. The unskilled men for the immense labor of transportation were mainly from the subject races of foreign birth living among the Israelites. 1 Kings 5 gives ample details as to the levies of men, their duties, the associated labors of Tyrians and Hebrews; the materials of cedar, fir, and stone obtained in Phoenicia, but transported by water to Joppa and thence overland to Jerusalem. Every stone being cut in its quarry, all materials of wood being prepared (framed and dressed), before being shipped from Tyre, two valuable results were obtained: there was no waste of power in transportation; and in the holy city the great temple rose solemnly in comparatively quiet stillness, from those immense foundation stones, now being laid bare, to the top-stone, laid at last "with shoutings of grace, grace unto it." Cowles. The stone of these regions is hard, calcareous, and whitish, sonorous like freestone, and disposed in strata variously Inclined. This stone has nearly the same appearance throughout Syria and Palestine, where it is still used for building, and is, perhaps, that with which the temple was built, and which Josephus describes as "white stone." The previous squaring of the stones in the quarry not only facilitated their removal to the place of building, but produced the remarkable result that, the house being "built of stone made ready before it was brought thither, there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was in building." (1 Kings 7:7.) The terms employed by the sacred historian will scarcely strike us in all their force unless we bear in mind that stones of enormous size are known to have been employed in the ancient buildings of Syria. Thus, in the sub-basement of the great temple of Baalbec, which is probably much more ancient than the now ruined Roman structure which rests upon it, there is one stone sixty-six feet in length by twelve in breadth and thickness, with others of not greatly inferior size; while in a neighboring quarry, which tradition declares to be that from which Solomon obtained his "great stones," are stones of equal and greater dimensions, cut and ready for use, one of them being no less than seventy feet in length by fourteen feet five inches in thickness. This stone, therefore, contains fourteen thousand one hundred and twenty-eight cubic feet, and would, if of Portland stone, weigh no less than one thousand one hundred and thirty-five tons. At Jerusalem the immense size and obvious antiquity of much of the stone-work around the area which contains the Mosque of Omar, and formerly contained the temple of the Lord, have led many to ascribe it to the age of Jewish magnificence. Along nearly the whole of the eastern side, upon the brow of the steep valley of Jehoshaphat, courses of ancient masonry may be traced in almost a continuous line. At the northeast angle, for instance, several courses of ancient masonry form a corner tower, projecting slightly from the general face of the wall, along a length of eighty-one feet. Many of the stones here measure from seventeen to nineteen feet in length, while a few exceed twenty-four feet. They vary from three to four feet in depth, and from five

1 Then Solomon1 began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem in mount Moriah,2 where the LORD3 appeared unto David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

2 And he began to build in the second day of the second month, in the fourth year of his reign.

3 Now these are the things wherein Solomon was instructed for the building of the house of God.

PARALLEL PASSAGES. 10:23. Acts 3:11; 5:12.

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The length by cubits after the first measure was threescore cubits, and the breadth twenty cubits.

4 And the porch5 that was in the front of the house the length of it was according to the breadth of the house, twenty cubits, and the height was a hundred and twenty: and he overlaid it within with pure gold.

5 And the greater house he ceiled with fir tree, which he overlaid with fine gold, and set thereon palm trees and chains.

11 Kings 6:1. 2Gen. 22:2, 14. 81 Chron. 21:18. 41 Chron. 28:11. John

to eight in width. Kitto. - The proof that the temple was only an enlarged copy of the tabernacle, goes far, also, to change the form of another important question, inasmuch as the inquiry as to whence the Jews derived the plan and design of the temple must now be transferred to the earlier type, and the question thus stands, Whence did they derive the scheme of the tabernacle? From Egypt? Not a shadow of proof. From Assyria? Equally devoid of any authority. From Arabia? Moses' father-inlaw was an Arab, and something that he may have seen there may have suggested the form he adopted. But beyond this we cannot go. Fergusson.-How strange that we can go no further! But Paul goes further and says, "Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle; for, See, saith he, that thou make all these things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount."

1. Moriah. The temple was situated on the southeastern corner of Mount Moriah, which is sep. arated to the east by a precipitous ravine and the Kidron from the Mount of Olives. On the south the temple was bounded by the ravine which separates Moriah from Zion. Fergusson. - Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, on which the temple of Solomon was built, was probably, also, the spot where Abraham offered up Isaac. Smith's Bible Dictionary.-Threshing-floor. In southeastern countries the site of the threshing-floors is selected according to the same principles which might guide us in the selection of the site of windmills. We find them usually on the tops of hills which are on all sides exposed to the winds, the current of which is required in order to separate the grain from the chaff. Fergusson.Ornan the Jebusite. Same as Araunah, the Jebusite. From the expression in 2 Sam. 24:23. It has been inferred that he was one of the royal race of the Jebusites. Gotch. -The circumstances referred to in this verse may be found in 2 Sam. 24 and 1 Chron. 21.

3. The first measure, i. e. the original cubit of Moses, and not that of Babylon, used after the captivity. Wilson. The first measure seems to mean "original plan." Patrick.

4. Divines and architects have repeatedly endeavored to represent the architectural proportions of the temple, which was sixty cubits long, twenty wide, and thirty high. Josephus, however, says "that the temple was sixty cubits high, and sixty cubits in length, and the breadth was twenty cubits. Above this was another stage of equal dimensions, so that the height was one hundred and twenty cubits." It is difficult to reconcile this statement with that given in 1 Kings, unless we suppose that the porch formed a kind of steeple. As the Chronicles agree with Josephus in asserting that the summit of the porch was one hundred and twenty cubits high, there remains another apparent contradiction to be solved, namely, how Josephus could assert that the temple was sixty cubits high, while we read in 1 Kings that its height was thirty cubits. We suppose that in the book of Kings the internal elevation of the sanctuary is stated, and that Josephus describes its external elevation, including the basement and upper story. Bialloblotzky.

5. Fine gold. The gold delivered by David to Solomon for ornamenting the temple, and for the fabrication of its utensils, makes the entire amount of gold no less than 13,500,052 pounds troy. This of gold. The silver was in full proportion; the whole quantity of silver was 127,125,000 pounds troy. The 13,500,052 pounds of gold, taken at the present value of pure gold, four pounds sterling the ounce, would be equal in value to £648,002,496. The silver, at the present price of the unalloyed metal, which is five shillings the ounce, would be no less than £381,375,000, making together £1,029,377,496 sterling. But that our national debt exists, and is but one fourth less than this amount, the mere idea of such a sum would be inconceivable. Let us look at it closely. To accumulate such a sum, during the thirty-three

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