Commentaria in III Regum
AND HAVE AN OATH UPON HIM,—as if to say: If anyone called to the temple to swear shall there swear that he has not sinned against his neighbour, nor taken away or plucked away his property, Solomon says as it were: O Lord, I pray and beseech that in this temple thou wouldst show the truth or falsity of the oath, that is, that thou wouldst punish him who forswears himself in the temple as a sacrilegious man and one profaning thy house, that it may be plain to all how great religion and reverence is due to thy temple, and how present thou art in it, and that thou mayest show thy spiritual power. For so this phrase is explained in 2 Paralipomenon chapter 6, verses 22 and 23. So Abulensis. So of old those suspected of some crime were led to the oratory of St. Stephen, to clear themselves there by oath: for if they swore falsely, they were at once punished by God, of which thing St. Augustine recounts examples, book 22 City of God, chapter 8. The same happened to those forswearing themselves in the temple of St. Martin at his relics, as Gregory of Tours relates, book 8.
38. EVERY CURSE (some wrongly read “devouring”) AND IMPRECATION.—In Hebrew, every prayer and supplication made by any man in the temple, etc. So also the Septuagint and Chaldee. For a “devotion” (devotatio) is a prayer and the utterance of a vow, and this word was formerly in use, as I showed from Apuleius and Cicero on Proverbs 20:25, on that: “It is ruin to a man to devour,” or, as Bede, Lyranus and others read, “to devote the saints.”
“Imprecation” is the same as prayer: for a compound noun is put for the simple; St. Augustine, Question 21, therefore less genuinely understands by it anathema.
IF A MAN SHALL KNOW THE WOUND OF HIS OWN HEART,—that is, if anyone shall have felt sharp pain of mind, and pour it out in prayer before thee in the temple, thou wilt hear and deliver him from it.
43. THY NAME IS INVOKED UPON THIS HOUSE,—as if to say: This house is called thy house.
45. DO JUDGMENT FOR THEM,—that is, thou wilt do them justice and wilt do it by avenging the wrongs done them, and delivering them from unjust and violent oppressors.
48. AND PRAY TO THEE TOWARDS THE WAY OF THEIR LAND, etc.
The Jews placed outside Judea among the Gentiles shall pray to thee, turning their face toward their own land, namely toward Jerusalem and the temple. So Daniel, chapter 6, verse 10: “In Babylon, a captive, he bent his knees three times a day toward Jerusalem.” And the Psalmist, Psalm 133:2: “In the nights,” he says, “lift up your hands to the holy places,” that is, toward the holy temple. Nay, the Turks today, praying in their mosques, superstitiously turn themselves to the South, to look toward Mecca and their Mahomet buried there.
50. AND GIVE THEM MERCY BEFORE THEM.—In Hebrew, thou shalt give them to mercies, as if to say: Thou wilt gain for them favour among their enemies, that they may obtain mercy from them, and be mercifully treated and set free.
54. FOR HE HAD FASTENED BOTH KNEES ON THE GROUND.—Let this be noted by the delicate and vainglorious nobles, who pray with one knee fastened on the ground, the other raised, as if about to fight with God lest he grant what they ask. Behold, Solomon, king of kings, in prayer bent both knees, and spread both hands toward heaven, and in this posture as a suppliant continued the whole time of his long prayer; and shall we, vile and poor little men, disdain to bend both knees, so as to seem to beseech God with one and threaten him with the other?
55. AND BLESSED ALL THE ASSEMBLY OF ISRAEL,—as if to say: He blessed well the whole company, or gathering, of the people of Israel.
59. LET THESE MY WORDS, etc., BE NIGH UNTO THE LORD,—as if to say: May the Lord be ever mindful of this my prayer, which I poured out to him for future descendants and ages. So Vatablus.
60. THAT THE LORD IS GOD, AND THERE IS NONE ELSE BESIDE HIM,—as if to say: There is no other God but him, but he alone is the true God.
61. AS AT THIS DAY,—understand, you do, that you may do so also hereafter, that with a perfect heart you may love God, and keep all his commandments.
It is added in 2 Paralipomenon 6:41: “Now therefore arise, O Lord God, into thy resting place, thou and the ark of thy strength”; that is, that sitting upon the ark thou mayest rest in this temple built by me for thee; he calls it “the ark of thy strength,” because through it God strongly overthrew Jericho and Chanaan under the leadership of Josue. Paralipomenon goes on: “Let thy priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation,” that they may be sound and safe on every side, and be clothed and girt about with salvation as with a garment, that they may be able to impart it also to others, especially the laity: “O Lord God, turn not away the face of thy Christ,” as if to say: Turn not away, O Lord, my prayers, those of Solomon, who am thy Christ, that is, king of Israel anointed and made by thee, which have now been recounted, but hear and fulfil them: he applies a spur, concluding: “Remember the mercies (in Hebrew chasde, that is, piety) of David thy servant,” as if to say: Grant me what I ask for the merits of David my father, who was a man of piety and mercy, both active and passive, because he showed many and excellent works of mercy toward Saul and the other Israelites, and therefore in turn obtained from thee, O Lord, great mercy and grace.
That God heard the prayer of Solomon will be plain in the following chapter, verse 2. Note here that God hears more the prayers which are made in the temple as in his own house than those made elsewhere.
63. AND SOLOMON SLEW PEACE OFFERINGS (which were offered for peace, that is, for the welfare and happiness of himself and the people, both obtained and to be obtained hereafter, according to the law of Leviticus 3), TWENTY-TWO THOUSAND OXEN, AND ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY THOUSAND SHEEP.—See here again the piety and magnificence of Solomon in the worship of God.
64. IN THAT DAY THE KING SANCTIFIED THE MIDDLE OF THE COURT THAT WAS BEFORE THE HOUSE OF THE LORD,—as if to say: On that day of the dedication of the temple Solomon, by the high priest and priests, dedicated the middle part of the court of the priests, which was before the Holy Place, that in it many altars might be erected for offering so many thousands of victims in them. For the one altar prescribed by God, Exodus chapter 27, verse 1, could not hold all this. Wherefore the present necessity excused Solomon from sin, so that he did not act against the law of God forbidding another altar to be erected, especially because he offered at the altar prescribed by God as many victims as it could hold, but the rest he offered on altars erected by himself beside it in the court of the priests: whence then the whole court of the priests, or rather half of it, was as one altar.
Thereafter Solomon offered sacrifices daily in this temple; but more, and with greater solemnity, three times a year, namely at the Pasch, at Pentecost, and at the feast of Tabernacles, as is plain from 2 Paralipomenon 8:13.
65. SOLOMON THEREFORE MADE AT THAT TIME A SOLEMN FEAST, etc., SEVEN DAYS AND SEVEN DAYS.—The first seven days were of the dedication of the temple, the latter seven of the feast of Tabernacles. So Abulensis, Cajetan and others.
Finally, in this dedication the Levites and singers with 120 priests sang together both with voice and with trumpets, cymbals, organs and harps; they made resound psalteries and the other musical instruments, as is said in 2 Paralipomenon 5:11. The Rabbis fable that at that time the gates of the temple were closed of themselves, and when Psalm 131 was sung, opened of themselves. The miracles that then happened were that God consumed all the victims with fire from heaven, and showed his majesty in a bright and glorious cloud. Hear 2 Paralipomenon 7:1: “And when Solomon had made an end of his prayers, fire came down from heaven, and consumed the holocausts and the victims: and the majesty of the Lord filled the house. Neither could the priests enter into the temple of the Lord, because the majesty of the Lord had filled the temple of the Lord. The children of Israel also saw the fire coming down, and the glory of the Lord upon the house: and falling down with their faces to the ground, upon the stone pavement, they adored, and praised the Lord: Because he is good: because his mercy endureth for ever.”