Commentaria in II Paralipomenon
Chapter 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. 2. And the priests could not enter into the temple of the Lord, because the majesty of the Lord had filled the temple of the Lord. 3. 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. 4. And the king and all the people sacrificed victims before the Lord. 5. And king Solomon killed for sacrifice twenty-two thousand oxen, and a hundred and twenty thousand rams: and the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. 6. And the priests stood in their offices; and the Levites with the instruments of music of the Lord, which king David made to praise the Lord: Because his mercy endureth for ever, singing the hymns of David by their hands: and the priests sounded with trumpets before them, and all Israel stood. 7. Solomon also sanctified the middle of the court before the temple of the Lord; for he had offered there the holocausts and the fat of the peace offerings: because the brazen altar which he had made could not hold the holocausts, and the sacrifices, and the fat. 8. And Solomon made a solemnity at that time seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great assembly, from the entrance of Emath to the torrent of Egypt. 9. And on the eighth day he made a solemn assembly, because he had kept the dedication of the altar seven days, and had celebrated the solemnity seven days. 10. So on the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people to their dwellings, rejoicing and glad for the good that the Lord had done to David, and to Solomon, and to Israel his people. 11. And Solomon finished the house of the Lord, and the king’s house, and all that he had designed in his heart to do in the house of the Lord, and in his own house, and he prospered. 12. And the Lord appeared to him by night, and said: I have heard thy prayer, and I have chosen this place to myself for a house of sacrifice. 13. If I shut up the heaven, and there fall no rain, and I command and give orders to the locust to devour the land, and send pestilence among my people: 14. and my people, upon whom my name is called, being converted, shall make supplication to me, and seek my face, and do penance for their wicked ways: then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins, and will heal their land. 15. My eyes also shall be open, and my ears attentive to the prayer of him that shall pray in this place. 16. For I have chosen, and have sanctified this place, that my name may be there for ever, and my eyes and my heart may remain there always. 17. And as for thee, if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, and do according to all that I have commanded thee, and keep my justices and judgments: 18. I will raise up the throne of thy kingdom, as I promised to David thy father, saying: There shall not fail thee a man of thy stock to be ruler in Israel. 19. But if you turn away, and forsake my justices and my commandments, which I have set before you, and go and serve strange gods, and adore them, 20. I will pluck you up out of my land which I have given you: and this house, which I have sanctified to my name, I will cast out of my sight, and will make it a byword and an example among all nations. 21. And this house shall be a proverb to all that pass by, and they shall say in astonishment: Why hath the Lord done thus to this land, and to this house? 22. And they shall answer: Because they forsook the Lord the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and took hold of strange gods, and adored them, and worshipped them: therefore all these evils are come upon them.
I explained this chapter in 3 Kings VIII and IX.
Verse 1. Majesty—in Hebrew cabod, that is, glory, namely a cloud or bright and glorious mist, representing the majesty and glory of the invisible God.
Verse 6. And the priests stood in their offices (in Hebrew, by their watches, that is, divided into their companies, according to the offices appointed to each by David. So also the Levites stood) with the instruments of music (that is, with musical instruments, etc., hymns) singing by their hands—that is, by striking the musical instruments with their hands, on which they sang hymns and songs, namely the psalms composed by David for praising God.