Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Kings 8:6
And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the LORD unto his place, into the oracle of the house, to the most holy [place, even] under the wings of the cherubims.
6. even under the wings of the cherubims ] The outspread wings of the cherubim extended across the whole width of the oracle (1Ki 6:27) and their wings touched one another in the middle of the house. Beneath these wings that touched, the ark was set down. As it was only a cubit and a half high (Exo 25:10), and the figures of the cherubim were 10 cubits high (1Ki 6:23) it is probable that some base or stand was provided, so that the ark might be raised a little from the ground, though this is not stated. Josephus tells us that the joined wings overshadowed the ark, covering it as though it were under a tent or a dome.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Into the oracle of the house, i.e. to that part of the house which is called the oracle, 1Ki 6:5,16,19,23; or, as it here follows,
the most holy place. Under the wings of the cherubims, to wit, of Solomons new-made cherubims, 1Ki 6:23,24,27; not of the Mosaical cherubims, which were far less, and unmovably fixed to the ark, Exo 37:7,8; and therefore, together with the ark, were put under the wings of these cherubims.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord unto his place,…. Destined for it, the like to which it had in the tabernacle:
into the oracle of the house, to the most holy place; that part of the house where the divine oracle was, the holy of holies; for though into it none but the high priest might enter, and he but once a year; yet in case of necessity, as for the repair of it, which the Jews s gather from hence, other priests might enter, as was the case now; an high priest could not carry in the ark himself, and therefore it was necessary to employ others; and besides, as yet the divine Majesty had not taken up his residence in it:
even under the wings of the cherubim; the large ones which Solomon had made, 1Ki 6:23 not those of Moses.
s Vid. Maimon. Hilchot Beth Habechirah, c. 7. sect. 23.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(6-8) And the priests brought in the ark.It is clear from this description that the ark was placed lengthways between the cherubim, so that the staves by which it was borne, when drawn out (though still partly attached to the ark) were seenprobably by projections visible through the veilin the Holy Place; although, as the narrative remarks with characteristic minuteness of accuracy, not without from the porch. The reason why this detail is dwelt upon is obvious. Up to this time it had been forbidden to withdraw the staves (Exo. 25:13-15), so that the ark might always be ready for transference; now the withdrawal marked the entrance on a new period, during which it was to rest unmoved.
There they are unto this day.This phrasenot unfrequently repeated in the narrative (see 1Ki. 9:21; 1Ki. 10:12; 1Ki. 12:19, &c.)is an interesting indication of quotation from older documents; for at the time of the compilation of the book the Temple and all that it contained had been destroyed or removed. It is remarkable that in the record of the successive spoilings of the Temple by the Chaldans (2Ki. 24:13; 2Ki. 25:13-17), while the various vessels, the brazen pillars, and the sea are mentioned in detail, nothing is said of their carrying away the ark, which would have been the choicest, as most sacred, of all the spoils. (See Notes on these passages.) About the Jewish tradition, referred to above (see Note on 1Ki. 8:4), setting aside the supposed miracle, there is no intrinsic improbability, considering the respect paid to Jeremiah by the Chaldans. (See Jer. 39:11-14.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. Under the wings of the cherubim That is, under the wings of the colossal cherubim that had already been built within the oracle. See notes and cut at 1Ki 6:27.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Ki 8:6 And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the LORD unto his place, into the oracle of the house, to the most holy [place, even] under the wings of the cherubims.
Ver. 6. And the priests brought in the ark. ] Which they had taken off the Levites’ shoulders, to bring it into the place appointed for it, even the midst of the Most Holy.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
oracle = the most holy place. Compare 2Sa 16:23.
the most holy place = the holy of holies.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
And the priests: 1Ki 8:4, 2Sa 6:17, 2Ch 5:7
his place: 1Ki 6:19, Exo 26:33, Exo 26:34, Exo 40:20, Exo 40:21
under the wings: 1Ki 6:27, Exo 25:20-22, Exo 37:9, 1Sa 4:4, 2Sa 6:2, Psa 80:1, Psa 99:1, Isa 37:16, Eze 10:5
Reciprocal: Exo 25:18 – two cherubims of gold Lev 16:2 – he come not Deu 10:8 – bear 1Ki 6:16 – built them 1Ki 8:21 – And I have 1Ch 6:32 – until Solomon 1Ch 16:1 – they brought 1Ch 22:19 – to bring 2Ch 4:20 – the oracle 2Ch 5:5 – the tabernacle Psa 24:7 – shall Psa 28:2 – thy holy oracle Heb 9:3 – the Holiest Heb 9:5 – over
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE ARKS NEW HOME
The priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord unto His place.
1Ki 8:6
The site of the Temple was selected by David before he died. It was Mount Moriah, which was the scene of Abrahams sacrifice. It lay to the north-east of Mount Zion. David reared an altar to commemorate the arrest of the destroying angel, so that the site was rendered doubly sacred from its ancient and more recent associations with redemption. But the choice of the site caused great difficulties, as the sides of the hill were steep, and the area of the summit was insufficient for the Courts of the Temple. It was necessary, therefore, that walls of immense thickness should be built up from the valley to the level of the summit and filled in with masonry, with a large number of storage chambers, and with a most perfect system of drainage, so that the accumulation of blood and refuse might be easily disposed of, together with the rivers of water which were constantly needed to keep the Courts of the Temple pure and sweet, in spite of the many sacrifices which were continually being offered under the blaze of the Oriental sun.
I. It was in consequence of these vast preliminary operations that the construction of the Temple consumed seven and a half years; but this period is comparatively small when compared with the eight hundred years which were consumed in the construction of Cologne Cathedral, and all the centuries during which Westminster Abbey slowly reached its present condition.
The work was partly done by the co-operation of Hiram, king of Tyre, whose skilled workmen hewed cedar and cypress trees out of Lebanon; but largely the work of construction, within the limits of Palestine itself, was accomplished by the forced labour of the ancient inhabitants of the land (1Ki 5:13). These were torn from their homes, and compelled to labour in the unwelcome erection of the Temple of Jehovah, and one cannot wonder that out of the discontent which was generated by this enforced labour there came the elements of that revolution which culminated in the death of Adoniram, who was over the tribute, and the rending of the ten tribes of Israel from the house of David (1Ki 12:18).
II. The materials of the Temple were very costly.Every effort was made to build a house worthy of Jehovah. Inside, no stone was visible; gilded cedar-wood met the eye, together with the purple and embroidered tapestry. As in the old Tabernacle, so in the Temple, the sacred place was divided into two partsthe Holy and the Holiest. The latter was only entered once a year by the priest; it was wrapped in unbroken and perpetual darkness, save as the Shekinah shone between the Cherubim. It contained nothing but the ark, with its sacred tablets of stone, over which the outstretched wings of the Cherubim touched. This inner shrine was the especial home of God. His Tabernacle was with men, He was dwelling in the midst of His people; but there was no similitude or image of His presence. Everything was done to emphasise the belief of Israel that God was a Spirit.
III. Israel had never taken part in so magnificent a ceremonial as that dedication.It appears that the preparation for it took twelve months to complete. It finally took place at the autumnal Feast of Tabernacles in the twelfth year of Solomons reign.
(a) The old Tabernacle was brought by a solemn procession of priests and Levites from the high place at Gibeon, to be stowed away in one of the chambers in the new Temple. On this occasion several of the ancient vessels and furniture, especially the golden altar of incense and the golden table of shewbread, were brought to their place in the new structure.
(b) But the most inspiring spectacle must have been the procession of priests and princes and chief representatives of the tribes which brought the ark from the temporary sanctuary in which David had placed it on Mount Zion forty years before. Probably all the men of Israel gathered to that procession. The progress of the assembled multitudes was slow, because of the sacrifices which were offered at every few steps. At the precincts of the Temple the great mass of the worshippers were stayed, the ark was taken from the shoulders of the Levites by the priests, who conveyed it into the darkness of the inner oracle, where it remained until it was carried away by Nebuchadnezzar. The staves were drawn out of the sockets of the ark to denote that the wanderings of the ark were now over for ever. In the meanwhile, the air was filled with sacred songs from the dense groups of priests, Levites, and musicians robed in white, holding in their hands glittering harps and cymbals, whilst one hundred and twenty trumpeters, priests, rent the air with blasts from the silver trumpets.
At that moment, when the feelings of the priests and the whole congregation were wrought to the highest point, the Shekinah Cloud, the emblem of the Divine presence, dazzling in its white glory, settled down upon the house, so that the priests could no longer stand to minister there, and were driven forth before the overpowering splendour.
Illustrations
(1) There was but the one material symbol with which Jehovahs presence was believed to be constantly associated by His own appointment. This was the ark. No spot and no building but that which contained the ark was reckoned the dwelling-place of God. He might on extraordinary occasions manifest Himself elsewhere. In the absence of a legitimate sanctuary, He might be invoked and worshipped elsewhere. But the existence of one, and only one, House of God, is the necessary corollary from the existence of but one ark of God; and if the ark was Mosaic, which cannot be intelligently disputed, so must the law of the unity of the sanctuary be. This law may have been temporarily in abeyance, and it may have been sinfully disregarded, but the antiquity of the law and its Mosaic origin is by this single fact triumphantly established.
(2) The Temple had been finished some eleven months when it was dedicated. The delay probably was due to the desirability of waiting for the next year, which was a jubilee year. The occasion chosen was the Feast of Tabernacles, when the people gathered from the whole land to dwell in booths. With solemn pomp the ark was borne from its temporary resting-place to its abiding place. How appropriate Psalms 132 was for such an occasion! And how comforted Solomon must have been when he saw the Shekinah Cloud settle down like Gods blessing and sign of approval! Thus was the first Tabernacle consecrated for its holy purposes (Exo 40:34). It was as though the Divine King had taken up His residence, constituting the Temple His palace.
(3) The Temple, though richly beautified, while without the ark was like a body without a soul, or a candlestick without a candle, or (to speak more properly) a house without an inhabitant. All the cost and pains bestowed on this stately structure are lost if God do not accept them; and unless He please to own it as the place where He will record His name, it is, after all, but a ruinous heap; when therefore all the work is ended the one thing needful is yet behind, and that is, the bringing in of the ark. This is the end which must crown the work, and which here we have an account of the doing with great solemnity. Solomon presided in this service, as David did in the bringing up of the ark to Jerusalem.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
1Ki 8:6-8. Under the wings of the cherubim Which Solomon had made. For the cherubim made by Moses were fixed to the mercy-seat and the ark, and were inseparable from it, and therefore, together with the ark, were placed under the wings of these cherubim. And they drew out the staves Not wholly, which was expressly forbidden, (Exo 25:15; Num 4:6,) but in part. That the ends of the staves were seen out in the holy place That is, the most holy, often called the holy place by way of eminence. And the next clause before the oracle, may be as well rendered, within the oracle. These staves were left in this posture, that the high-priest might thereby be certainly guided to that very place where he was, one day in a year, to sprinkle blood, and to offer incense before the ark, which otherwise he might have mistaken in that dark place, where the ark was wholly covered with the wings of the great cherubim, which stood between him and the ark when he entered in. They were not seen without In the sanctuary. There they are unto this day In that posture, namely, when this book was written.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
8:6 And the {c} priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the LORD unto his place, into the oracle of the house, to the most holy [place, even] under the wings of the cherubims.
(c) That is, the Kohathites, Num 4:5.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
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THE ARK AND THE CHERUBIM
1Ki 6:23-30; 1Ki 8:6-11.
“Jehovah, thundering out of Zion, throned Between the cherubim.”
– MILTON
THE inculcation of truths so deep as the unity, the presence, and the mercy of God would alone have sufficed to give preciousness to the national sanctuary, and to justify the lavish expenditure with which it was carried to completion. But as in the Tabernacle, so in the Temple, which was only a more rich and permanent structure, the numbers, the colors, and many details had a real significance. The unity of the Temple shadowed forth the unity of the Godhead; while the concrete and perfect unity, resulting from the reconciliation of unity with difference and opposition (1 + 2), is “the signature of the Deity.” Hence, as in our English cathedrals, three was the predominant number. There were three divisions, Porch, Holy Place, Oracle. Each main division contained three expiatory objects. Three times its width (which was 3 x 10) was the measure of its length. The number ten is also prominent in the measurements. It includes all the cardinal numbers, and, as the completion of multiplicity, is used to indicate a perfect whole. The seven pillars which supported the house, and the seven branches of the candlestick, recalled the sacredness of the seventh day hallowed by the Sabbath, by circumcision, and by the Passover. The number of the cakes of shewbread was twelve, “the signature of the people of Israel, a whole in the midst of which God resides, a body which moves after Divine laws.” Of the colors predominant in the Temple, blue, the color of heaven, symbolizes revelation; white is the color of light and innocence; purple, of majesty and royal power; crimson, of life, being the color of fire and blood. Every gem on the high priests pectoral had its mystic significance, and the bells and pomegranates which fringed the edge of his ephod were emblems of devotion and good works.
Two instances will suffice to indicate how deep and rich was the significance of the truths which Moses had endeavored to engraft in the minds of his people, and to which Solomon, whether with full consciousness or not, gave permanence in the Temple.
1. Consider, first, the Ark.
Every step towards the Holiest was a step of deepening reverence. The Holy Land was sacred, but Jerusalem was more sacred than all the rest. The Temple was the most sacred part of the city; the Oracle was the most sacred part of the Temple; the Ark was the most sacred thing in the Oracle; yet the Ark was only sacred because of that which it contained.
And what did it contain? What was it which enshrined in itself this quintessence of all sanctitude? When we pierce to the inmost recesses of a pyramid, we find there only the ashes of a dead man, or even of an animal. Within the adytum of an Egyptian temple we might have found “an ox wallowing on purple tapestry.” The Egyptians, too, had their arks, as the Greeks had the cyst of Cybele, and the vannus of Iacchus. What did they contain? At the best phallic emblems, the emblems of prolific nature. But the Ark of Jehovah contained nothing but the stone tablets on which were carved the Ten Words of the Covenant, the briefest possible form of the moral law of God. In the inmost heart of the Temple was its most inestimable treasure, -a protest against all idolatry; a protest against all polytheism, or ditheism, or atheism; a protest, too against the formalism which the Temple itself and its services might tend to produce in its least spiritually minded worshippers. Thus the entire Temple was a glorification of the truth that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” and that the one end to be produced by the fear of the Lord is obedience to His commandments. The Ark and its unseen treasure taught that no religion can be of the least value which does not result in conformity with the plain moral laws:-be obedient; be kind; be pure; be honest; be truthful; be contented; and that this obedience can only spring from faith in the one God whom all real worshippers must worship in spirit and truth.
Obvious as this lesson might seem to be, it was entirely missed by the Jews in general. The Ark, too, was degraded into a fetish, and Jeremiah says {Jer 3:16} of the exiles, “They shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the Lord: neither shall it come to mind: neither shall they miss it: neither shall it be made any more” (Hebrews). When a symbol has been perverted into a source of materialism and superstition, it becomes not only useless but positively dangerous. No religions have fallen so absolutely dead as those which have sunk into petty formalism. The Ark, for all its quintessential sacredness, had been suffered to fall into the hands of uncircumcised Philistines, and to be placed in their Dagon temple, to show that it was no mere idolatrous amulet. Ultimately it was carried away to Babylon, to adorn the palace of a heathen tyrant, and probably to perish by fire in his captured city. In the second Temple there was no ark. Nothing remained but the rock of Araunahs threshing-floor, on which it once had stood.
2. Consider, next, the meaning of the Cherubim.
(1) The infinite sanctity given to the conception of the moral law was enhanced by the introduction of these overshadowing figures. We are never told in the entire books of Scripture what was the form of these cherubim; nor is their function anywhere specially defined; nor, again, can we be at all certain of the derivation of the name. That the cherubim over the Ark were not identical with the fourfold-visage-four of Ezekiels cherub-chariot we know, because they certainly had but one face. But we now know that among the Assyrians, Persians, Egyptians, and other nations nothing was more common than these cherubic emblems, which were introduced into their palaces and temples under the forms of winged lions, oxen, men, and eagle-headed human figures. We see also that in the Tabernacle, and to a still greater extent in the Temple, a tacit exception to the stringency of the Second Commandment seems to have been made in favor of the component parts of these cherubic figures. If Solomon was aware (as he surely must have been) of the existence of the law, “Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image,” he must either have laid stress on the words “to thyself,” and have excused the brazen oxen which supported his great laver on the ground that they could not be turned into objects of worship, or he must have held, as Ezekiel apparently did, that the ox was the predominant form in the cherubic emblem. From the Vision of Ezekiel we see that the cherubim-like the “Immortalities” of the Apocalypse, which had faces of the ox, the eagle, the lion, and the man-were conceived of as “living creatures” upholding the sapphire Throne of God. They had wings, and the similitude of hands under their wings. They flashed to and fro like lightning in the midst of a great cloud, and an enfolding fire, and a rolling mass of amber-colored flame. Of the form of this “changeable hieroglyphic” we need say no more. Perhaps originally suggested by the wreathing fires and rolling storm clouds, which were regarded as immediate signs of the Divine proximity, the cherubim came to be regarded as the genius of the created universe in its richest perfection and energy, at once revealing and shrouding the Presence of God. Their eyes represent His omniscience, for “the eyes of the Lord are in every place”; their wings and straight feet represent the speed and fiery gliding of His omnipresence; each element of their fourfold shape indicates His love, His patience, His power, His sublimity. Their wheels imply that “the dread magnificence of the unintelligent creation” is under His entire control; and, as a whole, they symbolize the dazzling beauty of the universe, alike conscious and material. They were the ideal anima animantium-the perfection of existence emanating from and subject to the Divine Creator whose tender mercy is over all His works. Their function, when they are first introduced in the Book of Genesis, is at once vengeful and protective; vengeful of the violated law, protective of the treasure of life. They are here the Erinnyes of the Dawn, revealing and avenging the works of darkness. Their “dreadful faces and fiery arms” at the gate of Eden typify guilty awakenment, realized retribution, conscious alienation from God, the universe siding with His awakened anger.
(2) But when next they are mentioned, God says to Moses, “Thou shalt make a mercy-seat of pure gold, and thou shalt make two cherubim of gold at the two ends of the mercy-seat.” But for their presence on the mercy-seat how terrible would have been the symbolism of the Holy of Holies-Gods darkness, mans crime, a broken law! It would have represented Him who hath clouds and darkness round about Him, and dwelleth in darkness which no man can approach unto; and the Ark would only have treasured up, as a witness against mans apostasy, the shattered slabs of the words of Sinai. But over that Ark, and its saddening because dishallowed treasure, bent once more these mystic figures, these “cherubim of glory.” They bent down as though at once to protect with outspread wings, and to regard with awful contemplation, that mystic gift of a law promulgated to all nations as their moral heritage and as the revealed will of God. These are no longer cherubim of vengeance or awakened wrath, for they stand on the Capporeth, the “covering,” or “propitiatory” of the Ark. They gleamed out in the red light of the high priests golden brazier on the one day when human foot entered the darkness m which they were shrouded; and even by him they were but dimly discerned through the ascending wreaths of fragrant incense. But he stood before them, where, on their spreading wings, the light of the Divine presence was deemed to dwell; and with the blood of expiation he sprinkled seven times the mercy-seat over which these adoring figures leaned. The wrathful cherubim of the lost Eden had driven man from a treasure which he had forfeited; but these, though they guard the ten words of a law which man had broken, were cherubim of mercy and reconciliation. Those of Eden were armed with swords of flame; those of the Temple were reddened with the blood of forgiveness. Those typified a covenant destroyed and ended; these a covenant broken yet renewed. Those spoke of awakened wrath; these of covenanted mercy. Those kept men back from the Tree of Life; these guarded that which is a Tree of Life to them that love it.
Could the whole covenant of the law and the gospel have been symbolized more simply, yet with Diviner force? The Temple itself, with all its sacrifices, with all its service and ceremonial and all the gorgeous vestments of Aarons vestry, served but to teach the infinite worth of simple righteousness. The heart of the Mosaic legislation was nothing so poor, so paltry, so material as the promotion of liturgical Levitism, and the pomp of ritual, and the organization of priestly functions-as though these in themselves had any value in the sight of God. It lay in the lesson that “Obedience is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.” The law of Moses-the ten words which constituted the inmost preciousness of his legislation-was, alas! a violated law. For the disobedient it had no message but the wrathful menace of death. But to show that God has not abandoned His disobedient children, but would still enable them to keep that law, and to repent for its transgression, the cherubim are there. Their presence on the propitiatory was meant to reveal the glory of the gospel. The high priest, who alone saw them on the Great Day of Israel, was a type of Him who, not with the blood of bulls and goats, but in His own blood (i.e., in the glory of the life outpoured for man), entered into Gods presence within the veil.
(3) In the dazzling living creatures before the throne in the Revelation of St. John, we see once more these cherubim of Eden, who, having indicated at the Fall an awful warning, and represented in the Tabernacle a blessed hope, symbolize, in the last book of the Bible, a Divine fulfillment. They are there no longer with fiery swords, in wrathful aspect, in repellent silence; but, gracious and beautiful, they join in the new song of the redeemed multitude under the shadow of the Tree of Life, to which all have free access in that recovered Eden. In the Temple-glimmering through the rising fumes of incense, which were the type of accepted prayer, their golden plumage sprinkled with the blood of the atoning sacrifice-they became a type both of all creation up to its most celestial beings, gazing in adoration on the will of God, and of all creation, in its groaning and travailing, restored through the precious blood that speaketh better things than the blood of Abel. Not all, of course, of these deep meanings were present to the souls of Israels worshippers; but the best of them might with joy see something of the things which we see when we say that in these glorious figures are summed up the three chief images of all Scripture: first, the Primaeval Dispensation, “In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die”; next, in the wilderness, “This do, and thou shalt live”; last of all, in the Gospel Dispensation, “Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation, and hast made us unto our God kings and priests.”