Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Kings 8:63
And Solomon offered a sacrifice of peace offerings, which he offered unto the LORD, two and twenty thousand oxen, and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of the LORD.
62 66. The great sacrifice and festival (2Ch 7:4-11)
63. And Solomon offered a sacrifice of peace offerings ] It is ordered in the Law (Lev 7:15) that the greatest part of such peace offerings shall be eaten at the time of the offering. The fat and certain internal portions of the victim are to be consumed in the fire on the altar, but all else is to go for food. This explains in part the enormous number of animals mentioned in this verse. Not only among the Jews, but among all ancient nations, sacrifices were feasts, sometimes on a very large scale. Homer supplies abundant instances. The dedication of the Temple was an event for which all who could come were sure to assemble, and for the support of such an enormous crowd for fourteen days (cf. 2Ch 7:8-9) the supply here mentioned need not be thought excessive. Great multitudes can assemble in Eastern climates, where the shelter of a roof at night is not a necessity, with less preparation, except for actual food, than is required in western lands. Josephus says “all the Hebrews feasted with their wives and children, moreover also the king celebrated the feast which is called the feast of Tabernacles grandly and magnificently before the Temple, feasting together with all the people.”
two and twenty thousand oxen ] Contrary to his custom Josephus gives here a smaller number than that in the Hebrew text. He says twelve thousand oxen, but keeps the same number, one hundred and twenty thousand, for the sheep. Though it be said that the king offered this large sacrifice, we need not suppose that any great part of the offering was performed by him personally or in his presence. The next verse shows that provision was made for offering sacrifices in other places than on the brazen altar, viz. on temporary altars set up for the occasion.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
These numbers have been thought incredible, but they are not impossible. At least 100, 000, or 120, 000 men 1Ki 8:65 were assembled; and as they all offered sacrifice with the king 1Ki 8:62, the number of victims must have been enormous. Part of the flesh of so many victims would be eaten; but much of the meat may have been privately burned Lev 19:6, the object of the sacrifice being the glory of God, and not the convenience of the people. Profusion was a usual feature of the sacrifices of antiquity.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 63. Two and twenty thousand oxen] This was the whole amount of the victims that had been offered during the fourteen days; i.e., the seven days of the dedication, and the seven days of the feast of tabernacles. In what way could they dispose of the blood of so many victims?
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Solomon offered a sacrifice, by the hands of the priests.
A hundred and twenty thousand sheep; not all in one day, but in the seven, or, it may be, in the fourteen days, mentioned 1Ki 8:65. So, i.e. by these sacrifices and holy exercises.
Dedicated the house of the Lord, i.e. began to set it apart for the work and service of God.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
63. So the king and all the childrenof Israel dedicated the house of the LordThe dedication wasnot a ceremony ordained by the law, but it was done in accordancewith the sentiments of reverence naturally associated with edificesappropriated to divine worship. [See on 2Ch7:5.]
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And Solomon offered a sacrifice of peace offerings, which he offered unto the Lord,…. Part of which belonged to the offerer, and with those Solomon feasted the people all the days of the feast of the dedication, if not of tabernacles also; for the number was exceeding large, as follows:
22,000 oxen, and 120,000 sheep; which, as suggested, might be the number for all the fourteen days; nor need it seem incredible, since, as Josephus b says, at a passover celebrated in the times of Cestius the Roman governor, at the evening of the passover, in two hours time 256,500 lambs were slain; however, this was a very munificent sacrifice of Solomon’s, in which he greatly exceeded the Heathens, whose highest number of sacrifices were hecatombs, or by hundreds, but his by thousands:
so the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of the Lord; devoted it to divine and religious worship by these sacrifices: hence in imitation of this sprung the dedication of temples with the Heathens; the first of which among the Romans was that in the capitol at Rome c by Romulus; the rites and ceremonies used therein by them may be read in Cicero, Livy, Tacitus, and others d.
b De Bello Jud. l. 6. c. 9. sect. 3. c Vid. Liv. Hist. Decad. 1. l. 1. p. s. & l. 2. p. 33. d Vid. Hospinian. de Templis, l. 4. c. 2. p. 451. & Alex. ab Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 6. c. 14.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(63) And Solomon offered.The number here given, enormous as it is, can hardly be supposed due to any error in the text; for it is exactly reproduced in the Chronicles and by Josephus. Much explanation of it has been wasted through misunderstanding of the real difficulty involved. It is comparatively easy to conceive how such a mass of victims could be brought as offerings or consumed, when we consider the vastness of the assembled multitude from the whole of the great dominions of Solomon, dwelling in or encamped about the city. Even at the Passovers of the last days of Jerusalem the multitude of worshippers seems to have been numbered by hundreds of thousands. The real difficulty is to conceive how, even through the fourteen days of the festival, and over the whole of the hallowed portion of the court, the victims could have been offered. But it is not unlikely that on such an occasion it might be deemed sufficient actually to sacrifice only certain representative victims of each hecatomb, and simply to dedicate the rest to the Lord, leaving them to be killed and eaten elsewhere.
This profusion of sacrifices, good as expressing the natural desire of all to offer at such a time, may perhaps have involved something of the idea, so frequent in heathen sacrifice, and so emphatically condemned by the prophets, that the Lord would be pleased with thousands of rams and ten thousands of rivers of oilsomething also of that display of the magnificence of the king and his people, even in the very act of homage to God, which the history throughout seems to imply. If so, in these ideas lurked the evils which hereafter were to overthrow the prosperity of Israel, and make the Temple a heap of stones.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
63. Twenty thousand oxen “If, besides the elders, heads of families and tribes, all Israel from the region of Hamath to the river of Egypt, in great assembly, appeared at this festival, there may have easily been one hundred thousand fathers, and twenty thousand elders, heads of families and tribes, assembled. Now if, on an average, every father offered only one sheep, every elder an ox, and the king, out of his abundance, two thousand oxen and two thousand sheep, the number of victims stated will not appear too great. Whether a man could consume all the flesh of these offerings at the festival or not is a matter of no consequence, as the law in this case commanded the burning of the remainder. Lev 7:17; Lev 19:6.” Keil.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Great Sacrificial Offering And Feast ( 1Ki 8:63-66 ).
This special feast of dedication commenced seven days prior to the Feast of Tabernacles (thus incorporating the Day of Atonement). Large scale offerings were made during it, and they were of such a dimension that the bronze altar, which was apparently the one thing that had been brought from the Tabernacle for current use, was of insufficient size for the purpose of both offering the burnt offering and burning the fat of the multitudinous wellbeing (peace) offerings. The consequence was that the middle of the Inner court had to be especially hallowed so as to assist with the burning of the fat. What in fact was probably hallowed for the purpose may well have been the great rock (eighteen metres (sixty feet) by fourteen metres (forty five feet) by around one and a half metres (five feet)) which we know from later tradition was situated in the Inner court area, and which later gave its name to the present ‘Dome of the Rock’, for when examined this bore the marks of having been used for sacrifices. But that is by no means certain.
The Feast of Tabernacles then followed, and at the end of ‘the eight day’ of that feast the people returned to their temporary booths full of rejoicing at what had occurred. They would return home on the morrow in the same spirit.
Analysis.
a
b So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of YHWH (1Ki 8:63 b).
c The same day did the king hallow the middle of the court that was before the house of YHWH, for there he offered the burnt-offering, and the meal-offering, and the fat of the peace-offerings, because the brazen altar that was before YHWH was too small to receive the burnt-offering, and the meal-offering, and the fat of the peace-offerings (1Ki 8:64).
b So Solomon held the feast at that time, and all Israel with him, a great assembly, from Libo-Hamath to the wadi of Egypt, before YHWH our God, seven days and seven days, even fourteen days (1Ki 8:65).
a On the eighth day he sent the people away, and they blessed the king, and went to their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that YHWH had shown to David his servant, and to Israel his people (1Ki 8:66).
Note that in ‘a’ large-scale sacrifices were offered of ‘wellbeing’ offerings, and in the parallel they returned home from the feast with rejoicing. In ‘b’ the king and the people dedicated the house of YHWH, and in the parallel a special seven day feast of dedication was held prior to the feast of Tabernacles. Centrally in ‘c’ the central inner court was sanctified for the offering of sacrifices because the brazen altar was insufficient for the number of sacrifices.
1Ki 8:63
‘ And Solomon offered for the sacrifice of peace-offerings, which he offered to YHWH, two and twenty thousand oxen, and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of YHWH.’
As we gather from the previous verse and from the following verse ‘Solomon’ signifies ‘him and all the people’, with Solomon prominent in the process. The daily burnt offerings and meal offerings would have to be offered, but on top of those were offered a multitude of sacrifices of peace (wellbeing – shelamim) offerings in honour of YHWH. Of these offerings only the fat was burned, the remainder, apart from what was given to the priests, contributing toward their feasting. They numbered twenty two sacrificial units of oxen and one hundred and twenty sacrificial units of sheep (the sacrificial units may have been literally in ‘thousands’ (eleph) or they may have been related to the size of the ‘wider families’ (eleph)). How large a number this came to we do not necessarily know, but the huge crowds gathered on this special occasion, urged on by the king, would require huge amounts of meat.
Similar huge offerings at feasts for the dedication of new buildings have been testified to at Nimrud, Ashur and Nineveh, accompanied by similar feasting and rejoicing.
1Ki 8:64
‘ The same day did the king hallow the middle of the court that was before the house of YHWH, for there he offered the burnt-offering, and the meal-offering, and the fat of the peace-offerings, because the brazen altar that was before YHWH was too small to receive the burnt-offering, and the meal-offering, and the fat of the peace-offerings.’
In fact so huge were the numbers of offerings and sacrifices that the bronze altar, which had been brought from the Tabernacle (which would explain why no altar was made earlier), and which was five cubits (just over to metres or seven and a half feet) by five cubits, was insufficient for the task. The brazen altar would be required for the morning and evening burnt offerings and meal offerings, and for the special burnt offerings and sin offerings of the Feast of Tabernacles (see Num 29:12-39), thus to handle the fat from the multitudinous wellbeing offerings as well would have proved too much for it. So the middle of the Inner court was hallowed especially for the purpose. This Inner court probably contained the massive stone described above, which may well have been co-opted as an emergency altar. It may have been this experience that resulted in the making of a bronze altar twenty cubits by twenty cubits by ten cubits in height as described in 2Ch 4:1.
1Ki 8:65
‘ So Solomon held the feast at that time, and all Israel with him, a great assembly, from Libo-Hamath to the wadi of Egypt, before YHWH our God, seven days and seven days, even fourteen days.’
The number of people present at the feast is emphasised. There were more than attended the usual annual feasts. (No doubt Solomon’s invitation had been hard to refuse). For they formed ‘a great assembly’, coming from as far north as Libo-Hamath, a city attested to in the Egyptian execration texts and situated roughly a hundred and sixty miles north of Dan (Dan was the most northern part of Israel prior to the time of David. Compare ‘from Dan to Beersheba’). It was seen as the ‘ideal’ boundary of Israel (Num 34:8; Jos 13:5; Amo 6:14). And from as far down as the Wadi of Egypt. Alternately some prefer to translate lebo-Hamath as ‘the approaches to Hamath’, recognising that Hamath itself was a friendly vassal state (2Sa 8:10). And this was for a feast of extra length, commencing seven days before the Feast of Tabernacles and going on until ‘the eighth day’ of the Feast of Tabernacles, thus lasting for fourteen days.
The Wadi of Egypt, many miles south of Gaza, was the southernmost area of occupation prior to reaching Egypt and was known by the Assyrians as Nahal (Wadi) Musri.
1Ki 8:66
‘ On the eighth day he sent the people away, and they blessed the king, and went to their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that YHWH had shown to David his servant, and to Israel his people.’
And on ‘the eighth day’ of the Feast of Tabernacles (Num 29:35; Lev 23:36; compare Joh 7:37), presumably towards sunset, Solomon gave permission for the feast to end and the people to go home, and they returned to their ‘tents’ (their temporary booths) full of rejoicing ready, for the homeward journey on the morrow. The rejoicing at the Feast of Tabernacles was proverbial for it signified the end of the agricultural year, but this was a special joy for it included the thought of what YHWH had done for Israel in the goodness that He had shown towards David, and therefore to Israel His people.
“Blessed the king.” Gave him praise and thanked God for him because of what he had done for Israel. (They were hardly likely to do anything else, but they did have good reason to be joyful, especially at the end of such a prolonged feast).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
1Ki 8:63. Solomon offeredtwo and twenty thousand oxen, &c. That is, he offered so many sacrifices during the whole space of time, the whole fourteen days; the seven days of the feast of dedication, and the seven days of the feast of tabernacles, spoken of in the next verse. See 2Ch 7:8-9. This custom of dedicating temples was also common among the heathens. The Romans dedicated their temples, altars, public edifices, and the like. See Cicero’s Orat. pro Domo sui, et Alex. ab Alex. lib. 7: cap. 14. It is probable, that the later heathens borrowed most of their rites from the law of Moses, but intermixing with them the most abominable practices.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Ki 8:63 And Solomon offered a sacrifice of peace offerings, which he offered unto the LORD, two and twenty thousand oxen, and an hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of the LORD.
Ver. 63. And Solomon offered. ] This was the greatest sacrifice that we anywhere read of. Those hypocrites in Mic 6:7 made an overture of great cost, so they might thereby have purchased a dispensation to live in sin. Lycurgus forbade costly sacrifices, lest men should grow weary of the charge, and give over their devotion.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
a sacrifice: Lev 3:1-17, 1Ch 29:21, 2Ch 15:11, 2Ch 29:32-35, 2Ch 30:24, 2Ch 35:7-9, Ezr 6:16, Ezr 6:17, Eze 45:17, Mic 6:7
two and twenty: We are not to suppose that all these victims were sacrificed in one day, or on one altar; for this was the whole amount of those that had been offered during the fourteen days which the feast of dedication and the feast of tabernacles lasted; and there appears to have been an altar erected in the middle of the court, which was set apart for that purpose, in consequence of the great altar of burnt offering being not sufficient for the multitude of sacrifices then offered.
dedicated: Num 7:10, Num 7:11, Num 7:84-88, 2Ch 2:4, 2Ch 7:5, Ezr 6:16, Ezr 6:17, Neh 12:27, Joh 10:22
Reciprocal: Num 7:23 – General 1Ki 3:4 – a thousand 1Ki 3:15 – peace offerings 1Ki 8:5 – sacrificing sheep 2Ch 1:6 – a thousand Psa 118:27 – bind
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Ki 8:63. And Solomon offered By the hands of the priests, two and twenty thousand oxen, &c. Not all in one day, but in seven, or, it may be, in the fourteen days mentioned 1Ki 8:65. So the king and all Israel dedicated the house of the Lord Began to set it apart for the work and services of God by these sacrifices and holy exercises.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
8:63 And Solomon offered a sacrifice of peace offerings, which he offered unto the LORD, two and twenty thousand oxen, and an hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the {y} house of the LORD.
(y) Before the oracle where the ark was.