1 Kings 8:26-30

Sermon Exegesis for September 5th, 2010

26 And now, O God of Israel, let your word that you promised your servant David my father come true. 27 "But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built! 28 Yet give attention to your servant's prayer and his plea for mercy, O LORD my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence this day. 29 May your eyes be open toward this temple night and day, this place of which you said, 'My Name shall be there,' so that you will hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place. 30 Hear the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive.

1 KINGS 8:26

וְעַתָּה אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל יֵאָמֶן נָא דְּבָרְיךָ֔ אֲשֶׁר דִּבַּרְתָּ לְעַבְדְּךָ דָּוִד אָבִי׃

26 "And now, O God of Israel, please let your word be true, which you have spoken to your servant, David my father.

וְעַתָּה אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל "And now, O God of Israel, The main masoretic division of the verse falls on "Israel" with an atnach, which is fairly normal for a prayer when "God" is in the genitive. Cp. Genesis 24:12; 2 Kings 19:19. etc. The angled accent munach beneath אֱלֹהֵי connects it as virtually one word with "Israel." An Mp note tells us that this phrase is unique in Scripture, but an additional note tells us that "God of Israel" occurs 28 times. In English order, they are Gen. 33:20; Ex. 24:10; Num 16:9; Josh 22:16; 1 Sam 1:17; 6:5; 2 Sam 6:5; 1 Kings 8:26; 1 Chron. 4:10; 5:26; 2 Chron. 29:7; Ezra 3:2; 8:35; 9:4; Psalm 69:7; Isaiah 29:23; 41:17; 45:3; 45:15; 48:1; 48:2; 52:12; Ezekiel 8:4; 9:3; 10:19; 10:20; 11:22 and 43:2.

יֵאָמֶן נָא דְּבָרְיךָ please let your word be true, In the nifal, אָמַן "amen" means "be confirmed, be trusty." I have used "be true" to reflect Luther's usage, "This is most certainly true." Here the word is a jussive followed by נָא-, a strong clue that this is a Hebrew optative form (GK§109b) expressing the wish of the petitioner.

The accent for יֵאָמֵ֚ן is the arrow-shaped yetib (not mahpak, which occurs only at the end of a word). Yetib replaces the more common pashta when the word does not follow a conjunctive accent and the word is accented on the first syllable (mahpak serves pashta); here the preformative yod of the nifal conjugation does not get in the way of the rule. Some manuscripts also place a metheg after the sere under the mem (cf. Slotki).

The qere for דְּבָרְיךָ is דְּבָרְךָ, "your word." As it stands, the ketib looks like an attempt at the plural with 2 masc. sg. suffix: דְּבָרֶיךָ, "your words." The Masoretes have pointed it as singular, and the Septuagint's singular τὸ ῥῆμά σoυ agrees. The additional Mp note says that this is one of eight occurrences of this word (דבר) with a superfluous yod. The others are found in Judges 13:17; 1 Kings 18:36; 22:13; Ezra 10:12; Psalm 119:147; 119:161 and Jeremiah 15:16.

אֲשֶׁר דִּבַּרְתָּ לְעַבְדְּךָ דָּוִד אָבִי which you have spoken to your servant, David my father. The piel perfect דִּבַּרְתָּ "you have spoken" shows an action which is accomplished and in the past. This is the source of all of Solomon's comfort: Not that God showed love to David and Solomon clings to his blood tie to David, but simply because God "spoke." What God says, is.

1 KINGS 8:27

כִּי הַאֻמְנָם יֵשֵׁב אֱלֹהִים עַל־הָאָרֶץ הִנֵּה הַשָּׁמַיִם וּשְׁמֵי הַשָּׁמַיִם לֹא יְכַלְכְּלוּךָ אַף כִּי־הַבַּיִת הַזֶּה אֲשֶׁר בָּנִיתִי׃

27 "But will God truly dwell on earth? See, heaven and heaven's heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house I have built!

כִּי הַאֻמְנָם יֵשֵׁב אֱלֹהִים עַל־הָאָרֶץ "But will God truly dwell on earth? כִּי sometimes occurs as an adversative or negative with or without an accompanying אִם (GK 163). Once again Solomon uses a form of אָמַן, here the adverbial "truly." הַאֻמְנָם occurs just four times (Num. 22:37; 1 Kg 8:27; 2 Chron. 6:18; Psalm 58:2); it introduces the qal imperfect pe-yod verb יֵשֵׁב "(will he) dwell" (an Mp note tells us that the phrase יֵשֵׁב אֱלֹהִים occurs twice; the other place is 2 Chron. 6:18). God, who cannot be contained by the heavens (illustrated by the superlative clause that follows) certainly cannot be thought to be upon (עַל) the earth. The point of the verse is that nothing built by human hands could ever be considered to be a fitting residence for the Maker of the Universe, and yet God consented to let Solomon build the temple. The irony of the verse is that Solomon's descendant, Jesus Christ, truly God and Creator in the flesh, was rarely welcome and was never worshiped in his own temple. The parallel text in 2 Chron. 6:18 adds the words "among men," but we needn't insist that they must be part of the inspired word in this passage as well. The author recorded the words we have and the Holy Spirit guided his pen.

הִנֵּה הַשָּׁמַיִם וּשְׁמֵי הַשָּׁמַיִם לֹא יְכַלְכְּלוּךָ See, heaven and heaven's heaven cannot contain you, In just the same spirit as "Holy of holies," "King of kings" and "Lord of lords," or even "Song of songs," the term "heaven of heavens" is a superlative, a way of expressing the greatest, highest and best, even of heaven. There is no dogmatic sense to be uncovered or proved here. But Solomon touches a very profound truth when he adds, "...cannot contain you." יְכַלְכְּלוּךָ is a pilpel imperfect. The pilpel is simply a reduplicated form of the piel, required in certain ayin-waw verbs like כּוּל, "comprehend, contain." The pilpel of this verb occurs in the parallel passage of course (the Mp note is a reference to 2 Chron. 6:18), but also in Genesis 50:21; 2 Sam. 19:33; Psalm 55:23; Nehemiah 9:21; and Jeremiah 20:9.

אַף כִּי־הַבַּיִת הַזֶּה אֲשֶׁר בָּנִיתִי how much less this house I have built! When the conjunctions אַף כִּי occur together like this, they generally mean "How much." This is the case in 1 Sam. 14:30; 2 Sam. 4:11; 2 Chron 6:18; 32:15; Neh. 9:18 ("even when"); Job 9:14 ("how then?"); 15:16; 25:6; 35:14; Prov. 11:31; 15:11; 17:7; 19:7; 19:10; 21:27; Ezekiel 14:21 and 15:5. Note that in most cases, the first particle, אַף, is separated from כִּי by a disjunctive accent, often as strong as rebi or even zaqef; nevertheless, the two words form a unit thought.

The perfect verb בָּנִיתִי shows that the building of the temple was complete at the time of Solomon's prayer. An Mp note simply states that בָּנִיתִי occurs six times in this book (8:13; 8:27; 8:43 and 11:38).

1 KINGS 8:28

וּפָנִיתָ אֶל־תְּפִלַּת עַבְדְּךָ וְאֶל־תְּחִנָּתוֹ יְהוָה אֱלֹהָי לִשְׁמֹעַ אֶל־הָרִנָּה וְאֶל־הַתְּפִלָּה אֲשֶׁר עַבְדְּךָ מִתְפַּלֵּל לְפָנֶיךָ הַיּוֹם׃

28 "Yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his supplication, O LORD my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which your servant prays before you today;

וּפָנִיתָ אֶל־תְּפִלַּת עַבְדְּךָ וְאֶל־תְּחִנָּתוֹ יְהוָה אֱלֹהָי "Yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his supplication, O LORD my God, The waw-consecutive perfect וּפָנִיתָ is to be taken as somewhat concessive: "Yet." The verb means "turn," and we see that when God turns toward a prayer, he hears it. Solomon freely and publicly calls himself "your servant" in this public prayer (the LXX variant is not supported by any Hebrew text); no one should even hesitate to use that title as one we have been given through God's free grace: "I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked" (Ps. 84:10).

לִשְׁמֹעַ אֶל־הָרִנָּה וְאֶל־הַתְּפִלָּה אֲשֶׁר עַבְדְּךָ מִתְפַּלֵּל לְפָנֶיךָ הַיּוֹם to listen to the cry and to the prayer which your servant prays before you today; The word רִנָּה means a "ringing cry." הַתְּפִלָּה "the prayer" is the word that gives the book of Psalms its Hebrew name, Tehillim. מִתְפַּלֵּל is the hithpael participle of פָּלַל, "intervene" in both the piel and hithpael (the root only occurs in the D-stems). It isn't easy to bring "intercede" into this context; most translations stick to "pray."

1 KINGS 8:29

לִהְיוֹת עֵינֶךָ פְתֻחֹת אֶל־הַבַּיִת הַזֶּה לַיְלָה וָיוֹם אֶל־הַמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר אָמַרְתָּ יִהְיֶה שְׁמִי שָׁם לִשְׁמֹעַ אֶל־הַתְּפִלָּה אֲשֶׁר יִתְפַּלֵּל עַבְדְּךָ אֶל־הַמָּקוֹם הַזֶּה׃

29 that your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, toward the place of which you have said, 'My name shall be there,' to listen to the prayer which your servant shall pray toward this place.

לִהְיוֹת עֵינֶךָ פְתֻחֹת אֶל־הַבַּיִת הַזֶּה לַיְלָה וָיוֹם that your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, The participle פְתֻחֹת (qal passive, feminine plural because עֵינֶךָ "eyes" is plural) is modified by the infinitive לִהְיוֹת, an infinitive of purpose following the verbs of praying the previous verse. Solomon's prayer was specifically about הַבַּיִת הַזֶּה "this house," the temple he was dedicating. But we know that the Holy Spirit dwells within each one of us: "The Spirit of God lives in you" (Rom. 8:9); "Don't you know that the you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?" (1 Cor. 3:16). The 1 Corinthians verse in particular is significant because although Paul clearly addresses every believer: οὐκ οἴδατε (2nd plural) ὅτι... ἐστε (2nd plural), he refers to the "temple of God" (ναὸς θεοῦ) in the singular. It is not as if we are all separate tents, like an army camped out in ten thousand little white pup tents outside Gettysburg, but each of us is THE temple of God; he does not reside in each of us in part, but in whole. All of God dwells within me because he has put faith in me and come to me in my baptism.

The MP note for עֵינֶךָ says that this form occurs 66 times, six of them (Dt 15:18; 19:21; 25:12; 1 Kg 8:29; Isaiah 37:17 and Job 14:3) written defectively. Another note for פְתֻחֹת "be opened" indicates that this word is written defectively twice in this book (1 Kings 8:52). A third note says that the form לַיְלָה וָיוֹם "night and day" occurs three times: 1 Kings 8:29; Esther 4:16 and Isaiah 27:3.

אֶל־הַמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר אָמַרְתָּ יִהְיֶה שְׁמִי שָׁם toward the place of which you have said, 'My name shall be there,' The reference is to 2 Samuel 7:13, after David proposed the building of the temple to Nathan. God's response was that Solomon would do it, not David: "He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever."

לִשְׁמֹעַ אֶל־הַתְּפִלָּה אֲשֶׁר יִתְפַּלֵּל עַבְדְּךָ אֶל־הַמָּקוֹם הַזֶּה to listen to the prayer which your servant shall pray toward this place. Once again there is an infinitive of purpose (לִשְׁמֹעַ, "to listen"). Here Solomon mentions praying "toward this place" (אֶל־הַמָּקוֹם הַזֶּה). Cp. another reference to someone praying "toward" this temple, Daniel 6:10: "...his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to God..." God is unable to be contained by heaven itself, and yet God dwells within us. The world is not big enough for God, and yet here he is, believers, in this temple. God's transcendence does not mean that he is inapproachable.

1 KINGS 8:30

וְשָׁמַעְתָּ אֶל־תְּחִנַּת עַבְדְּךָ וְעַמְּךָ יִשְׂרָאֵל אֲשֶׁר יִתְפַּלְלוּ אֶל־הַמָּקוֹם הַזֶּה וְאַתָּה תִּשְׁמַע אֶל־מְקוֹם שִׁבְתְּךָ אֶל־הַשָּׁמַיִם וְשָׁמַעְתָּ וְסָלָחְתָּ׃

30 "Listen to the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place; hear in heaven your dwelling place; hear and forgive.

וְשָׁמַעְתָּ אֶל־תְּחִנַּת עַבְדְּךָ וְעַמְּךָ יִשְׂרָאֵל "Listen to the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel, וְשָׁמַעְתָּ is a waw-consecutive perfect consecutively following after the infinitive of purpose in the previous clause (the hithpael imperfect יִתְפַּלֵּל in verse 29 was part of the relative clause begun with אֲשֶׁר and therefore subordinate), so it carries the same thought. תְּחִנַּת is a "favor" or supplication.

אֲשֶׁר יִתְפַּלְלוּ אֶל־הַמָּקוֹם הַזֶּה when they pray toward this place; Here again the hithpael imperfect following the relative: אֲשֶׁר יִתְפַּלְלוּ "when they are praying."

וְאַתָּה תִּשְׁמַע אֶל־מְקוֹם שִׁבְתְּךָ אֶל־הַשָּׁמַיִם וְשָׁמַעְתָּ וְסָלָחְתָּ hear in heaven your dwelling place; hear and forgive. A direct correlation with "hear" is "forgive" (both qal waw consecutive perfects). God hears our prayers are we confess our sins, and because he has promised to forgive us, we can anticipate that he will forgive us, although this doesn't give us a Get Out of Jail Free card; a license to sin. An Mp note tells us that אֶל־הַשָּׁמַיִם "to/in heaven" occurs five times: 1 Kings 8:30; Jer 4:23; 51:9; Psalm 50:4 and Daniel 12:7.

ANALYSIS:

26 Now, God, let your word be true
27 Will God dwell on earth?
Heaven can't contain--can a house?
28 But hear this prayer
29 Open your eyes to this house night and day
You said "My name is there"
So listen to this prayer
30 Listen to your people when they pray
Hear and forgive.

The force of the prayer is the stunned amazement of Solomon. "You said to build this, and so I've built it--now listen to your people and forgive their sins, because you said you would do that, too." Solomon's confidence comes, not because he has an opinion, but because God said it would be so. Our confidence also comes from knowing that our salvation and our forgiveness doesn't come to us because we have a strong conviction or because of anything inside of us, but because God said it would be so.