1 Kings 8:15-21

15 He said: May the Lord God of Israel be praised! He spoke directly to my father David, and He has fulfilled [the promise] by His power. He said,

16 "Since the day I brought My people Israel out of Egypt, I have not chosen a city to build a temple in among any of the tribes of Israel, so that My name would be there. But I have chosen David to rule My people Israel."

17 It was in the desire of my father David to build a temple for the name of the Lord God of Israel.

18 But the Lord said to my father David, "Since it was your desire to build a temple for My name, you have done well to have this desire.

19 Yet you are not the one to build it; instead, your son, your own offspring, will build it for My name."^[a]

20 The Lord has fulfilled what He promised. I have taken the place of my father David, and I sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised. I have built the temple for the name of the Lord God of Israel.

21 I have provided a place there for the ark, where the Lord's covenant is that He made with our ancestors when He brought them out of the land of Egypt.^[b]

1 Kings 8:15-21 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 1 KINGS 8

This chapter gives an account of the introduction of the ark into the temple, 1Ki 8:1-9 of the glory of the Lord filling it, 1Ki 8:10,11 of a speech Solomon made to the people concerning the building of the temple, and how he came to be engaged in it, 1Ki 8:12-21, of a prayer of his he put up on this occasion, requesting, that what supplications soever were made at any time, or on any account, by Israelites or strangers, might be accepted by the Lord, 1Ki 8:22-53, and of his blessing the people of Israel at the close of it, with some useful exhortations, 1Ki 8:54-61, and of the great number of sacrifices offered up by him, and the feast he made for the people, upon which he dismissed them, 1Ki 8:62-66.

Footnotes

• [a]. 2 Sm 7:1-13
• [b]. 2 Ch 6:1-11