1 Kings 8:63

63 Solomon sacrificed 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep as fellowship offerings to the LORD. So the king and all the people of Israel dedicated the LORD's temple.

1 Kings 8:63 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 8:63

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 ^F2 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 ^F3 by Romulus; the rites and ceremonies used therein by them may be read in Cicero, Livy, Tacitus, and others ^F4.

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FOOTNOTES:

F2 De Bello Jud. l. 6. c. 9. sect. 3.
F3 Vid. Liv. Hist. Decad. 1. l. 1. p. s. & l. 2. p. 33.
F4 Vid. Hospinian. de Templis, l. 4. c. 2. p. 451. & Alex. ab Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 6. c. 14.

1 Kings 8:63 In-Context

61 May your hearts be committed to the LORD our God. Then you will live by his laws and keep his commands as you have today."

62 Then the king and all Israel offered sacrifices to the LORD.

63 Solomon sacrificed 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep as fellowship offerings to the LORD. So the king and all the people of Israel dedicated the LORD's temple.

64 On that day the king designated the courtyard in front of the LORD's temple as a holy place. He sacrificed the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and the fat from the fellowship offerings because the bronze altar in front of the LORD was too small to hold all of them.

65 At that time Solomon and all Israel celebrated the Festival [of Booths]. A large crowd had come from [the territory between] the border of Hamath and the River of Egypt to be near the LORD our God for seven days.