1 Kings 8:63

63 Solomon sacrificed friendship offerings to the Lord. He sacrificed 22,000 head of cattle. He also sacrificed 120,000 sheep and goats. So the king and the whole community set the temple of the LORD apart to him.

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.

---

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 "But you must commit your lives completely to the LORD our God. You must live by his rules. You must obey his commands. You must always do as you are doing now."

62 Then the king and the whole community of Israel offered sacrifices to the Lord.

63 Solomon sacrificed friendship offerings to the Lord. He sacrificed 22,000 head of cattle. He also sacrificed 120,000 sheep and goats. So the king and the whole community set the temple of the LORD apart to him.

64 On that same day the king set the middle area of the courtyard apart to the Lord. It was in front of the LORD's temple. There Solomon sacrificed burnt offerings and grain offerings. He also sacrificed the fat of the friendship offerings there. He did it there because the bronze altar in front of the LORD was too small. It wasn't big enough to hold all of the burnt offerings, the grain offerings and the fat of the friendship offerings.

65 At that time Solomon celebrated the Feast of Booths. The whole community of Israel was with him. It was a huge crowd. People came from as far away as Lebo Hamath and the Wadi of Egypt. For seven days they celebrated in front of the LORD our God. The feast continued for seven more days. That made a total of 14 days.