2 Chronicles 5:2–6:42 (NIV)✞: The Ark Brought to the Temple, Solomon’s Prayer of Dedication
Passage
In the last passage Solomon built the Temple, so now it’s time to dedicate it.
First, in 5:2–14✞, he has the Ark brought. He (and the “entire assembly of Israel,” v. 5:6✞) has a festival, sacrificing “so many sheep and cattle that they could not be recorded or counted” (v. 6✞), and has the Ark brought into the Most Holy Place.
As a side note, verse 5:9✞ talks about the poles used for carrying the Ark and says that “they are still there today,” which shows that the author(s) of Chronicles were definitely taking material from earlier books (especially Samuel/Kings), since, by the time Chronicles was written, that statement would no longer be true: the Babylonians had destroyed the first Temple (which is being described here). The ESV Study Bible notes indicate that even the book of Kings wouldn’t have come to its final form until after Israel’s defeat by Babylon, so there were choices by the authors to leave this little bit of text in.
Regardless, this was the last time anyone saw the inside of the Most Holy Place—other than the High Priest who had duties to perform there once a year—until the Babylonians destroyed the Temple.
In fact, not only was the Most Holy Place now closed off, but the entire Temple was temporarily off limits at this point, as the “cloud” of God filled it:
11 The priests then withdrew from the Holy Place. All the priests who were there had consecrated themselves, regardless of their divisions. 12 All the Levites who were musicians—Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun and their sons and relatives—stood on the east side of the altar, dressed in fine linen and playing cymbals, harps and lyres. They were accompanied by 120 priests sounding trumpets. 13 The trumpeters and musicians joined in unison to give praise and thanks to the LORD. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals and other instruments, the singers raised their voices in praise to the LORD and sang:
“He is good;
his love endures forever.”
Then the temple of the LORD was filled with the cloud, 14 and the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the temple of God.
Solomon now makes a short speech, recognising that God has fulfilled His promise to give the Israelites a king, as well as for David’s son to build the Temple, which is now complete. And then he gives his famous prayer of dedication in 6:12–42✞. I talked about that prayer when I was blogging through 1 Kings, so I won’t go through the whole thing again this time. There is, however, an addendum added here that isn’t in the version given in 1 Kings:
40 “Now, my God, may your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.
41 “Now arise, LORD God, and come to your resting place,
you and the ark of your might.
May your priests, LORD God, be clothed with salvation,
may your faithful people rejoice in your goodness.
42 LORD God, do not reject your anointed one.
Remember the great love promised to David your servant.”
The ESV Study Bible notes have some thoughts on this:
2 Chron. 6:41–42 In place of the ending to this prayer in 1 Kings 8:50b–53 (an appeal to God’s mercy shown in the exodus), the Chronicler inserts a version of Ps. 132:8–10, which concerns the transfer of the ark into the temple. It functions here as a prayer that God will once again come in power and grace for the Chronicler’s generation and their temple, as he had done for the people and temple of Solomon’s day. Verse 42 of 2 Chronicles 6 is a prayer for the Davidic descendants, the recipients of God’s covenant promise of steadfast love for David. For the Chronicler, this enduring covenant is now the basis of the relationship between God and his people.
ESV Study Bible
Thoughts
My thoughts on this passage have less to do with the events of the passage and more to do with the author(s) of Chronicles: why did they append a version of Psalm 132 to the end of Solomon’s prayer? Does that mean that this book is inaccurate?
And no, I don’t think that’s the right way to look at the book; we’re looking at the book through a modern lens, expecting the author(s) to be concerned with things that, frankly, they weren’t concerned with. “What exactly did Solomon say?” we ask, and the author(s) would respond, “we’re not trying to give you a verbatim account of Solomon’s words, we’re trying to give the Israelites—the people coming back to their land after the destruction brought by the Assyrians and the Babylonians, who are wondering if God even considers them His people anymore—a measure of comfort that yes, He really is their God, and they really are His people.”
Did Solomon say the words in 6:41–42, or did the author of Psalm 132? Psalm 132 is uncredited in the book of Psalms – should we assume it was written by Solomon? The author(s) of Chronicles aren’t trying to answer any of those questions; they’re trying to deliver a message of hope to God’s people, and the fact that some bits of it came from Solomon’s speech and other bits came from a Psalm don’t change the fact that all of those bits are from the Scriptures, and relevant to the people who are returning to the land of Israel after their exile.
I’m sure biblical scholars would have better-formed views on this, but this is my take.
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