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Solomon Dedicates the Temple

(2 Chronicles 7.4-10)

62-63 Solomon and the people dedicated the temple to the Lord by offering 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep as sacrifices to ask the Lord's blessing.[a] 64 On that day, Solomon dedicated the courtyard in front of the temple and made it acceptable for worship. He offered the sacrifices there because the bronze altar in front of the temple was too small.

65 Solomon and the huge crowd celebrated the Festival of Shelters at the temple for seven days.[b] There were people from as far away as the Egyptian Gorge in the south and Lebo-Hamath in the north. 66 Then on the eighth day, he sent everyone home. They said goodbye and left, very happy, because of all the good things the Lord had done for his servant David and his people Israel.

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Footnotes

  1. 8.62,63 sacrifices to ask the Lord's blessing: See Leviticus 3.1-17.
  2. 8.65 seven days: One ancient translation; Hebrew “seven days and seven more days, fourteen days in all.”

The Dedication of the Temple(A)

62 Then the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices(B) before the Lord. 63 Solomon offered a sacrifice of fellowship offerings to the Lord: twenty-two thousand cattle and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep and goats. So the king and all the Israelites dedicated(C) the temple of the Lord.

64 On that same day the king consecrated the middle part of the courtyard in front of the temple of the Lord, and there he offered burnt offerings, grain offerings and the fat(D) of the fellowship offerings, because the bronze altar(E) that stood before the Lord was too small to hold the burnt offerings, the grain offerings and the fat of the fellowship offerings.(F)

65 So Solomon observed the festival(G) at that time, and all Israel with him—a vast assembly, people from Lebo Hamath(H) to the Wadi of Egypt.(I) They celebrated it before the Lord our God for seven days and seven days more, fourteen days in all. 66 On the following day he sent the people away. They blessed the king and then went home, joyful and glad in heart for all the good(J) things the Lord had done for his servant David and his people Israel.

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