Page:The Books of Chronicles (1916).djvu/255

Rh before thee with all their heart: who hast kept with thy servant David my father that which thou didst promise him: yea, thou spakest with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with thine hand, as it is this day. Now therefore, O, the God of Israel, keep with thy servant David my father that which thou hast promised him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel; if only thy children take heed to their way, to walk in my law as thou hast walked before me. Now therefore, O, the God of Israel, let thy word be verified, which thou spakest unto thy servant David. But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have builded! Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer which thy servant prayeth before thee: that thine eyes may be open toward this house day and night, even toward the place whereof thou hast said that thou wouldest put thy name there; to hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall pray toward this place. And hearken thou to the supplications of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place: yea, hear thou from thy dwelling place, even from heaven; and when thou hearest,

16. walk in my law] In 1 Kin. viii. 25, walk before me. The Chronicler characteristically introduces a reference to the Law of the Lord (the tōrah). In Samuel and Kings neither David nor Solomon ever mentions this.

18. dwell with men] The words, with men, are absent from the Heb. text of 1 Kings, but appear in LXX. (A and B). Their presence helps to spiritualize the idea of God "dwelling on the earth." The Peshitta (the Syriac translation of the Bible) still further limits the sense and translates: cause his Shekinah to dwell with (al. rest upon) his people Israel.

19. prayer and  supplication] "Supplication" as distinguished from "prayer" is prayer for favour.

20. which thy servant shall pray] Solomon refers in this verse to future prayers, not (as in ver. 19) to the prayer he is now praying.

21. from thy dwelling place, even from heaven] Here, as in ver. 18,