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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - 1 Kings 9:4 - 9:4
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1Ki 9:4, 1Ki 9:5 contain the special answer to 1Ki 8:25, 1Ki 8:26. - 1Ki 9:6-9 refer to the prayer for the turning away of the curse, to which the Lord replies: If ye and your children turn away from me, and do not keep my commandments, but worship other gods, this house will not protect you from the curses threatened in the law, but they will be fulfilled in all their terrible force upon you and upon this temple. This threat follows the Pentateuch exactly in the words in which it is expressed; 1Ki 9:7 being founded upon Deu 28:37, Deu 28:45, Deu 28:63, and the curse pronounced upon Israel in Deu 29:23-26 being transferred to the temple in 1Ki 9:8, 1Ki 9:9. - פָּנַי מֵעל שִׁלֵּחַ, to dismiss, i.e., to reject from before my face. “This house will be עֶלְיֹון,” i.e., will stand high, or through its rejection will be a lofty example for all that pass by. The temple stood upon a high mountain, so that its ruins could not fail to attract the attention of all who went past. The expression עֶלְיֹון is selected with an implied allusion to Deu 26:19 and Deu 28:1. God there promises to make Israel עֶלְיֹון, high, exalted above all nations. This blessing will be turned into a curse. The temple, which was high and widely renowned, shall continue to be high, but in the opposite sense, as an example of the rejection of Israel from the presence of God.
(Note: The conjecture of Böttcher, Thenius, and Bertheau, that עֶלְיֹון should be altered into עִיִּים, has no support in Mic 3:12; Jer 26:18, and Psa 79:1, and has all the ancient versions against it; for they all contain the Masoretic text, either in a verbal translation (lxx), or in a paraphrase, as for example the Chaldee, “the house that was high shall be destroyed;” the Syriac and Arabic, “this house will be destroyed;” and the Vulgate, domus haec erit in exemplum. - In 2Ch 7:21 the thought is somewhat varied by the alteration of יִהיֶה into הָיָה אֲשֶׁר. For it would never enter the mind of any sober critic to attribute this variation to a misinterpretation of our text. Still less can it be an unsuccessful attempt to explain or rectify our text, as Böttcher imagines, since the assertion of this critic, that עֶלְיֹון is only used to signify an exalted position, and never the exaltation of dignity or worth, is proved to be erroneous by Deu 26:19 and Deu 28:1.)