(63) And Solomon offered.--The number here given, enormous as it is, can hardly be supposed due to any error in the text; for it is exactly reproduced in the Chronicles and by Josephus. Much explanation of it has been wasted through misunderstanding of the real difficulty involved. It is comparatively easy to conceive how such a mass of victims could be brought as offerings or consumed, when we consider the vastness of the assembled multitude from the whole of the great dominions of Solomon, dwelling in or encamped about the city. Even at the Passovers of the last days of Jerusalem the multitude of worshippers seems to have been numbered by hundreds of thousands. The real difficulty is to conceive how, even through the fourteen days of the festival, and over the whole of the hallowed portion of the court, the victims could have been offered. But it is not unlikely that on such an occasion it might be deemed sufficient actually to sacrifice only certain representative victims of each hecatomb, and simply to dedicate the rest to the Lord, leaving them to be killed and eaten elsewhere.

This profusion of sacrifices, good as expressing the natural desire of all to offer at such a time, may perhaps have involved something of the idea, so frequent in heathen sacrifice, and so emphatically condemned by the prophets, that the Lord would be "pleased with thousands of rams and ten thousands of rivers of oil"--something also of that display of the magnificence of the king and his people, even in the very act of homage to God, which the history throughout seems to imply. If so, in these ideas lurked the evils which hereafter were to overthrow the prosperity of Israel, and make the Temple a heap of stones.

Verse 63. - And Solomon offered a sacrifice [Solomon is mentioned as chief donor, and as the executive. But others shared in the gift] of peace offerings [Leviticus 7:11 sqq. This was especially the sacrifice of praise - it is called "the sacrifice of thanksgiving of his peace offerings," ib. vers. 13, 15. See Bahr, Symb. 2:368 sqq. In the peace offering, the fat was burnt on the altar, but the flesh was eaten (ver. 15; cf. Deuteronomy 12:7), so that this form of offering was, in every way, adapted to a festival. The idea that "ox after ox, to the number of 22,000, and sheep after sheep, to the number of 120,000, were consumed," sc. by fire (Stanley), is expressly excluded], which he offered unto the Lord, two and twenty thousand oxen, and an hundred and twenty thousand sheep. [it is very possible that these numbers have been altered in course of transcription, as is the case with numbers elsewhere, but there is no ground for suspecting exaggeration or mistake. For, in the first place, the Chronicles and all the Versions agree with the text, and, secondly, the numbers, compared with what we know of the sacrifices offered on other occasions, are not unduly large, nor were they such that (as has been alleged) it would be impossible to offer them within the time specified. If, at an ordinary Passover a quarter of a million of lambs could be sacrificed within the space of two or three hours (Jos., Bell. Jud. 6:09.8), there can obviously have been "no difficulty in sacrificing 3000 oxen and 18,000 sheep on each of the seven days of the festival" (Keil). (But were not the sacrifices spread over fourteen days? ver. 65.) And it is to be remembered

(1) that "profusion was a usual feature of the sacrifices of antiquity Sacrifices of a thousand oxen (χιλιόμβαι) were not infrequent. According to an Arabian historian (Koto beddyn), the Caliph Moktader sacrificed during his pilgrimage to Mecca... 40,000 camels and cows and 50,000 sheep. Tavernier speaks of 100,000 victims as offered by the King of Tonquin" (Rawlinson, Stanley); and

(2) that the context insists on the ex traordinary number of victims. They were so numerous, we are told, that the brazen altar was quite inadequate to receive them (ver. 64). It has been already pointed out (note on ver. 62) that the people joined the king in the sacrifices. Indeed it is against not only ver. 62, but vers. 63, 65, to suppose that all the victims were offered by Solomon alone (Ewald, Stanley). If these numbers, therefore, include those offered by the people, we can the more readily understand them. For, by the lowest computation, there could hardly be less than 100,000 heads of houses present at the feast (Bahr, Keil), and if the numbers of David's census (2 Samuel 24:9) may be trusted, there may very well have been four or five times that number, and on such an occasion as that, an occasion altogether without precedent, every Israelite would doubtless offer his sacrifice of thanksgiving - the more so as a large number of victims would be required for the purposes of the subsequent feast. And as to the impossibility of the priests offering so prodigious a number within the specified time (Thenius, al.), we have only to remember

(1) that if there were 38,000 Levites (men over thirty years of age) in the time of David (1 Chronicles 23:3), or any thing like that number, there must have been at the very least at this period two or three thousand priests (Keil), and we can hardly think that at the dedication of so glorious a temple, in which they were so profoundly interested, many of them would be absent from Jerusalem. But if there were only one thousand present, that number would have been amply sufficient to perform all the priestly functions. For it was no necessary, part of the priests' office either to slay the victim, or to prepare it for sacrifice - that any Israelite might do (Leviticus 1:5, 6, 11; Leviticus 3:2, 8, etc.); the duty of the priest was strictly limited to "sprinkling the blood round about upon the altar" (Leviticus 3:2, 8; cf. 1:5), and burning the fat, the kidneys, etc., upon the altar (Leviticus 3:5). It is clear, consequently, that there is no difficulty whatsoever as to the manual acts required of the priests. It only remains to notice one other objection, viz., that the people could not possibly have eaten all the flesh of these peace offerings. But here again the answer is conclusive, viz.

(1) that it was not necessary that all should be eaten, for the law expressly provided that if any of the flesh remained over until the third day, it should be burnt with fire (Leviticus 7:15; Leviticus 19:6), and

(2) no one can say what the number of people may not have been (see below on ver. 65), and

(3) the sacrifices were spread over fourteen days.] So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of the Lord.

8:62-66 Solomon offered a great sacrifice. He kept the feast of tabernacles, as it seems, after the feast of dedication. Thus should we go home, rejoicing, from holy ordinances, thankful for God's GoodnessAnd 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 (b) 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 (c) by Romulus; the rites and ceremonies used therein by them may be read in Cicero, Livy, Tacitus, and others (d).

(b) De Bello Jud. l. 6. c. 9. sect. 3.((c) Vid. Liv. Hist. Decad. 1. l. 1. p. s. & l. 2. p. 33. (d) Vid. Hospinian. de Templis, l. 4. c. 2. p. 451. & Alex. ab Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 6. c. 14.