(32) Moreover concerning the stranger.--In this verse, 1Kings 8:41-42, are run together, probably by an error of transcription.

But is come.--And shall come.

For thy great name's sake.--Kings, "for thy name sake (for they will hear of thy great name and thy mighty hand and thy stretched-out arm), and shall come and pray towards this house." So nearly the Syriac and Arabic here.

Verses 32, 33. - The stranger... come from a far country for thy great Name's sake. These two verses, with every clause in them, must be felt most refreshing by every reader; but they ought also to be particularly observed, as both corrective of a common but strictly erroneous impression as to exclusiveness and a genius of bigotry inhering in the setting apart of the Jewish race for a certain purpose in the Divine government and counsel, and also as revealing very significantly that that setting apart was nothing but a method and means to an end, as comprehensive and universal as the world itself The analogies, in fact, in the world's history are linked, in one unbroken chain, to what sometimes seems to a mere reader of the Bible pages as an artificial and somewhat arbitrary decree or arrangement (see, amid many significant parallels, Exodus 22:21; Leviticus 25:35; Numbers 15:13-17; Deuteronomy 10:19; Deuteronomy 31:12). Not of thy people Israel (John 10:16; John 12:20-26; Acts 8:27). For thy great Name's sake. The insertion of the adjective "great" here (גָּדול) is not Pentateuchal, but is found in Joshua 7:9; in our parallel, 1 Kings 8:42; Psalm 76:1; Psalm 99:3; Ezekiel 36:23; Jeremiah 10:6; Jeremiah 44:26. All people of the earth. Not only are many of the psalms utterly in harmony with the spirit of this verse, but also the light of it is reflected brilliantly in such passages as Acts 17:22-31. This house is called by thy Name; literally, thy Name is called upon (or perhaps, into) this house, meaning that God himself is invoked there, or present there in order that he may be constantly invoked.

6:1-42 Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the temple. - The order of Solomon's prayer is to be observed. First and chiefly, he prays for repentance and forgiveness, which is the chief blessing, and the only solid foundation of other mercies: he then prays for temporal mercies; thereby teaching us what things to mind and desire most in our prayers. This also Christ hath taught us in his perfect pattern and form of prayer, where there is but one prayer for outward, and all the rest are for spiritual blessings. The temple typified the human nature of Christ, in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. The ark typified his obedience and sufferings, by which repenting sinners have access to a reconciled God, and communion with him. Jehovah has made our nature his resting-place for ever, in the person of Emmanuel, and through him he dwells with, and delights in his church of redeemed sinners. May our hearts become his resting-place; may Christ dwell therein by faith, consecrating them as his temples, and shedding abroad his love therein. May the Father look upon us in and through his Anointed; and may he remember and bless us in all things, according to his mercy to sinners, in and through Christ.See Introduction to Chapter 5