(5) My people out of the land of Egypt.--Kings, "My people Israel out of Egypt." (Comp 2Chronicles 5:10.) The Syr. and Arab. have Israel here also.

Neither chose I any man to be a ruler (n?gid) over my people Israel.--Neither this sentence nor the following is found in the parallel passage, where the second half of 2Chronicles 6:6 forms the last clause of the preceding verse (1Kings 8:16). The Syriac and Arabic here follow Kings as often. There is nothing in the language against the supposition that the words originally formed part of the older text.

Neither chose I any man.--Saul was originally the people's, not God's, choice. Holy Scripture nowhere teaches that the vox populi is identical with the vox Dei. (See 1Samuel 8:5, and Bishop Wordsworth's Note.)

Verse 5. - I chose no city,... neither chose I any man. The tabernacle and all it contained had but travelled from place to place, and rested at temporary halting-places; and from Moses' time all the leaders of the people Israel had been men in whom vested no permanent and no intrinsic authority (1 Samuel 16:1-15; 2 Samuel 24:18-25).

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