Antiquities of the Jews — Book 8, Chapter 4

1. When king Solomon had finished these works, these large and beautiful
buildings, and had laid up his donations in the temple, and all this in
the interval of seven years, and had given a demonstration of his riches
and alacrity therein, insomuch that any one who saw it would have
thought it must have been an immense time ere it could have been
finished; and would be surprised that so much should be finished in so
short a time; short, I mean, if compared with the greatness of the work:
he also wrote to the rulers and elders of the Hebrews, and ordered all
the people to gather themselves together to Jerusalem, both to see the
temple which he had built, and to remove the ark of God into it; and
when this invitation of the whole body of the people to come to
Jerusalem was every where carried abroad, it was the seventh month
before they came together; which month is by our countrymen called
Thisri, but by the Macedonians Hyperberetoets. The feast of tabernacles
happened to fall at the same time, which was celebrated by the Hebrews
as a most holy and most eminent feast. So they carried the ark and the
tabernacle which Moses had pitched, and all the vessels that were for
ministration, to the sacrifices of God, and removed them to the temple.
13 The king himself, and all the people and the Levites, went before,
rendering the ground moist with sacrifices, and drink-offerings, and the
blood of a great number of oblations, and burning an immense quantity of
incense, and this till the very air itself every where round about was
so full of these odors, that it met, in a most agreeable manner, persons
at a great distance, and was an indication of God's presence; and, as
men's opinion was, of his habitation with them in this newly built and
consecrated place, for they did not grow weary, either of singing hymns
or of dancing, until they came to the temple; and in this manner did
they carry the ark. But when they should transfer it into the most
secret place, the rest of the multitude went away, and only those
priests that carried it set it between the two cherubims, which
embracing it with their wings, [for so were they framed by the
artificer,] they covered it, as under a tent, or a cupola. Now the ark
contained nothing else but those two tables of stone that preserved the
ten commandments, which God spake to Moses in Mount Sinai, and which
were engraved upon them; but they set the candlestick, and the table,
and the golden altar in the temple, before the most secret place, in the
very same places wherein they stood till that time in the tabernacle. So
they offered up the daily sacrifices; but for the brazen altar, Solomon
set it before the temple, over against the door, that when the door was
opened, it might be exposed to sight, and the sacred solemnities, and
the richness of the sacrifices, might be thence seen; and all the rest
of the vessels they gathered together, and put them within the temple.

2. Now as soon as the priests had put all things in order about the ark,
and were gone out, there came down a thick cloud, and stood there, and
spread itself, after a gentle manner, into the temple; such a cloud it
was as was diffused and temperate, not such a rough one as we see full
of rain in the winter season. This cloud so darkened the place, that one
priest could not discern another, but it afforded to the minds of all a
visible image and glorious appearance of God's having descended into
this temple, and of his having gladly pitched his tabernacle therein. So
these men were intent upon this thought. But Solomon rose up, [for he
was sitting before,] and used such words to God as he thought agreeable
to the Divine nature to receive, and fit for him to give; for he said,
"Thou hast an eternal house, O Lord, and such a one as thou hast created
for thyself out of thine own works; we know it to be the heaven, and the
air, and the earth, and the sea, which thou pervadest, nor art thou
contained within their limits. I have indeed built this temple to thee,
and thy name, that from thence, when we sacrifice, and perform sacred
operations, we may send our prayers up into the air, and may constantly
believe that thou art present, and art not remote from what is thine
own; for neither when thou seest all things, and hearest all things, nor
now, when it pleases thee to dwell here, dost thou leave the care of all
men, but rather thou art very near to them all, but especially thou art
present to those that address themselves to thee, whether by night or by
day." When he had thus solemnly addressed himself to God, he converted
his discourse to the multitude, and strongly represented the power and
providence of God to them;—how he had shown all things that were come to
pass to David his father, as many of those things had already come to
pass, and the rest would certainly come to pass hereafter; and how he
had given him his name, and told to David what he should be called
before he was born; and foretold, that when he should be king after his
father's death, he should build him a temple, which since they saw
accomplished, according to his prediction, he required them to bless
God, and by believing him, from the sight of what they had seen
accomplished, never to despair of any thing that he had promised for the
future, in order to their happiness, or suspect that it would not come
to pass.

3. When the king had thus discoursed to the multitude, he looked again
towards the temple, and lifting up his right hand to the multitude, he
said, "It is not possible by what men can do to return sufficient thanks
to God for his benefits bestowed upon them, for the Deity stands in need
of nothing, and is above any such requital; but so far as we have been
made superior, O Lord, to other animals by thee, it becomes us to bless
thy Majesty, and it is necessary for us to return thee thanks for what
thou hast bestowed upon our house, and on the Hebrew people; for with
what other instrument can we better appease thee when thou art angry at
us, or more properly preserve thy favor, than with our voice? which, as
we have it from the air, so do we know that by that air it ascends
upwards [towards thee]. I therefore ought myself to return thee thanks
thereby, in the first place, concerning my father, whom thou hast raised
from obscurity unto so great joy; and, in the next place, concerning
myself, since thou hast performed all that thou hast promised unto this
very day. And I beseech thee for the time to come to afford us
whatsoever thou, O God, hast power to bestow on such as thou dost
esteem; and to augment our house for all ages, as thou hast promised to
David my father to do, both in his lifetime and at his death, that our
kingdom shall continue, and that his posterity should successively
receive it to ten thousand generations. Do not thou therefore fail to
give us these blessings, and to bestow on my children that virtue in
which thou delightest. And besides all this, I humbly beseech thee that
thou wilt let some portion of thy Spirit come down and inhabit in this
temple, that thou mayst appear to be with us upon earth. As to thyself,
the entire heavens, and the immensity of the things that are therein,
are but a small habitation for thee, much more is this poor temple so;
but I entreat thee to keep it as thine own house, from being destroyed
by our enemies for ever, and to take care of it as thine own possession:
but if this people be found to have sinned, and be thereupon afflicted
by thee with any plague, because of their sin, as with dearth or
pestilence, or any other affliction which thou usest to inflict on those
that transgress any of thy holy laws, and if they fly all of them to
this temple, beseeching thee, and begging of time to deliver them, then
do thou hear their prayers, as being within thine house, and have mercy
upon them, and deliver them from their afflictions. Nay, moreover, this
help is what I implore of thee, not for the Hebrews only, when they are
in distress, but when any shall come hither from any ends of the world
whatsoever, and shall return from their sins and implore thy pardon, do
thou then pardon them, and hear their prayer. For hereby all shall learn
that thou thyself wast pleased with the building of this house for thee;
and that we are not ourselves of an unsociable nature, nor behave
ourselves like enemies to such as are not of our own people; but are
willing that thy assistance should be communicated by thee to all men in
common, and that they may have the enjoyment of thy benefits bestowed
upon them."

4. When Solomon had said this, and had cast himself upon the ground, and
worshipped a long time, he rose up, and brought sacrifices to the altar;
and when he had filled it with unblemished victims, he most evidently
discovered that God had with pleasure accepted of all that he had
sacrificed to him, for there came a fire running out of the air, and
rushed with violence upon the altar, in the sight of all, and caught
hold of and consumed the sacrifices. Now when this Divine appearance was
seen, the people supposed it to be a demonstration of God's abode in the
temple, and were pleased with it, and fell down upon the ground and
worshipped. Upon which the king began to bless God, and exhorted the
multitude to do the same, as now having sufficient indications of God's
favorable disposition to them; and to pray that they might always have
the like indications from him, and that he would preserve in them a mind
pure from all wickedness, in righteousness and religious worship, and
that they might continue in the observation of those precepts which God
had given them by Moses, because by that means the Hebrew nation would
be happy, and indeed the most blessed of all nations among all mankind.
He exhorted them also to be mindful, that by what methods they had
attained their present good things, by the same they must preserve them
sure to themselves, and make them greater and more than they were at
present; for that it was not sufficient for them to suppose they had
received them on account of their piety and righteousness, but that they
had no other way of preserving them for the time to come; for that it is
not so great a thing for men to acquire somewhat which they want, as to
preserve what they have acquired, and to be guilty of no sin whereby it
may be hurt.

5. So when the king had spoken thus to the multitude, he dissolved the
congregation, but not till he had completed his oblations, both for
himself and for the Hebrews, insomuch that he sacrificed twenty and two
thousand oxen, and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep; for then it was
that the temple did first of all taste of the victims, and all the
Hebrews, with their wives and children, feasted therein: nay, besides
this, the king then observed splendidly and magnificently the feast
which is called the Feast of Tabernacles, before the temple, for twice
seven days; and he then feasted together with all the people.

6. When all these solemnities were abundantly satisfied, and nothing was
omitted that concerned the Divine worship, the king dismissed them; and
they every one went to their own homes, giving thanks to the king for
the care he had taken of them, and the works he had done for them; and
praying to God to preserve Solomon to be their king for a long time.
They also took their journey home with rejoicing, and making merry, and
singing hymns to God. And indeed the pleasure they enjoyed took away the
sense of the pains they all underwent in their journey home. So when
they had brought the ark into the temple, and had seen its greatness,
and how fine it was, and had been partakers of the many sacrifices that
had been offered, and of the festivals that had been solemnized, they
every one returned to their own cities. But a dream that appeared to the
king in his sleep informed him that God had heard his prayers; and that
he would not only preserve the temple, but would always abide in it;
that is, in case his posterity and the whole multitude would be
righteous. And for himself, it said, that if he continued according to
the admonitions of his father, he would advance him to an immense degree
of dignity and happiness, and that then his posterity should be kings of
that country, of the tribe of Judah, for ever; but that still, if he
should be found a betrayer of the ordinances of the law, and forget
them, and turn away to the worship of strange gods, he would cut him off
by the roots, and would neither suffer any remainder of his family to
continue, nor would overlook the people of Israel, or preserve them any
longer from afflictions, but would utterly destroy them with ten
thousand wars and misfortunes; would cast them out of the land which he
had given their fathers, and make them sojourners in strange lands; and
deliver that temple which was now built to be burnt and spoiled by their
enemies, and that city to be utterly overthrown by the hands of their
enemies; and make their miseries deserve to be a proverb, and such as
should very hardly be credited for their stupendous magnitude, till
their neighbors, when they should hear of them, should wonder at their
calamities, and very earnestly inquire for the occasion, why the
Hebrews, who had been so far advanced by God to such glory and wealth,
should be then so hated by him? and that the answer that should be made
by the remainder of the people should be, by confessing their sins, and
their transgression of the laws of their country. Accordingly we have it
transmitted to us in writing, that thus did God speak to Solomon in his
sleep.