judges, and all the honourable;” then לכל־שׂראל is again taken up and explained by the apposition האבות ראשׁי: to all Israel, viz., the heads of the fathers'-houses. ל is to be repeated before ראשׁי. What Solomon said to all Israel through its representatives, is not communicated; but it may be gathered from what succeeds, that he summoned them to accompany him to Gibeon to offer the sacrifice. The reason why he offered his sacrifice at the בּמה, i.e., place of sacrifice, is given in 2Ch 1:3. There the Mosaic tabernacle stood, yet without the ark, which David had caused to be brought up from Kirjath-jearim to Jerusalem (1Ch 13:1-14 and 15). In לו בּהכין the article in ba represents the relative אשׁר = בּאשׁר or לו הכין אשׁר בּמקום; cf. Jdg 5:27; Rth 1:16; 1Ki 21:19; see on 1Ch 26:28. Although the ark was separated from the tabernacle, yet by the latter at Gibeon was the Mosaic altar of burnt-offering, and on that account the sanctuary at Gibeon was Jahve's dwelling, and the legal place of worship for burnt-offerings of national-theocratic import. “As our historian here brings forward emphatically the fact that Solomon offered his burnt-offering at the legal place of worship, so he points out in 1Ch 21:28-30 :1, how David was only brought by extraordinary events, and special signs from God, to sacrifice on the altar of burnt-offering erected by him on the threshing-floor of Ornan, and also states how he was prevented from offering his burnt-offering in Gibeon” (Berth.). As to Bezaleel, the maker of the brazen altar, cf. Exo 31:2 and Exo 37:1. Instead of שׂם, which most manuscripts and many editions have before לפני, and which the Targ. and Syr. also express, there is found in most editions of the 16th century, and also in manuscripts, שׁם, which the lxx and Vulgate also read. The reading שׁם is unquestionably better and more correct, and the Masoretic pointing שׂם, posuit, has arisen by an undue assimilation of it to Exo 40:29. The suffix in ידרשׁהוּ does not refer to the altar, but to the preceding word יהוה; cf. אלהים דּרשׁ, 1Ch 21:30; 1Ch 15:13, etc.
Verses 7-10
The theophany, cf. 1Ki 3:5-15. In that night, i.e., on the night succeeding the day of the sacrifice. The appearance of God by night points to a dream, and in 1Ki 3:5-15 we are expressly informed that He appeared in a vision. Solomon's address to God, 2Ch 1:8-10, is in 1Ki 3:6-10 given more at length. The mode of expression brings to mind 1Ch 17:23, and recurs in 2Ch 6:17; 1Ki 8:26. מדּע, with Pathach in the second syllable,
